Below is an excerpt from Sărbătorile de iarnă: Winter Celebrations by Peace Corps Moldova staff. "In the morning of the New Year, friends, neighbors, and family seed each other. This is a tradition when people throw corn and rice at each other and it's a continuation of the "plugușorul” or ”urătura” that happened the night before. This is called ”semănatul” and it is to wish the family good luck and also for a rich crop for the coming year. It is also called ”sorcova”. And as for the New Year's Eve tradition we give our good wishers a gift to thank them for their good wishes. Usually this is fruit, candy, money, and nuts, but anything can be given depending on who you are and how well you know the person." Here is a sample Semănatul/Sorcova from that same book with my translation: Sorcova veselă, Să trăiți, să-nfloriți, Ca un măr, ca un păr, Ca un fir de trandafir, Tare ca piatra, Iute ca săgeata, Tare ca fierul, Iute ca oțetul. La anul și la mulți ani Cheerful sorcova, Live and flourish, Like an apple, like a pear, Like a rose bush, Strong like stone, Swift like an arrow, Strong like iron, Strong like steel. To this year and many to come! I've now heard several with the line "Să traiți, să-nfloriți, ca mere, ca pere în mijlocul verii” which I understand as ”live and flourish like apples and pears in the middle of summer”. I really love this line” This video shows a folkloric ensemble from Romania performing a semănatul: This shows a more mature group practicing the same tradition, showering a mayor's office with seeds/grains and well wishes:
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When asked what he loves about Moldova, my partner Chris usually responds with how Moldova has taught him to really enjoy and appreciate celebrations. Sometimes, it seems like every day is a celebration of some sort. Part of what contributes to that feeling is the ”double holidays” effect - several religious holidays we had experienced before are celebrated twice because the Romanian Orthodox church and the Russian Orthodox Church use different calendars for determining when holidays are held, the former using the Gregorian and the latter using the Julian. The Romanian/Gregorian calendar holidays are often called ”new style” and the Russian/Julian calendar ones ”old style.” Depending on the community in which one lives, people might celebrate one, the other, or - when we are lucky! - BOTH!
Below is an excerpt from the book Sărbătorile de iarnă: Winter Celebrations by staff of Peace Corps Moldova. Calendar of winter holidays and some traditions related to them
Our students put on two concerts the last two days of the semester, just before our two week winter vacation. The audio track is 6th grade students singing a famous Christmas carol ("colinda"), Steaua sus răsare. At 0:40 you see 7th grade boys doing an urătura/plugușorul and at 1:19 you see 5th graders throwing seeds/corn/wheat doing a ”semănatul” or ”sorcova”. The word ”plugușorul” translates literally to ”the plow”, but I'm not writing about agricultural tools in this post. From the Peace Corps Moldova book Sărbătorile de Iarnă: Winter Celebrations: On New Year's Eve, whether it's celebrated old style [on January 13th] or the new style [on December 31st], teenagers and young people go from house to house and present the "urătura”. An ”urătura” is a verse that wishes the family good luck, good health and happiness through the year. People say that the traveling group of ”urătorii”(people performing this) is ”cu plugușorul” (with the plow) or ”cu uratul” (with wishes). Different people say different parts, but often repeat the call ”hăi, hăi”, which is a sound like ”giddy-up” or ”hya” that is used to urge along oxen. Appreciating the travelling troup of good-wishes, I worked with my tutor and my peers in the Health Education program to film us doing an urătura/plugușorul. The intent was to show our gratitude to our partners for their support of our time in Moldova by trying to join in on a local tradition. Below is a subtitled version, so you can hear a bit of what these tidings for the new year are like. Because we are lacking the proper clothing (the national costume) and objects beyond the bell (drums, braided bread rings, a staff), please also watch the video below. It is five ten-grade boys performing an urătura/plugușorul at a school event for New Years/Christmas. Bijou asked a great question about how prevalent is US American culture in Moldova, how much do youth know about it. A quick answer is very prevelant (US American TV shows are shown here with dubbing & subtitling, US American movies are shown in the movie theater in the capital, access to the internet is high and YouTube is a very popular site, torrenting is very common because of lack of enforcement against it so people have access to a wide range of our media, events in the US make the international news here daily). Granted, people know as much as we learn through media - meaning some things are accurate (lots of American schools have metal lockers in the hallway) and others not so much (people don't break out into song&dance routines in the middle of lunch, like in movies). The US is not the only country whose media is highly present here - Russian media is very common and better understood language-wise, Indian soap operas and some media are popular as well, and popular pop music comes from all over the world. I thought a fun year-end way to highlight how this shows up around music is with a Top 10 Countdown! This list comes from current top ten in terms of current air play from ProFM, a popular Romanian radio station: 10. Rag'n'Bone Man - Human (British) 9. Lidia Buble ft. Matteo - Mi-e Bine (Romanian) 8. Sak Noel ft. Sean Paul & Salvi - Trumpets (Spanish, Jamaican) (side-note: Our sixth graders recently performed to this at a school concert) 7. Heaven - Inna (Romanian) 6. Drake ft. Kyla & Wizkid - One Dance (Canadian, US American) 5. Jonas Blue ft. JP Cooper - Perfect Strangers (British) 4. Jo - Cu un picior în rai (Romanian) 3. Shakira ft. Carlos Vives - La Bicicleta (Colombian) 2. Carla's Dream - Imperfect (MOLDOVAN!!! Good job Moldova!) 1. Randi - Ochii aia verzi (Romanian) Another top ten list, this time from Romanian Glamour magazine (people here buy either the Romanian or the Russian version, there is no Moldovan version), that I think reflects even better the music I hear daily on the radio and see on TV. Romanian Glamour's "Top 10 best songs from 2016" (I only am linking to the songs I am not sure if made it big in the US market because, well, I got annoyed looking up "clean" versions of the others):
One last list, from me. Below the cut are music videos that I heard and saw EVERYWHERE this year!
While it's not necessarily the biggest holiday of the year, Christmas is a major one in Moldova. I plan to make a few posts on it - this one about the "Ne unește o iubire" / "A love unites us" concert held on Sunday, December 18th, in the National Filharmonic building in the capital, Chișinău.
This was a ”concert de caritate”, a ”charity concert,” organized to support children born and raised through age three in the Moldovan prison system. As described by the event's organizers on Facebook:
”În penitenciarele din Moldova se nasc copii. Ei rămîn cu mamele lor timp de 3 ani. Atît! Cumpărînd bilete la concertul din 18 decembrie, îi vei ajuta pe acești micuți să zîmbească, condamnați fiind pe nedrept să ispășească pedeapsa nemeritată alături de mamele lor. Dacă aveți posibiltate puteți aduce la concert și hăinuțe, obiecte de igienă personală, scutece etc., Multă suferință și lacrimi de durere am văzut acolo.” "Children are born in Moldovan penitentiaries. They stay with their mothers for three years. That's all! Buying tickets to the concert on December 18th, you will help these little ones to smile, who are condemned to serve an undeserved punishment alongside their mothers. If possible, please bring clothes, personal hygeine items, diapers, etc. We have seen much suffering and many painful tears there." The general message of the video below (used in promotion of the event and at the start to provide context) is: Announcer: 20 innocent children live behind prison walls in the Republic of Moldova. Why, we ask ourselves? Mom 1: Here in the prison he grows three years exactly with me. Announcer: Daily, they share the same space with their mothers, the same music and joy and long wait. Mom 2: (something about the difficulty, particularly for those who don't have support at home, don't have any family members who can help) Announcer: October 18th at 4:00PM we wait for you in the main hall of the filharmonic, where we will try to put a childhood smile again on the faces of the innocent. Love - only it will unite us.
The concert was a success as a fundraiser - they raised 23,000 lei (approximately $1,150) and received tables full of donations. The concert also contained a message of love and empathy throughout, encouraging all present to challenge our judgements and assumptions about people in prison.
In many ways, it was a concert like I've described previously - our emcees included poetry in announcing acts, there were multiple performances by singers and dance troupes who performed both modern and traditional music, important people gave short speeches, and people received certificates and presents. It was a very entertaining as well as moving event. The penultimate performance was put on by women from the prison "Rusca", some of whom danced and some of whom sang a song about the relationship between mothers and children (I'll admit, I cried during a part about missing our mothers, as it is hard to live apart from my family for so long). At the end, several of the children who live in the prison came on stage to see Santa Claus.
(women from the prison Rusca and some of their children on stage with Santa Claus and the event's emcees (far left), taken from here)
Coming from a country were we incarcerate around as many people as the estimated number of citizens who actually reside in Moldova (the US criminal justice system holds more than 2.3 million people; 1/4 to 1/3 of the citizens of Moldova are estimated to be abroad), the criminal justice system is of interest to me. It was meaningful to be at the event and learn about women's prison experiences. Prior to this, I'd only heard a few scattered pieces about Moldovan prisons: human rights issues in prisons (especially for people with disabilities), the "Moldovan Model" of harm reduction in prison (link 1, link 2). As unfortunately difficult as it is to find information about pregnancy and childbirth in the US (some context), I have found it even more difficult to find information about it for Moldova. The event's materials and speakers, as I understood them, mentioned that women who are pregnant or are raising their children born in prison serve time in one specific prison ("Rusca") and that there are 20 children living there in total, permitted to stay through their first three years. While not the best sources, here is a piece about similar prisons in the US and about prenatal care and delivery. Towards the end of the show, an announcer read a message written by the group of mothers: "We are humans. We have made mistakes and are conscious of the harm we did, we are paying our debt to society. Our children are not guilty. They deserve the same rights and happiness as every child." At its core, this concert was a Christmas event - it was full of Christmas songs and even Santa Claus came! It was special in that it was for people who want to support incarcerated children and their mothers. Continuing with short videos made through the My Village through the Lens program, we visit my host town of Criuleni. (pronounced kree-oo-lehn) This August, when all the footage for these videos was taken, our town hosted the 11th edition of its international folk festival Meșterul Manole. Artists from Ukraine, Italy, Russia, Iran, Romania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Estonia, Turkey, and (of course) Moldova participated. While the opening and closing events happened in our town, the festival took place all over our district/county with concerts in many different villages. This timelapse is from the first day, showing a craft fair, preparations in the stadium, and the opening parade of nations through the town center and arriving at the stadium. After watching the video, do you have any questions for us? What did you see that stood out? Was anything familiar to you, looking similar to things from your life? Let us know your questions through comments below!
You can also share with us things that make where you are from beautiful and/or photos or videos about where you live. Continuing with videos made through our local program My Village through the Lens (as explained here), please check out this this video about the village of Onițcani (pronounced oh-nits-khan). Here is a rough translation of what is said: The church bells that ring today in the village of Onițcani were built in 1892. From archival documents, we find that construction of this stone church began June 24th, 1888, and finished May 25th, 1892. Construction was initiated by the owner of the land where the church is Nicolae Zagura (sp?), his wife Zinovia, and the local community. The main building of the church is five stone cupolas, the largest of which is in the center and has a sky-light. These cupolas join with the walls to form the church's ceiling. The roof is made of metal. After 1994, people worked hard to renovate, restore, and arrange the church, thus in its current architectural form it is one of the most beautiful churches in the district of Criuleni. After watching the video, do you have any questions for us? What did you see that stood out? Was anything familiar to you, looking similar to things from your life? Let us know your questions through comments below!
You can also share with us things that make where you are from beautiful and/or photos or videos about where you live. |
Rebecca LehmanHealth Education volunteer serving at Boris Dînga Middle & High School in Criuleni, Moldova. Archives
May 2017
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