Femei purtând ciuberele în care se vor păstra Paștile (pâine cu vin)
Foto: (c) Marinela Brumar / AGERPRES

Pregătirile pentru acest obicei debutează încă de la Bobotează, când generația care a organizat în anul precedent Paștile predă ‘mandatul’ celor care vor împlini în cursul anului vârsta de 60 de ani. ‘Mandatul se predă la Bobotează, anul viitor. Atunci se încheie mandatul păștenilor’, a declarat, pentru AGERPRES, învățătorul Ioan Buda. La rândul său, el a avut bucuria de a fi ‘păștean’, alături de alți 42 de consăteni, în 2014.

‘Toate evenimentele care depind de sărbătorile mai importante ale anului sunt organizate și de “pășteni”. Ei participă, de exemplu, îmbrăcați tot în costume populare, și la slujba care se face în afara satului, pentru a avea recolte mai bogate, de Rusalii. Sau la Bobotează. În fiecare lună, până la Paști, oamenii se adună și discută problemele care trebuie organizate ca totul să iasă atunci la perfecție’, a afirmat învățătorul din Vinerea.

El a menționat că obiceiul datează din 1946, având deci o vechime de 69 de ani.

În acest an, încă din ziua de Florii, ca de obicei, unii dintre ‘pășteni’ s-au adunat la casa gazdei unde au împodobit cu verdeață opt ciubere de lemn, inscripționate cu mesajul ‘Hristos a Înviat! Adevărat a Înviat’ și cu însemnele 1955 (anul în care s-au născut actualii pășteni — n.r.) — 2015, în care în Noaptea de Înviere va fi pus ‘Paștele’. De asemenea, au fost decorate cu verdeață și cu panglici tricolore zeci de lumânări roșii care vor fi aprinse de ‘pășteni’ în Noaptea de Înviere.

Ciubăr în care se va păstra paștele până la Înviere
Foto: (c) Marinela Brumar / AGERPRES

Un moment important are loc în Joia Mare, când toți ‘păștenii’, aici înțelegând inclusiv soții, respectiv soțiile celor care împlinesc 60 de ani, precum și copiii și nepoții acestora, toți îmbrăcați în costum popular, se adună la una din cele două biserici din sat, de unde pleacă apoi în procesiune spre casa ‘pășteanului’ ales gazdă.

Anul acesta, familia lui Aurel Hiriza a fost aleasă drept gazda ‘păștenilor’. El a explicat, pentru AGERPRES, că în Vinerea sunt două parohii, iar regula este ca în anii pari să fie desemnați drept gazde ‘pășteni’ din Parohia I, iar în cei impari ‘pășteni’ din Parohia II.

‘Miercuri seara se face o sfeștanie la casa gazdei, iar joi dimineața se ridică Paștile, obicei care constă în ducerea la biserică a vinului, a pâinii, precum și a ciuberelor care se folosesc pentru pregătirea ‘paștilor’, care vor fi împărțite credincioșilor în Noaptea de Înviere’, a spus Aurel Hiriza.

Toți ‘păștenii’ au mers, joi, în procesiune de la biserică la casa gazdei, în fruntea alaiului fiind bărbații, care au purtat, alături de steagul României și de cel al Uniunii Europene, prapurii din cele două lăcașe de cult din sat. Au urmat apoi preoții și cântăreții bisericești, urmați de reprezentanții autorităților locale — primarul Adrian Teban și consilierii locali, precum și reprezentanți ai autorităților județene — vicepreședintele Consiliului Județean Alba Florin Roman. În urma bărbaților au urmat femeile care împlinesc în acest an șase decenii de viață, alaiul încheindu-se cu zeci de localnici.

Pășteni cu desagi cu pâinea pentru Paște
Foto: (c) Marinela Brumar / AGERPRES

După ce au participat la o slujbă religioasă la casa gazdei, participanții au făcut calea-întoarsă, spre biserică, de această dată ducând cu ei în desagi pâinea necesară pentru Paști, dar și vinul, lumânările și ciuberele de lemn, frumos împodobite.

Anul acesta sunt 43 de ‘pășteni’, unii veniți pentru acest obicei de peste mări și țări.

Plecat de aproape două decenii în Statele Unite ale Americii, unde locuiește în Michigan, Mircea Herlea, care va împlini în acest an 60 de ani, a considerat o datorie si, totodată, o mare împlinire să fie prezent la Vinerea la aceste evenimente din Săptămâna Mare. ‘Înseamnă foarte mult să fiu aici cu leatul (generația — n.r.) meu. În primul rând este o datorie pe care trebuie să o îndeplinesc față de satul acesta, în care am crescut, în care m-am format, în care strămoșii mei au dăinuit și la care trebuie să vin cu lumânări la morminte. Și e o datorie față de întreaga comunitate’, a spus, joi, Mircea Herlea, îmbrăcat într-un costum popular specific vinerenilor.

El a menționat că de obicei vine acasă, în România, cam o dată la doi ani. ‘Acum am venit special. Îmi pare foarte bine că am reușit să particip, că am ajuns la vârsta asta. Pentru mine este o mare împlinire. Sunt câteva evenimente care marchează viața — botezul, căsătoria. Așa a trebuit să îndeplinesc și această misiune, pe care am considerat-o o misiune, dar și o mare bucurie’, a mai spus Mircea Herlea.

Un alt Herlea, un nume de familie des întâlnit în Vinerea, Sabin Herlea, plecat în Spania de 18 ani, a venit special în țară pentru a fi ‘păștean’. ‘Am venit din Madrid. Nu am cuvinte să vă spun cât de important este pentru mine și întreaga familie să fim aici’, a spus acesta. Tot în Spania este plecat, de 15 ani, și un alt păștean, Ioan Todoran. ‘Sunt foarte mândru că se păstrează obiceiul și tradiția de la Vinerea’, a declarat el.

Crăciun Herlea (stg.), liderul sindicatului de la UM Cugir, și Mircea Herlea (dr.), păștean stabilit în SUA
Foto: (c) Marinela Brumar / AGERPRES

Un alt ‘păștean’ este în acest an Crăciun Herlea, liderul Sindicatului Liber de la Uzina Mecanică Cugir. ‘Este emoționant și în același timp plăcut. Am întâlnit o grămadă de colegi împărțiți în toată lumea, în SUA, Spania, Italia, prin țară. E un moment important pentru noi’, a declarat, pentru AGERPRES, Crăciun Herlea, care a completat, mai în glumă, mai în serios, că 90% din ‘pășteni’ sunt și sindicaliști.

În Vinerea Paștilor, seara, ‘păștenii’ vor participa la Slujba de Prohod și la ocolirea bisericii din sat, iar în Duminica Paștilor, de la ora 3,00, la Slujba de Înviere și la împărțitul Paștilor. Oamenii se vor reîntâlni în Duminica Tomii, în 12 mai, la petrecerea Păștenilor.

Obiceiul de la Vinerea, care a fost preluat ulterior și de credincioșii unei parohii din Cugir, a fost inițiat în urmă cu aproape șapte decenii de către preotul din acea vreme, Ioan Sabău, pentru a elimina neînțelegerile dintre săteni privitoare la cine va da pâinea și vinul pentru “paște”, știut fiind faptul că, în general, în satele din Transilvania există o concurență între oameni în acest sens. Preotul Sabău a decis ca “paștele” să fie dat, în comun, de localnicii care împlinesc în cursul anului vârsta de 60 de ani.

Grupul păștenilor
Foto: (c) Marinela Brumar / AGERPRES

Indiferent unde sunt răspândiți prin țară sau, mai nou, în străinătate, de atunci colegii de generație revin în Vinerea cu acest prilej, se spovedesc și se cuminecă. În Joia Mare, la biserică, ei participă și la un parastas în memoria colegilor de generație care au murit înainte de a împlini 60 de ani.

Tot obiceiul ‘Păștenilor’ se numește o tradiție asemănătoare dintr-un alt sat din Alba, din Munții Sebeșului, în Loman. Aici, din comunitatea ‘păștenilor’ fac parte peste o sută de membri, indiferent însă de vârstă, care participă cu produse sau cu bani la pregătirea celor necesare pentru această sărbătoare.

‘Păștenii la noi, în Loman, înseamnă oamenii care plătesc pâinea si vinul paștilor, ce se împarte în Noaptea de Înviere. În vremurile străvechi, acești oameni erau cei mai înstăriți, care puteau face această jertfă. În zilele noastre, tot mai mulți sunt cei care doresc să participe la această Sfântă jertfă, de aceea fiecare Consiliu și Comitet parohial organizează această sărbătoare. Aceștia se strâng a doua zi de Paști și fac o masă festivă împreună cu preotul și slujitorii bisericii, ca o răsplată pentru munca depusă pe parcursul Postului Mare’, a precizat învățătoarea Elena Simioană.

AGERPRES / (A, AS — autor: Marinela Brumar, editor: Marius Frățilă)

Photo credit: (c) Alex TUDOR / AGERPRES PHOTO

After years of restoration, “the other capital” (nickname for the city of Alba Iulia, the city where the Grand Union of Romania was accomplished) offers tourists a totally unconventional history lesson, one that they live through, together with characters such as the soldiers dressed in Austrian uniforms dating back to the first half of the 18th century, when the citadel was constructed in Alba Iulia. Local authorities claim that in Alba Iulia, in the heart of the city, the Alba Carolina citadel is “reliving its glory years” and that “traveling back to that time” is possible.

If in past years tourists would stop only for a few hours in Alba Iulia, on the road towards Cluj Napoca and Sibiu, currently, more and more tourists, fascinated by the fortress, take a longer time to visit the Alba Carolina citadel and attend the various events organized here, such as the changing of the guard ceremony, that takes place daily, or the gun salute ceremony organized every Saturday in the tourist season.

In Alba Carolina, most anywhere you may stumble upon a “Habsburg soldier”, member of an “army” composed of an infantry corps, an artillery corps and a cavalry corps. The soldiers of the Guard of the Alba Carolina Citadel are among the main attractions of the fortress, not only children, but also adults flocking to take a picture with the ‘men-at-arms’.

Photo credit: (c) Alex TUDOR / AGERPRES PHOTO

Tourists cannot leave until they pose for a picture with the bronze soldiers placed in several locations inside the citadel, and other bronze characters — the Lady and the Knight, a florist, city folk, or the Philosopher. They can find accommodation inside the citadel in the only five-star hotel in Alba Iulia, the result of an investment worth over four million euro, housed inside the first building built by the Austrians in the Vauban-type fortification, that had a military purpose for around three centuries.

The Medieval Hotel, named so because the ground floor rooms, of the Saxon Bastion, are from the medieval period, is host to spacious rooms, each with a living room, hallway and large bathrooms, all with natural ventilation. The roof of the restaurant in the Royal Hall is supported by massive wood beams nearly three centuries old. Tourists from all around the world have spent some time accommodated here, coming from countries such as England, Croatia, France, Switzerland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Hungary, Turkey, but also Israel, China, Canada and the United States.

The building, initially host to the military foodstuff storehouse, was constructed between 1714-1715. It was used as a military storehouse by the Austrian army for two centuries, and later on was used by the Romanian army.

The Medieval Hotel architectural ensemble is also host to the Sightseeing Hall, the Hall of the Roman Vestiges, the Knights Templars’ Hall, as well as the Capitulum Hall.

The Alba Iulia fortress holds immense tourist potential through the large number of historical, cultural, natural, and man-made points of interest found within the site, with a potential to constantly attract Romanian and foreign tourists year-round.

Raised during the Habsburg rule over Transylvania, between 1714 — 1738, using the plans drawn up by Italian architect Giovanni Morando Visconti, the citadel, which occupies over 100 hectares of land, has seven bastions — Eugene of Savoy, Saint Stephen, The Trinity, Saint Michael, Saint Charles, Saint Capistrano and Saint Elizabeth.

It was supposed to become the main fortification in Transylvania, being built using the latest methods of construction of those times, inspired by the systems conceived by Marshal Vauban, the French military architect. The fortification had a dual role of keeping at bay potential Turk incursions, and of consolidating Habsburg rule in the occupied territories.

The bastionary citadel is defended by three systems of fortifications. It is shaped as an irregular heptagon, the seven bastions portraying it as a 7-point star, image characteristic for citadels of this type.

Photo credit: (c) Alex TUDOR / AGERPRES PHOTO

Entry into the citadel can be done through one of the six highly-ornate gates, showing bas-relief decorations. Three of the gates lead to the city, while three led to the training grounds. Of the six gates, which were true architectural monuments, part of the defensive construction ensemble of the citadel, only Gates I, III and IV were kept in their original state.

The gates were subject, in last years, to ample restoration works, one of the gates being practically rebuilt.

The most imposing of the six gates, Gate III, where Horea, one of the leaders of the 1784 revolt, was imprisoned, was restored to public use after more than a decade of restoration works, begun in 1998 and costing around 3.3 million lei, expenses covered by the Culture Ministry of Romania.

Photo credit: (c) Alex TUDOR / AGERPRES PHOTO

In order for the restoration to be complete, the wooden draw bridge was also reconstructed, a replica of the one used in the medieval times. The last documentary reference to the old draw bridge dates back to 1849, from the time of the siege of Alba Iulia during the 1848 revolution. It is not known under which conditions the old draw bridge was removed and the moat filled with earth. In order to reconstruct the bridge, the architects in Alba Iulia have studied the citadel’s plans, housed in an archive in Vienna, as well as accounts of how the bridge would be crossed during peace time or war.

Situated between the bastions named Eugene of Savoy and Saint Capistrano, Gate III is composed of four columns and eight smaller pillars that hold, through their powerful arches, the pedestal upon which the equestrian statue of Charles IV, the Austrian emperor at the time of the citadel’s construction..

Gate I, that faces eastwardly, houses four impressive bas-reliefs depicting scenes from Roman and Greek mythology, and was the first to be restored completely, the works ending in December of 2006.

Photo credit: (c) Angelo BREZOIANU / AGERPRES PHOTO

One year later, after a lengthy restoration process that took several years, Gate IV was restored to public use. It is situated on the citadel’s western side, between the bastions of The Trinity and Saint Michael, being the only one on the western side of the citadel that is decorated in the baroque style. It is decorated only on the interior side, where a narrow opening flanked by telamon columns appears.

The gate was utilized efficiently by the Austrian army. As such, the upper levels would house military personnel, occasionally even reprimanded officers. Underneath, in the citadel’s earthwork, the sentry posts were placed.

Five years ago, Gate II was reconstructed, placed in the second line of defenses, in the upper part of an uphill pathway. Destroyed in the interwar period, in 1937, during the construction work associated with the raising of the Obelisk of Horea, Closca and Crisan (the three leaders of the 1784 revolt), Gate II’s only remnants were some side pillars and a few hinges. As such, until the reconstruction, many Alba Iulia residents did not know exactly where it was situated. The gate itself was reconstructed on the basis of photographs and sketches kept in Vienna. In what regards the decorations, namely two telamon pillars and the lions that crowned the pillars, the original statues were used, as they were kept for all this time at the National Union Museum and in the courtyard of a nearby military unit.

Situated in the south-west corner of the Saint Michael bastion and partially demolished in 1921, during construction work for the Nation’s Unity Cathedral, Gate V is one of the secondary entrances, situated in the western part of the citadel. Its architecture is simple, with little decorations.

Gate VI was included in the project to reconstruct the western defense wall, destroyed in 1921, occasion on which the Royal Road was reconstructed as well, the latter being the road taken by King Ferdinand on the way to his coronation in 1922.

Recently restored for public use, Gate VII was dedicated solely to troop movement, being situated on the southern side of the citadel. During the besieging of the citadel by Hungarian troops in 1848-1849, it was walled off.

The City Gates Tour is the most important tourist tour, and due to their placement on a single axis, from east to west, offers easy and unhindered access. The tours of the city focus on the main historical points of interest and monuments.

Photo credit: (c) Angelo BREZOIANU / AGERPRES PHOTO

As such, the Tour of the three fortifications offers tourists the possibility to see vestiges from three different time periods, built successively in the same spot, each new citadel comprising the older one — the Roman castrum of Apulum (106 AD), the medieval citadel (16th-17th century), the Alba Carolina citadel (18th century). Included in the “Beautiful Romania” project, initiated by the United Nations Development Programme and the Ministry of Culture, the Tour of the three fortifications project was inaugurated seven years ago. The tour also crosses underneath the southern gate of the Roman castrum (fortress), Gate Principalis Dextra, also largely restored, the only gate still standing of the four of the ancient Roman castrum.

Another tour is the one dedicated to the Nation’s Heroes, an homage brought to the leaders of the Transylvanian Revolt of 1784. The tour starts in front of Gate III, where the Obelisk of Horea, Closca and Crisan, a monument built by public donation, is situated. The monument, the joint work of architect Octavian Mihaltan and sculptor Iosif Fekete was inaugurated on October 14, 1937, in the presence of King Charles II and of Michael, future king, then Voivode of Alba Iulia.

Photo credit: (c) Angelo BREZOIANU / AGERPRES PHOTO

Situated near Gate III, the granite monument measures 22 meters at its pinnacle. Its prismatic step base features a narrow opening from east to west that shows granite plaques with the names of the three heroes inscribed. The monument’s eastern side is adorned by a depiction of a winged Victory, holding a laurel wreath. The tour continues with the cell in which, according to legend, leader Horea was imprisoned by the Austrian authorities, it being situated underneath the pedestal of Charles VI’s equestrian statue that adorns Gate III.

Photo credit: (c) Alex TUDOR / AGERPRES PHOTO

During works to restore the medieval fortification a discovery was made, nearly 200 meters away from Gate III, an old dungeon from Habsburg times being uncovered, now representing an intermediary point on the Nation’s Heroes Tour. Situated on the eastern flank of the Eugene of Savoy bastion, the dungeon underwent restoration works so that it may be visited safely.

The Nation’s Heroes Tour ends in one of the bastions where the breaking wheel upon which Horea and Closca were executed on February 28, 1785 was reconstructed. The third leader of the revolt, Crisan, hanged himself in his cell using the leather laces of his traditional footwear. It is said that this was the last act of breaking upon the wheel in the Hapsburg Empire.

According to the representative of the company that made the most important restoration works in Alba Carolina Citadel, Emanuel Dragusin, the total value of the restorations is around 60 million euro.

During the restoration works, a sector of the Via Principalis, the road that connected the northern and southern gates of the Roman castrum of Apulum, was uncovered, preserved so well that the marks from the wooden wheels of carriages can still be seen.

The sector, 3.10 meters in width, was conserved in situ, being among the newest tourist objectives in the citadel, together with the Union Hall and National Union Museum, the Nation’s Unity Cathedral and the Saint Michael Roman-Catholic Cathedral, as well as the 16th century Princely Palace that hosted Michael the Brave, the nation’s first unifier, all tourist objectives on any Alba Iulia tourist’s map.

Standing in front of the Princely Palace is one of Alba Iulia’s symbolic monuments, the equestrian statue of Michael the Brave, constructed in 1968 by Oscar Han, and inaugurated on the occasion of a half-century since the Great Union of 1918. AGERPRES

Photo: (c) MARIUS POPESCU / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

Declared a natural monument and a speleological reserve, the cave holds the world’s second largest underground glacier after the Dobsinska cave in Slovakia. Situated at an altitude of 1,150 meters, it is famous for housing inside a glacier with an area of over 5,000 sq. m. and an ice layer between 26 and 37 meters thick

The shape of the ice block changes frequently as in the warm season a layer a few centimeters thick melts at the base of glacier, but is restored every winter with a new layer on top of the glacier. Although the ice block has been there for over 3,000 years, it is in permanent evolution, morphing through a variety of spectacular images every few months. The entrance is guarded by the impressive “Ice seal,” that seemingly bares its teeth towards the cave ceiling.

Photo: (c) MARIUS POPESCU / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The Scarisoara cave is part of the Ghetar-Ocoale-Dobresti karst system and formed during the glaciation, when the surrounding mountains were covered in snow and ice, having just one opening at the top, allowing air currents to flow between the above-ground and the cave and thus preserving the ice.

Photo: (c) NICOLAE BADEA / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The date of the cave’s discovery is not known precisely, but Austrian geographer Adolf Schmidl, the one who made the first observations on it and the first to chart the cave, mentions it in 1863.

Photo: (c) MARIUS POPESCU / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

With a total length of 750 m of which 250 m fitted out for visitors, the cave is 110 m deep. The access to the glacier is made via some metal stairs anchored in the rocks, which facilitate the entry of visitors through a sinkhole (an opening, or cavity) with a diameter of 60 m and 48 m deep that connects with the Big Hall.

Photo: (c) NICOLAE BADEA / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The actual entrance of the cave is at the base of the sinkhole, whence a 20-m long sloped ice wall descends and continues with a gallery (68 m) that runs downwards in a steep declivity to a depth of 105 meters where the Big Reserve of the cave lies. This gallery with ice trails and numerous concretions stretching at the maximum depth of the cave was called the ‘Maxim Pop’ Gallery. On the right side of the Big Hall ceiling is a steep ice slide ending in the hall suggestively called “The Church” because of its formations of ice stalagmites shaped like the silhouettes of saints, of lighted candles and even the Virgin Mary. This is a tourist area, while the rest is a Scientific Reserve with two distinct sections.

Photo: (c) MARIUS POPESCU / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The Small Reserve is on the right side of the entrance to the cave, stretching at the foot of a 15-m high vertical ice wall. Here is the so-called Palace of Sanziana, decorated with beautiful concretions. The appearance of the cave totally changes beyond these sections, as concretions of great diversity and beauty take the place of ice, displaying an abundance of stalactites, stalagmites, columns, calcite draperies, cave corals, rimstones… To be seen here are ice stalagmites, some of which are permanent and others that melt in the summer but regenerate in a similar form in the winter months.

Photo: (c) MARIUS POPESCU / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The Scarisoara Glacier, a site of extraordinary beauty at the heart of the Apuseni Mountains, is important for science, especially due to the complex of ice-induced phenomena it displays and to the general structure of the cave: morphogenesis and evolution of the ice formations, the layering of the ice massif etc.

Photo: (c) MARIUS POPESCU / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The access sinkhole provides, through its varied flora that is differentiated by levels, an interesting and permanent research field for botanists. The
cave fauna is rather poor, the chief representatives being bats and ice-cave beetles, some 2-3 mm long (Pholeuon proserpinae glaciale). A skeleton of Rupicapra, the ancestor of today’s goat, was discovered in the Big Reserve.In 1938 the Scarisoara Cave was studied by great Romanian biologist, zoologist, speleologist and explorer Emil Racovita, who declared it a speleological reserve, the first in Romania.

Photo: (c) NICOLAE BADEA / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

Several legends are spun around the cave; one of them has it that in ancient times here lived a dragon whom the villagers called Solomat. The dragon would steal a beautiful girl from the village either in the night of New Year’s Eve, or in the night before the Maidens’ Fair on Mount Gaina, hiding them in an ice palace inside the cave the locals have never set their eyes on.

Photo: (c) MARIUS POPESCU / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

Another legend says that behind the limestone formation in the area known as “The Pines” there are two pools which are always filled with water. Whoever kneels before these pools, head uncovered, makes a wish and sips the water directly with his lips, will see his dream come true. Provided that one respects this “ritual” and does not disclose the wish to anyone for one year. AGERPRES

Photo credit: (c) Mircea ROSCA / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

Three years ago international star Jay-Z even incorporated several bars of the Capalna Girls’ Walking Line Dance tune in his Murder to Excellence. Jay-Z sampled the Walking Dance tune he actually took over from the folklore-inspired song of Indiggo twins Mihaela and Gabriela Modorcea who are mentioned in the credits among the artists who helped make his piece.

Each village on the Tarnava Mica river has its specific Walking Line Dance and the best known of them is the dance of the Capalna de Jos — Jidvei commune, a village where Veta Biris, one of the most acclaimed folklore performers lives. Veta Biris also helped promote this dance at national level.

One can say this Walking Line Dance took Capalna de Jos — a village attested as early as in 1332 and inhabited exclusively by Romanian families, out of anonymity.

The origin and age of this dance are unknown, but definitely they go back to the Middle Ages; the lyrics are passed down orally from one generation to another and the girls learn the jerky rhythm steps from their mothers at the tender age of 4 or 5, says ethnographer Petruta Pop.

Proof of the age of this dance is also given by the fact that it has no instrumental accompaniment: the girls make their own melody line, Petruta Pop told AGERPRES.

“The Girls’ Walking Line Dance seems meant to demonstrate how, by means so simple, one can get strong effects, the dance creates a special atmosphere. The secret seems to rely in those unexpectedly eloquent breaks that suppress the monotony of an informal walk and also in the cry-out verses sung in chorus,” says Petruta Pop.

The dance performed on counterpoint was discovered a few decades ago by a primary school teacher named Stana, who had come from the south of the Carpathians, from the so-called Old Kingdom, having married headmaster of the Capalna school, Teodor Biris. She organized the village girls by age groups.

“Us, the gentry, as the village folks called those who had pursued higher education in various universities, had not noticed its beauty, although we participated regularly in the entertainment activities of the young people on Sundays and on holidays. Stana Biris, a woman with an artist’s sensitivity, had to come from some remote part of the country to discover and to show this dance to the world, as it is performed, with its special distinction,” notes a son of the village, Dr. Vasile Marcu in the monograph of the Jidvei commune published several years ago. Born in 1910, he mentioned that his grandmother too used to dance this line step.

Amazed by the beauty and purity of the interpretation, Stana Biris set the basis of the local folk dance ensemble and brought the Capalna girls out into the world, with this dance garnering a host of awards and distinctions at various festivals and competitions.

Now aged 71, Istina Purcel was also a member of the ensemble, just like her sisters and then her daughter, right from their teens. “I performed with the ensemble for ten years, until I got married,” she said.

She remembers the girls doing the dance every Sunday at the socializing venue in the barn in the village center where the young folks would gather.

“We had a teacher who had come here from near Bucharest, named Stana; she married in Capalna with Teodor Biris — grandparents of actor Silviu Biris. I invited her to come see the girls dance on Sundays in the barn. The mothers came too, they would not let the lasses go alone to the venue. First they danced the spinning dance — ‘Invartita’ and the ‘Hategana’. Both very brisk dances. During break time, while the boys would rest and chat, us girls would perform the ‘Purtata’. We would join hands and step on it. The barn had a wooden floor and one danced just as if on stage. There were other girls-only dances: ‘Drambolicul’ and ‘Purceii’. Mrs. Stana told us: If you can dance so beautifully and accurately, let’s show our performance to the world. Wherever we’ve been we have always landed the first spot,” the woman recalled for AGERPRES.

At first, the girls wore embroidered skirts. “In the beginning the suit was white and black. Then it was blue. When we started to travel outside the country, to add some pep, we sewed our skirts blue with metal thread,” Istina Purcel related.

She says that the school teacher also decided that the girls should wear during the dance a blue-embroidered hat. “When we danced in the barn it was hot and we didn’t have the hats on, we just hung them on the peg. Stana Biris made us wear the hat. Underneath one wears the kerchief tied tightly with a knot at the back of the head to keep the hair hidden. It must be black with blue, green or yellow flower prints. Not red. The hat sits on your head so that you can see the brim. That’s what Mrs. Biris used to tell us,” explained the woman.

Also Stana Biris decided that the length of the skirts should be mid-calf and the girls should wear heeled, embroidered shoes, which were custom-made in Sibiu and Tarnaveni.

“First one adjusts the step. It goes three steps back and then you start right foot first. You must always start the dance with the right foot. If you weren’t on the correct foot, you couldn’t follow the other girls, you would misstep and end up out of the group. At one point, the row breaks. When they separate, the first and the last girl put their hands on their hips. The other girls keep their right hand under the left hand of the girl in front,” said Istina Purcel.

Recruiting the girls starts in the second grade. The girls in the young age group have red-embroidered skirts, the middle-aged group from 10 to 15 have their costume embroidered with black, and the senior group — with blue.

According to Istina Purcel, Stana Biris managed the ensemble until around 1968, when she moved to Bucharest, after her children were admitted to college. Biology teacher Veronica Dan took over, followed by Cicuta Ignat — an offspring of the village, and then school teacher Maria Florea. The current instructor is Angela Fodor.

The group includes on average 30 unmarried girls; they proudly wear the skirt and blue apron, the blouse with zigzag seam stitching, the vest sewn with metal thread, a kerchief and hat adorned with a blue ribbon. On their feet they wear high-heeled shoes with decorative holes.

At the first glance, the Capalna Girls’ Walking Line Dance seems very simple. The girls just move daintily in choreographed spirals, lines and circles. Side by side, they keep tight to one another, with arms intertwined and walk in precise cadence singing their songs along.

The dance — rather a procession — goes smoothly, or changes quickly from left to right, forward or backward, swaying or tightly upheld, with often uneven phrases.

The first girl has a great responsibility. She is the one who sets the tone of the song and leads the string of girls. This position cannot be filled by just any girl, it must be someone who knows both the choreographic movements and the tune, says Petruta Pop.

Photo credit: (c) Mircea ROSCA / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The lyrics of the ‘Purtata’ speak mainly about love.

Petruta Pop considers that this dance of the Capalna girls should be placed in direct relationship with the mystery of fertility. “The dance has elements that refer to a fertility rite. We could even consider this Girls’ Walking Line as a collective dance marking in archaic societies the end of the initiation period of a group of girls,” concludes Petruta Pop. AGERPRES