Archive for keyword: Customs

Călușul at Rusalii and its overlapping contexts

The căluș ritual of southern Romania (also found in certain villages in northern Bulgaria) takes place every year at the time of Rusalii (Pentecost, 50 days after Orthodox Easter).  The căluș has drawn the attention of many researchers, from a range of backgrounds and disciplines including folklorists, religious historians (spiritual …read more

Crazy week, the disorganised and the organised: Fărșang and “inverted” weddings in the Banat mountains

During crazy week (the week in which lent commences) carnivalesque events, in various manifestations, take place in many villages in Banat. The commonalities between these events are that they focus around local music, dance and customs and only local people are involved. Although each event may be nominally organised by …read more

Carnival (fărșang/fășanc) in Banat

Carnivalesque events known as fășanc, fărșang or fășang, nunta cornilor take place in Banat during the week preceding the start of the pre-Easter fasting, postul mare, (the precise week depending on catholic or orthodox calendars). These events mark the transition between the end of the winter and the beginning (re-birth) …read more

Writing ethnography from local to regional and backward (revisiting): Practices commemorating the dead through dancing in Romanian Banat villages

The observation of the custom of dedicating a dance to the dead (joc/ora/hora de pomană) was the focus of the Sub-Study Group on Field Research Theory and Methods fieldwork experience at Easter 2013 in Svinița (Serbian: Svinica), southwest Romania. This paper discusses how the authors’ narrative of this event was …read more

An outsider’s view of an interethnic community in Banat: culture and identity in the village of Svinița

During Easter 2013, under the auspices of the International Council of Traditional Music study group for ethnochoreology, a group of international researchers participated in a fieldwork trip in the village of Svinița, in the Danube gorge. This visit was initiated to coincide with viewing the custom of ‘Joc de pomană’ …read more