The Treasures of the Dowry Chests at the Carpathian Gate Fundata - Moieciu - Bran Dr

The Treasures Of The Dowry Chests At The Carpathian Gate Fundata - Moieciu - Bran Dr. IOAN PRAOVEANU 9. 8. 10. 7. 6. 5. 4. 2. 3. 1. Cultural Route 1 1. The traditional house Sparchez 2. Cabane aux Images Jouault 3. CEM Ecotourism information point 4. Carpentry workroom Țâlfa 5. Șițar (creator of wooden roofs) Nelu Preda 6. Șițar (creator of wooden roofs) Florin Baicu 7. Weaving Mariana Dumitru 8. Weaving exposition Ioana Aldulea 9. Traditional costume museum Angela Amecke 10. Baking workroom Local gourmet culture, Mother of sweet bread Foundation Center Of Project Co-Financed By Carpathian Gate Mountain Ecology National Cultural Fund Fundata - Moieciu - Bran Administration The Treasures Of The Dowry Chests At The Carpathian Gate Dr. IOAN PRAOVEANU The brochure was made by Foundation Center Of Mountain Ecology within the project “The Treasures Of The Dowry Chests At The Carpathian Gate”. Fundata-Moieciu-Bran, 2018. The project was co-financed by National Cultural Fund Administration Graphic / editing concept: Diana Ioana Bobeș Photographer project: : Alina Bobu Editor / Printing House : Brand Office SRL Brașov FOUNDATION CENTER OF MOUNTAIN ECOLOGY Moieciu de Sus 125, Brașov, România e-mail: [email protected] www.cem www.poartacarpatilor.cro The Treasures Of The Dowry Chests At The Carpathian Gate Dr. IOAN PRAOVEANU 1 he project, entitled as in small private collections along suggestive as it can be, with other items of ethnographic „TheT Treasures of Dowry Chests at heritage, the authors of the project the Carpathian Gate”, certainly oc- intended to stimulate their and the cupies a place on the podium of the whole community interest in pre- most valuable works of this type, serving and promoting these iden- both in terms of the approach of tity values by wearing them during cultural values belonging equally holidays, or during some cultural to the material and immaterial cul- events marking milestones in the tural heritage, as well as through a life of the village. rigorous scientific approach with a The project aims at revitalizing practical purpose, in ways that the household crafts related to the village community itself, the heir, production of textile items (wea- is aware of and involved in. The to- ving the cloth, the frieze and the pic of cultural approach has also a homespun, sewing and embroide- symbolic value as the dowry chest ring the feast shirts, knitting the is the treasure of the traditional wool flannels) in different ways, at family, passing from generation to home and guesthouses, by organi- generation in the most important zing workshops. These can also be moment of life – the marriage. forms of promoting textile heritage Wandering through the villages within some activities integrated in of Bran, the authors of the project the cultural tourism. discovered in the grandparents’ The project has a practical goal dowry chests the richness of the as it identifies ethnographic herita- textile patrimony specific to the ge items, offers ways of preserving area (popular garments, bedsprea- and promoting it, and, at the same ds and carpets etc.), preserved in time, it aims at reactivating domes- the belief that the heritage is holy, tic crafts, which will lead to the pre- it is from mother, grandmother or servation of the local cultural spe- great-grandmother. Noting that cificity along with other traditional there are people who still keep, identity values. collect and preserve these pieces 2 THE TRADITIONAL COSTUME FROM BRAN 3 The traditional costume, as a living mark on the body, is a defi- ning component of the identity of a people, to which it gives unity and meaning, speaking of what makes it special and widening its histori- cal horizon. The traditional costume, through the ornaments, materials, colors and cut of its elements, mirrors man’s place in the village, the way he understands life and its perceptiveness. The items and materials which make up the traditional folk costume, as well as its peculiarities, arose from the man’s needs, but also from his pleasure in his daily living. The garments have adapted to nature, especially to climate, but also to the occupations and village crafts, evolving according to some factors that have created a vivid image of the place and its people. Living in a mountain area (the villages of Fundata, Sirnea, Moeciu, Pestera, Magura, Simon and Poar- ta) or premontane (the villages of Predeal and Sohodol), the villager of Bran dealt mostly with farming and forestry, less with agriculture. The clothing adapted to cold winter in the woods and chilly summer 4 5 6 La blouse roumaine sewing on the house canvas with the edge, the motif of the vine leaves. ----------- Elena Călăican Collection Şirnea village, Fundata parish 7 when grazing in the mountains, with cold nights and abundant rainfall. Thus, among the clothes that cover the body, the most suita- ble was the wool, and for the ones with the role of first vest (shirts, long underclothes) was the hemp and the flax grown in each household. The garments of the villa- gers from Bran, as they used to be carried on until recently, and still found in dowry chests, date back to the Dacian-Roman period, belonging even to the pre-Roman cultural background. The original pieces of the Romanian folk costume are also the basic items in the folk costume in Bran: the shirt pleated at the neck and the fota (two-gore homespun skirt) for the woman’s costume, and the cioareci (tight an Muntenia, in Bran, Muscel and peasant trousers), the shirt, the Dambovita, the folk costume from peasant’s girdle and the sheepskin Bran is clearly distinguished by coat for the man’s costume. The the fota of Moeciu (two-gore ho- folk costume is gradually highligh- mespun skirt woren by Romanian ted, especially by developing raw peasant women). materials processing techniques The nineteenth century is mar- and local decoration traditions. ked by economic changes, enco- Although it does not abound in uraging the exchange economy local peculiarities but it can also primarily by practicing pastoral be found in the area of Carpathi- transhumance, when, in autumn, 8 they went with the flocks to the Sibiu, and the tight fota (two-gore plain and in summer, to the upland homespun skirt woren by Roma- grass. It continues with unprece- nian peasant women) and mara- dented demographic movements ma (veil) of the women from Bran and, naturally, the Bran villages come from folk costume in Muscel adopt items of folk costume from (2). In the same period, decoration other areas: the hat of a mocan and tailoring are enriched with the (sheperd), the tutuienesc hat (of a appearance of cotton, the decora- Transylvanian sheperd), bitusca tive ranges become wider and the (a short sheepskin coat) and tolic natural colors of the material, bla- (carpet) are typical for Marginimea ck and white, gradually diversify 9 by using silk and metallic thread. lled cloth), hemp and linen] are City influences come in the late replaced by industrial fabrics, by nineteenth century: the wealthiest mechanically woven cloth, velvet people of the villages (merchants, or satin. At the end of the twentieth cattle merchants, intellectuals) century, with the disappearance of adopt pieces of clothing from the the generation that lived in the cult city, such as the cataveica (sleeved of tradition, who manifested their fur jacket worn by Romanian pea- membership to the community, sant women), the bilgar („burger”) they gradually give up the traditio- boots and the winter coat. nal costume. However, it is not for- Over time, traditional fabrics gotten, it is worn on feast days or it [dimia (thick wool fabric (white) is preserved as a heritage of value used in the manufacture of pea- and wisdom. sant clothes), zeghea (thick twi- 10 WOMAN’S TRADITIONAL COSTUME 11 To figure out what type of wo- Imagining it on he whole, the man’s traditional costume we are traditional costume with fota talking about, the piece worn from (two-gore homespun skirt woren the waist down is explicative: the by Romanian peasant women) in catrinta (rectangular apron with Bran is worn by the women toge- embroidery worn by Romanian ther with their shirt or ia (Romani- peasant women), fota (two-gore an traditional blouse), over which homespun skirt woren by Roma- the eldest were wearing a leibari- nian peasant women) or the valnic ca (peasant vest) made of a thick (the fota splited in the front and twilled cloth and the girls, a velvet crimpy on the waist, which belongs ilic (braided vest). From the waist to the popular port of Oltenia). In down came a large skirt, tight-bel- Bran we have the traditional costu- ted with bracii (belts), the legs me with fota, which we find during wrapped in obiele (a piece of cloth its evolution in Muscel, Dambovita, which the peasants wrap their legs Prahova and Bran, but also in the instead of the sock), over which the areas on the eastern, south-eastern opinci (peasant’s shoes with sole and western sides of the Carpathi- strapped to the foot) were knitted ans. with leather or wool laces. ..... ..... The fota ..... ..... (two-gore homespun skirt woren by Romanian peasant women) The Romanian traditional Romanian traditional skirt, usual- large skirt or „fota of Moeciu” is the ly black), which when wrapped on symbol of the women’s costume in the body, covers the backside, and Bran, the garment that wraps the two pulpane (two sides, in front, legs and makes the transition from from the waist down, overlapped) the covers to the garments. The Ro- at the ends of the fabric. The pul- manian traditional large skirt con- pane, different in decoration and sists of vanat (the back part of the color, were worn one over the oth- 12 er: the richest in alesatura (em- Rectangular in shape, the Ro- broidery) was worn on feast days, manian traditional large skirt is the one with simple decoration, on woven by a pick-and-pick loom working days.

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