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Special Treat ??“ Geo Rusu

Feb 11, 2006

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A Romanian February Tradition

Geo Rusu

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? ? ? ?  The Romanian people from everywhere hold the Christian traditional holidays. They also keep old pagan traditions as well in many parts of the country. The older generations continue to transmit to the younger generations all the multi-millenary treasures of these old traditions.

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The old traditional holidays have many aspects to be explained, but here we just relate the holidays as there giving a common sense meaning of to facilitate understanding.

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Each holiday of the old tradition has connection with very old patterns of the world; with Universal archetypes, myths, the evolution of human thinking and creativity, with us as human beings.

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All the holidays have three phases: the holiday before the holiday, the actual day of the holiday, and the day after.

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?  At the beginning of the year, as in many parts of the world, the people want to know, for example, if the winter will be long or short, cold or mild, when will spring come, or if the coming year will be good for agriculture etc.

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Such is common with seniors of the world; Romanian people have very strong sense of the nature, of living, where the man is, where man is in this universe, and which way his destiny will take him.

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Thus, Romanian people have their traditional signs of nature; weather, animals, birds and insects, and of course of the stars. Romanian people have its old traditional astrology, even nowadays in some parts of Romania, the grandfathers and/or grandmothers still do `readings`, and make the interpretation of the sky stars to know the probability of the weather patterns.

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Now `back to our sheep` as one the old Romanian proverb says.

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I want to begin with the Romanian old tradition of February with

`The Bear Day` or `the Bear Holiday` and `Holiday of the Martins`.

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The Bear Day is always celebrating on 2^nd of February. When the first snow falls and when it is freezing hard, the bear immediately looks for a cave or cavern to hibernate there. He lives in his somnolence, in his heaviness winter sleep and only time to time does he wake up just to feed himself. To eat he sucks on his paws his pads. His forage over the winter is only the fat and grease from his paws.

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On the Day of the Bear`, the bear wakes-up from his long winter sleep, goes out from his cave at about 9-10 am and he plays around like in a special dance, on the snow in front of his cavern, and he enjoy himself.

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The Romanian people from the Banat region ( South-West part of Romania) believe if the sky is bright and clear on this day, the bear sees his shadow, and he will return to his cave and sleep another six weeks. That means, the winter will last another six weeks.

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If the day is cloudy, the bear will not see his shadow and will remain outside. If this be the case, winter will end shortly and the nice and warm weather will come again.

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In spite of this belief of the people from Banat region, the people from central part of Transilvania, from Jiu Valley, believe contrary. They say that, if the bear goes out from his cave and if the outside is nice and bright weather he will see his shadow so he will become very joyful. He will play in a circle in front of his cavern and when he finishes his dancing he will leave his cave. This means that the winter has lost its power. It will weaken enough to let the fine weather through. And if it is a bad day, a dull day, the bear will be sad and he returns to his cave and will stay another six weeks.

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And finally, the Romanian people from Bucovina ( the North East part of Romania) believe that, if the bear will destroy his cave on 2^nd of the February, even if the weather is very cold, this is the sign that the spring is coming. But if the bear goes out from his cavern on this day and than he reenters his cave, even though the outside is nice and clear, that means the winter goes on and the people will have to wait longer for spring to come.

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Another people of a different region say that on that day if the bear just leans out the head of his cavern and sees that cloudy weather, he will go out to drink water. If it is sunny, he just says something in his language and goes to sleep again. This means of course, that the winter continues. And if he goes out from his cave and before he has a chance to drink some one will have a chance to capture him, but if the bear drinks the water the bear becomes powerful and nobody can get near to him.

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From the above little stories, in the Romanian tradition the bear is the foreboding of the weather and in many places within the country, this day is call `The Bear Holiday`, because only on 2^nd of the February the bear goes out of his winter resort, his cave.

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This Romanian `Bear Day` is similar to Groundhog Day in Canada and the United States.

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In the same period we have another holiday which is called `The Winter Martins`. In some places it is known as `St Martins`, there are three of them. They occur after Christmas. So the middle one, the biggest falls on 2^nd of the February. The holiday begins with little Martin on the 1^st of the February, the bigger one on the 2^nd of the February and the third on the day after the big one, on the 3^rd of the February.

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? ?  All the Martins, the Martins holiday is celebrated to protect against the danger of wolfs who attacks the flocks, or cows and it is done/celebrate for stopping wolfs from attack the people too.

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? On the days of the Martins` the shepherds or cowboys from the Banat region do not take out their flocks out to pasture. And also on these days the shepherds make a lot of ceremonies on their sheep to protect them from/or guard them against wolfs.

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Some stories tell that during these days they also include celebrations to protect against the bears. So the middle of the Martin which is on 2^nd of the February, the big Martin,?  it is also used for calling the bear, so we call the bear, only Martin, or Old Martin.

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Thus, all our old stories about bears we named as the stories with Old Martin. And the well known man who is leading the bear and make him to play in front of the people at the circus, for example, sings like this to Old Martin:

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? ? ?  Play, play well,? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  Or:? ?  Play well, Martin boy,

? ? ?  Martin boy,? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  Up, and up Martin boy,

? ? ?  I will give you? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  Easy boy, easy boy,? 

? ? ?  Bread with olives,? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  I will give bread and olives.

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When the bear hears these words he stands up on his two feet and with his upper paws plays in circle, and the people say?  `that we can feel an earthquake under us when Old Martin is playing`.

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In our old tradition the 2^nd of the February it is believed to be the day when winter welcomes summer. Thus, on this day if it is warm, the summer will be nice and fruitful and if it is cold, and frozen that day it means that the summer will be cooler than normal.

Thus, if in this day the sky is clear and bright it means that the wheat will be plenty in the summer; and if that day is dull, and cloudy, the people will not seed so much because the harvest will not be good.

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There are many signs regarding this day and the people who know and believe in all of these signs consider all of them for their life path and for the community where they live.

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The old tradition is like an underground river at the bottom of the mountain, and time to time the river comes out to show the direction, the sense and much more, no matter who or what is on the mountain, or what color of?  flag is on the mountain.

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The ancestral traditional river appears for those who believes in it, but soon disappears for those who do not take into account the treasures of life, and for those who do not regard the meaning of life. It appears always for those who consider/ take an account the meaning of `from where we came and to what/where` the miracle of life goes on.

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With or without our willpower the ancestral tradition goes as the myth of eternal returning.

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Thank you,

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Geo Rusu

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geosays@gmail.com

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About Me:

I have three pets, Bella, a Pekinese mix with Chihuahua. She is my Belly dancer. Spik, Cairn terrier, snickers and one lady cat Alma. She is like an actress from Hollywood movie and now I have to feed them.

Have a nice day.

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