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On the alleys of the Village Museum in Bucharest, Wednesday was the day of the Romanian 'ie' (e.n. - the 'ie' is also known as the Romanian blouse, part of the Romanian national traditional dress).
Craftspersons and collectors exhibited here hundreds of Romanian blouses, some done with silk thread, with glass beads or over 100 years old, in order to mark the Universal Day of the Romanian Blouse.
Tens of visitors of the museum wore, also, on the Day of the Sanziene (e.n. - Sanziene, singular Sanziana, are mythological gentle fairies in Romanian folklore, that appear on the feast day of John the Baptist - June 24), Romanian blouses, some being family heirlooms.
"In the village, the feast of the Sanziene is important from many points of view. It was at this time that those rituals tied to the summer solstice were executed, marking the passing towards plentiful summer, when the reaping began, but at the same time everything is two-faced, because the year has halved, the summer solstice makes the day start shortening, in fact it's an announcement of coming autumn and winter. It's a threshold that, in the village, everyone marked in some way, with certain rituals, gestures and incantations. The Sanziene are identified by specialists as being deities of the wild space. They can be met on the hills, or in the forests, or on untilled fields where they executed a dance - in the village that dance - the 'Dragaica' is still danced, because the Sanziene or Dragaica are sort of the same thing, the difference being that the Dragaica is seen in the south and the Sanziene most everywhere. In the popular tradition it's said that it's best you do not meet the Sanziene on that night because they can be good fairies, but also evil fairies. It's said that he who sees the dance of the Sanziene and speaks may be cursed to remain mute for the rest of his life. On the Sanziene, the girls in the village would weaved garlands that they threw on the house to find out who their destined partner is. If the garlands stayed on the house, they'd be married that year, if not, they wouldn't marry that year. That same way you could find out if you'd be healthy year round. The garlands were also used by women for back pain; the Sanziana [e.n. - Galium verum; lady's bedstraw] is the only plant that treats the thyroid," said, for AGERPRES, the director of the Dimitrie Gusti Village Museum, Paula Popoiu.
"Sanziene, Romanian Blouse, Flower, Light" was the title of the event taking place on Wednesday at the Village Museum. And most visitors, young and old, wore on this occasion a Romanian blouse.
The households in the museum hosted collectors and craftspersons that showed off Romanian blouses, linens, jewelry, masks, plant products, wood toys, dolls wearing Romanian blouses or filled with lavender.
The traditions and customs of this day were brought to the attention of visitors of the Sanziene Fair through workshops in stitching, in the Sant Household, and in garland weaving, at Campu lui Neag. The two workshops were dedicated to children.
In the garland workshop children could learn to weave Sanziene, daisies, lavender and ears of corn after tying them with string in order to fashion themselves a garland.
Starting with 2013, June 24 sees the celebration of the Universal Day of the Romanian Blouse, at the initiative of the online community "La Blouse Roumaine".
The feast of the Sanziene is also known popularly as the Dragaica
