Cemeteries, Customs and Costumes

A couple of other photos from our train trip

First,  a reminder of how the borders have changed – just to the north of the area where the train runs in Marmures is now firmly in Ukraine, but only since WWII.  We remember the guide at Malborg Castle in Poland telling us how his grandparents had been given 24hrs by ‘Uncle Joe’ to leave – leaving all their land, possessions livestock and forebears in the cemetery – and there was still loss, and anger about it.

And a wild flower meadow – a reminder of years ago in Western Europe.  These areas are bee-keepers’ heaven; they have lorries and trailers stacked with bee-hives which are driven out to the areas where there is little other agriculture in such numbers as to be quite remarkable.  We have, of course, stocked up with some honey ourselves!

Over the Whit wekend lots of people were going to church.  We went to the Merry Cemetery, which has some rather special memorials, carved out for many years under the charge of one man.  He has now passed, on but is succeeded by one of his apprentices.  The memorials have a carving of a depiction of the person, and a rhyme/doggerel verse about their life.  These are apparently very amusing – celebrating life and some of its reality, but of course in Romanian, so we couldn’t appreciate this.  However, the carvings are interesting in themselves

I think we can presume that she was a good lady.

Not so sure the next one was a good man!!

 There were all sorts of stories in the carvings, including one of a young girl who had been run over, and one of a man who looked to have met his end at the hands his own soldiers, under what circumstances who knows (in the absence of any ability in the Romanian language!).

And people were in church, or at least at church.  It appeared that all the women were outside (where the service was relayed by loudspeaker) while all the men were inside.  [I wonder what they do in the winter?]  The women all were in their traditional costume, and this mum was happy to agree to our request for a photo – whether her toddler was as keen is another matter!

Then we set off to see the wooden churches.  At the first one we were stopped by a policeman who was controlling traffic for a large gathering assembling in the road.  This proved very good timing, as it was children from all the nearby villages meeting to keep their folk traditions alive.  They paraded down the street singing - each group with their own song in what seemed to be a competition to promote their own identity - accompanied by their own enthusiastic music with violins, guitars and especially – drums.   On reaching the bottom of the hill each group performed a dance before assembling in the village square where more music was being performed, interspersed by speeches from ‘the great and good’.  There was a lot of variety in the costumes, so the local costumes must be very local indeed!

There are a lot of the wooden churches in the area; some listed by UNESCO, including this one

 We obtained the key from the cottage next door to the church and were able to see inside.  Fresco form 400 years ago were still clearly discernable , and the whole inside was covered with woollen floor and seat coverings.

There wasn’t too much light inside, but it was surprisingly cheerful in both its permanent and contemporary decoration.

We continued on to an important monastery.  When we arrived people were just leaving what appeared to have been an open-air service.  We think there must have been at least 1000 people attending – this photo is of just one of three exits.

The central outside altar and the church

The monastery – this is one of two similar buildings – one for the bishop perhaps and one for the nuns?

This was a very impressive complex which was ‘put upon’ by the Hapsburgs, Austro-Hungarians (being the wrong type of Christianity) and communists (being a religion of any persuasion), but was re-established in 1993 after some 200 years.  How good that people at are last free to practice their own beliefs (or none) without state interference.

This group of young ladies had long since grown out of being camera-shy, unlike the toddler we photographed earlier; they quickly pulled Frances into the picture with them.

Please note, as we did on several occasions, that for the young ladies the essential accompaniment to their centuries-old traditional dress is the latest fashion ‘killer heels’ – in a colour to complement their costumes, of course!

At the end of the day we found our campsite

Yes, that’s it there, on the left.  Thank goodness for sat-navs and coordinates to navigate by.   How these folk ever manage to get a campsite established and customer to come in the first place I really don’t know – this one was down a lane in a small village 10km from the nearest town – hardly on the tourist trail. 

You don’t always need to be proficient in the language of the country to work out the meaning of the campsite name!