MAIN BUILDING'S SECTION
PERMANENT EXHIBITION
- Secondary Occupations
- Animal Breeding
- Agriculture
- Traditional Crafts
- Traditional Textile Fabrics
- Traditional Musical Instruments
- Traditional Food
- Traditional Folk Costume
- Folk Wood Engraving
- Icons
- Customs of the Life Cycle
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Customs of the Life Cycle
CHILDHOOD
The only exhibition unit includes three thematic shots.
The relationship between mother and child in the first days of the baby's life is illustrated by a reconstitution that includes a woman costume from Banat, with apron (1), a cradle with soles (2) and an icon representing the Holy Virgin (3), presented in each house, as a protector of the mother and the child. The basket with food for confined woman (4) is part of this life moment.
The moment of learning to walk by the child represents the second thematic shot illustrated by an inter-war zvaldor (5), fixed in the house beam where the child went round learning to walk, and a special chair (6) with the same age and a similar function.
The toys exhibited in the exhibition unit II, some of them made by children, others by adults, illustrate the active stage of the childhood, in which the girls and the boys use the toys adequate to the future division of the work within the traditional peasant household according to their sex (7).
YOUTH
The exhibition unit I includes objects dated in the 19th century, related to the activity of boy lad groups from Transylvania. The maces (8) were the distinctive signs of the Brasov Young Men, who made, in the week before the Easter, near to Brasov, a ritual that included dances, songs, horse competitions. The custom had common elements with the one of the king from other Transylvanian areas. Sitting down on the easy chair (9), the king punished the lads who made bad things over the year, by beating them with an objects named by Romanians priscala. The Hungarian piece exhibited (10), with a similar function, is dated 1813. Also, in the property of the lad groups there are the decorated candle (11, from Fagaras), the spur from Secuime and Huedin (12) the border guard's clubs (13) from Hunedoara and Sibiu.
The exhibition unit II presents gifts made by boys for the girls they courted. Being rich ornamented by cutting, the mallets for washing the clothes (14), the wooden irons for linen (15), the distaffs with soles (16) and the chairs (17) were traditional gifts from the Hungarian region Calata. The Romanian boys gave generally to the girls distaffs decorated by cutting (18, from Lupsa) and also mallets (19, from Maramures) and irons for linen (20). The Saxon piece for linen decorated by cutting had the same function of gift (21).
The exhibition unit III exhibits Romanian handkerchiefs from Hunedoara, given by girls to the chosen boys (22) and Hungarian handkerchiefs from Deja, with the same function (23). The unit also includes an iron for linen from the Hungarian village Deja (24), another Hungarian one from Calata (25) and love letters from the Romanian village Salistea de Sus (26-27).
TopWEDDING CUSTOMS
The exhibition unit IV contains objects with different functions during the ritual of a traditional wedding: groom's flower (28) from the Saxon village Satu-Nou (Bistrita), groom tie (29) from the Saxon village Cristian (Sibiu), gourd with towel (30), worn by the chief who precedes at the Romanians the wedding suite, Romanian wedding flag from Rodna (31) worn by a groom's friend in front of the suite. According to the old custom, the guests brought, in some Romanian areas, in a basket (32) gifts for the bride and the groom (meat, eggs and cheese) used by their families for preparing the wedding party. In these occasions they used for cooking pots of large size (33), made by potters especially for the wedding feast meals. Also, the gourds of large sizes used by the wedding chief had a preponderant ceremonial function (34).
The exhibition unit V.The bride's dowry, made of a chest ornamented by cutting (at Romanians) or painting (at Saxons and Hungarians) with a large quantity of textile fabrics and cloth items was showed even during the wedding at the bride's house and on the cart that took her to the groom's house, pointing out in this way the social-economic status of the family she came from. This exhibition unit exhibits a dowry painted chest from the Hungarian region Calata (35) and towels from the same area, part of the dowry (36), all the objects dating from the end of the 19th century.
Near to them there are exhibited pieces used by the Romanians during the fecundity ritual practiced on the wedding day (the pot with wheat - 37) and the ritual of purification on the day after the wedding: the bride and the groom washed their hands together with the nasi (persons who give the bride away) with water and ash at a sweet apple tree that they surrounded wiping with the same towel (38).
The exhibition unit VI exhibits a Romanian bride's wreath from Oas (39), another also Romanian from Ocolis, Apuseni (40), a Saxon bride's wreath from Bistrita region (41), a Saxon groom's handkerchief from the same region (42), a Hungarian bride's wreath from Sic (43) and a flower for the groom's hat from the same place (44).
The double spoons are significant (ponorici), joint one with another and used by the bride and the groom to eat in the same time, making the assumption in their marriage (45).
The exhibition unit VII includes two wife's ritual head covers worn symbolically the second day after the wedding. The first one (46) comes from the Romanian medium of Aries Mocanime (an interesting combination between the kerchief of city Central-European origin and the head towel traditional to Romanians in the old times); the second one comes from the Hungarian region Calata (47).
FUNERAL CUSTOMS
The exhibition unit VIII presents on the background shots of the traditional funeral ritual, including the one with the fir tree, with a special documentary value, which was photographed at the beginning of the 20th century. The ritual was practiced both by Romanians and Hungarians in some regions at the death of an unmarried young man.
Within the unit there are exhibited textile fabrics used during the funeral ritual (48 - fabric for the grave, 49 - towel for prapor - standard used for religious processions), the dead person's candle and the pot with wheat necessary for the purification of the house (50), the colac (51 - kind of fancy bread) and the pot for charity (52), a funeral Hungarian sign from Covasna (53), a funeral Romanian pillar from Alba (54) and another Romanian one from Hunedoara (55).
CUSTOMS OVER THE YEAR: CHRISTMAS
The exhibition units IX-X. A combination of Christian and pre-Christian practices, the traditional Christmas marked - together with the 12 days that followed - it the passing into a New Year.
The lad groups, the children and the masked persons sent to the whole traditional communities good wishes for the new year, each group having a distinctive role. The children (56) started to sing carols, going from house to house, in the Christmas' Eve, getting colaci (kind of fancy breads), nuts and apples (57), being followed by the lad groups that sang, in every house from the village, the carol with the proper corresponding theme (of host, of boy, of lad), danced all the women from the family and got colaci especially prepared.
In the Hungarian Catholic villages from Secuime, the lad groups passed the houses with girls on December 28, when there was commemorated the Kids' Killing, having with them knitted whips with which they touched ritually the girls and women in order to bring prosperity and health in the houses (59). In the exhibited peasant's bags (58), the lads from the Hungarian region Calata carried the colaci given by the families where they sang carols.
The folk show of turca (60, from Mures), characteristic to Transylvania, has obvious vitalistic pre-Christian elements, the one who worn the mask being prohibited from going to the church for 6 weeks.
The church tried to neutralise the pre-Christian elements that accompanied the day of the Jesus's Birth, introducing in the repertory of the carol singers' groups religious themes, the practise of Viflaim (61, from Severin) and the star carols (62, from Severin) sung by the kids.
The icon with the Birth theme (63, from Vidra) was exhibited in this unit to illustrate the Christian significance of the Christmas.
CUSTOMS OVER THE YEAR: NEW YEAR
The exhibition unit XI includes items that illustrate the custom of colindat (singing carols from house to house) with the plugusor (small plough) and sorcova (bouquet used for New Year's wishes), practiced by the kids (64) to wish health and richness for the new year: plough iron (65), whip (66, from Rusul de Jos), bells (67, from Apahida), sorcova (68, from Brasov). The custom was made also with the buhai (69 - bull, from Reteag) and it is known in Maramures the practise of the masked persons' dances (70, 71, 72, 73).
The exhibition unit XII was reserved to the illustration of the Christian Holiday of Boboteaza by exhibiting an icon with this theme (74), a cross (75, from Nicula) and a wooden pail (cofa) with sweet basil (76), used by the priest on this occasion.
CUSTOMS OVER THE YEAR: EASTER
The exhibition unit XIII presents the Christian Holiday of Easter in its two hypostasis: the institutional one which illustrates the contacts of the community with the church, and the family one in the real space of the house. Prescurnicere (77), prescuri (78), icons related thematically to the sacrifice and the Resurrection (79-80), the basket with holy eggs and food (they were santified at the church) (81) illustrate the first hypostasis, while the Easter meal (82) with pasca (Easter cake) and painted eggs illustrate the second one.
In the Easter context there are also the practices of veneration of the ancestors, which took place on the Great Thursday when the family makes tree (83) and lays down pomelnice (84).
The exhibition unit XIV marks by crosses (85) and a thematic icon (86) the Holiday of Jesus's Ascension.
The exhibition unit XV exhibits Easter painted eggs - Romanian, Hungarian and Saxon.
The exhibition unit XVI is dedicated to the emphasis of the harvest wreath, an agrarian summer rite of old tradition, present all over Transylvania. Knitted by girls of the last cutting-down ears in one of the exhibited types the wreath is worn by a girl on her head, in the front of the harvest group, until they arrived to the village where it was watered and kept by the owner of the cornfield till spring when the grains from the ears were mixed with the ones that were going to be sown.
TopCUSTOMS OVER THE YEAR: SPRING CUSTOMS
The exhibition units XVII-XVIII. The spring customs are related to the holiday of Sangeorz, date considered to represent the beginning of the pastoral and agricultural year. With this occasion, there were organised the cummunity sheep flock and there was measured the sheep's milk of each family in order to distribute fairly the dairy products during the whole season. This practice named masuris is illustrated by a series of pieces with practical and magical function exhibited in this unit: the chain (93) over which there are taken out the sheep from the householder's yard on the day of masuris to be strong as the iron, bucket for milking (94) decorated with sasau for increasing the sheep milk, the cups for measuring the milk (95), the caramburi used with the same role (96), the alpenhorn (97) used at masuris in a ritual way, the dry woods for getting the vivid fire by freaking (98), which was not put out at sheephold till the return of the sheep in the farmsteads.
In the south of Salaj County in the front of the flock that goes to masuris, boys dressed in leaves (vlojoi, gotoi) walked who were watered by the peasants with the aim that the sheep would give more milk.
The exhibition unit XVIII exhibits a yoke decorated with some green plants (99) and a whip (100), items related to an agrarian rite named plugarul or tanjeaua, custom that marked the beginning of the agricultural year. Related to Sangeorz, there was known the use of the bark sheep sleeveless fur coat (101). Because the Saint George was considered protector of the animals, the icons with this theme were often met in the peasant houses (103).
The exhibition unit XIX exhibits Jewish items of workship and a sample of Tora.
Candlestick (1) - ritual candlestick for Hadlakat Neirot.
Mahzor (2) - prayer book for Holydays, which indicates the order of the prays.
Menorah (3) - seven branched candelabrum, symbol of the Jewish people on its way in the Mount Sinai. Nowadays - the symbol of the State of Israel.
Shofar (4) - traditional musical instrument made of ram horn. In the past it was used for calling the Jewish to the war.
Talit (5) - ritual cloth dressed by men (especially the married ones) during the morning pray.
Cup for kidush (6) - cup used for blessing the wine on the evenings before Holidays.
Adornments (7) - for the Torah scroll.
Kepah (8) - head cover worn by men.
Visit program
Main Building's Section
Tuesday-Sunday:
9 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday closed.
Ethnographic Park "Romulus Vuia": 1st of May - 31st of October: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. (last entry 4 p.m.), Monday closed. The Park is closed between 1st of November and 30th of April.
Acces: buses - lines 26, 27, 28, 30, 41, "Piata 14 iulie" station