The Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography, cultural public institution that works under the authority of the Cluj County Council, invites you on Wednesday, January 11th, 2017, at 1 p.m., at the main building of the institution, on Memorandum Street no. 21, at the opening of the exhibition CYCLE OF THE WINTER HOLIDAYS: RITUAL MASKS AND COSTUMES.
The 12 days that framing the limit between years and also the period previous to the Lasatul Secului (Shrovetide) constituted in the traditional Transylvanian village a period marked by what we generally call “winter customs”.
The clothes of masking specific to these customs was present at all the Transylvanian ethnic groups. The practices were grouped at Christmas and New Year in the Romanian social environment and to the so-called Farsang (Carnival) celebrated before the Shrovetide especially by the Hungarian and Saxon communities. The mighty ceremonial and social substrate of these customs explain their preservation – in various degrees – also in the current rural cultural context, being nowadays, too, a special opportunity of community living. It is the reason why the exhibition proposes through artefacts and some visual materials (films, archival and contemporary photos) some significant milestones that link the present to the traditional past.
The exhibition will be open from Wednesday to Sunday, between 10 to 18, in Reduta Palace, Memorandum Street no. 21.