Widespread throughout the entire Romanian territory, unitary in shape (elongated rectangle) and structure (piece of linen, cotton, raw silk canvas, etc., adorned with flowers or embroidery, finished in purls or hemmed, often with added lace), huckaback towels differ zonary by ornamentation, name and function. Huckaback towels are encountered as household pieces (‘strecătoare’, ‘merindar’, ‘șervet
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In the traditional Transylvanian village, boys’ groups, children and masked men were sending their good wishes to the community for the year to come, each group having a distinct role. Children were responsible with the singing of carols, on Christmas Eve, who were making abundance wishes in every house, receiving nuts, apples and bread wreaths in return. The church intervened in this archaic
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The artefact of November is măngălău. Also called in certain areas mangalău, tăvălug, maglă, scândură, zolitor, mai de pânză etc., it is made of wood, and in fact it is a long and rectangular board, with a wavy or smooth surface, on which thick cloth laundry, wrapped around a prop, is being rubbed or smoothed. Once the flat iron became widespread in the village world too, the functionality of
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Considering the fact that we are in full hunting season, the Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography proposes to you, as artefact of October, the antler gunpowder case, an indispensable object in practising hunting with fire arms at a time when this type of weapons was not yet perfected.
Unlike other types of horns (for eg: cattle horn which was mainly used to make various
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An important part of traditional diet, fruits were considered a source of food in all seasons, being a consistent alternative during fasting periods, whether they were freshly consumed, or kept in the cellar or turned into marmalade (sometimes called “lictar” or “silvoiță”). Some of the fruits were dried for consumption during long winters. These dried fruits were part of the daily diet,
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This type of jug was used for transporting, storing and drinking water. The piece has a bitronconic shape, a domed body, a narrow base, a high and narrow neck, a bilobed mouth, endowed with a holed jigger, in order to prevent impurities from accessing the recipient. The jug is provided with a tube-type handle, endowed with a hole (“nipple” or “țâță”) for drinking. Inside the recipient, there is a
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Since the Universal Day of the Romanian Traditional Blouse (“Ia”) is unofficially celebrated (but perhaps more fastuously) on Midsummer Day (“Sânziene”), the artefact of June at the Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography is an “ie” from central Romania. Not any Romanian traditional blouse was named “ie”, this term being used in Wallachia and southern Transylvania; in other regions, the same piece of
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The ewe-cheese mold – our proposal for the artefact of May – was used at the end of the 19th – the beginning of the 20th century in the Romanian pastoral environment from Bran and Vrancea ethnographic areas. The piece consists of two overlapping wooden boards. Both inner sides are decorated on the whole surface. Due to the anthropomorphic shape of the lid, the mold has the traditional name of “
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April (in Latin – aprilis, from the Latin word “aperio, -ire” = to open), the 4th month of the year, traditionally named “prier”, is the period in which spring enters its rights, the plants sprout, at the same time, marking the beginning of the pastoral season, a period when the animal herds are formed, when the sheep gathering (milk measurement) takes place. As an object of the month, we propose
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The land cultivation is one of man’s oldest occupations. From the category of tools for working the land is also the spade. I am exemplifying this category of objects by the artefact no. inv. N7434 (originally from the village Tetișu, Sălaj county) exposed in the basic exhibition of our museum and in the photo below.
The spade is used for digging the ground and for cutting the smaller roots,
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