Month: June 2013

13

Romania, Bucharest, Train Station North, Hall number 13.

13
13
13

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Encounter

Two generations, face to face.

encounter

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Kisses

There is a saying: “the train station has seen more sincere kisses than the marriage office”, I didn’t count to know for sure, but I know if you go to the train station, for every departing train you can see at least one kiss.

kisses
kisses
kisses
kisses

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GIMPing

I got some homework to do: photoshopping some animal pictures, but since I don’t like Photoshop, I used GIMP instead, therefore my action should be called GIMPing.

gimping
gimping
gimping
gimping
gimping

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The Human Body

Yesterday evening, crossing the Herastrau Park, I meet the guys from The Human Body, flexing their muscles and promoting the exhibition, which is still open at the Antipa Nature History Museum in Bucharest.

the human body

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Watchdog

Everything is safe, the owner and his goods: the watchdog is taking care.

watchdog

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Some like it hot

Is hot out there… standing next to the flames from the grill.

some like it hot

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To the church!

In a previous post I talked about the cult of the dead in Romanian traditions and religion, a characteristic of those is they are performed most of the time by women, especially old women: they are the ones filling the church, they are the ones carrying the traditions. Here a group of women are bringing ceremonial food to their church.

to the church

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Cult of the dead

Moșii de vară, meaning something like “the summer old men” is a pre-Christian tradition happening in Romania and is part of the cult of the dead, it has a “sister” called “Moșii de iarnă” (“the winter old men”) and some smaller “Saturdays of the dead”. Even the name, Moșii show its old origin, this is one of the name attributed to the old Dacian god Zamolxis. There are multiple stories about it, one says the souls of the dead leave their graves 50 days in advance and walk the land, in this day they have to be lured back in their graves with food offering or else… is not clear what happens, maybe the vampires myth placed randomly here was not that random? Another story says about Moși as being the souls of 9 dead men who are protecting the community.

cult of the dead

In the classic Christian tradition, the Orthodox church applied the “embrace and extend” strategy here: it put close to it a big religious holiday, the Pentecost, so now Moșii de vară is a big bullet point in their calendar, along with the other celebration of the cult of the dead they embraced. The food was switched to colivă and fruits (is the fruit season).

cult of the dead

Still, the embrace does not look that successful, very few Romanians know the meaning of the Pentecost and even the holiday itself is called by other name, “Rusalii”, by the name of some female evil spirits hunting for souls – yet another pre-Christian tradition thrown in the mix.

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Village beauties

At the Rusalii village fair, these girls turned many boys heads. And, honestly, it was an unexpected sight.

village beauties

Bonus for my readers, a close portrait of them.

village beauties

And as I feel in a bonus-giving mood (and trollish a bit), here’s another bonus: the village beauties from a few years ago.

village beauties

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Street play

Dust, dung, children playing along, that’s a typical village street.

street play

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Wheel of fortune

Come and play the wheel of fortune, just one coin and everybody wins something!

wheel of fortune

If you are lucky (and underage), you may win even a bottle of wine

wheel of fortune

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Ana are mere – for real now

I explained in a earlier post the meaning of this phrase “Ana are mere” (“Ana has apples”), now finally it was the time for Ana to get some apples.

ana are mere

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Supermoon 2013 (minus one day)

Sunday night the sky was a bit hazy, so I couldn’t take a clear photo of the supermoon. Good think I played a bit the previous night and captured a picture then… still, quite boring, not that different from the last year’s supermoon. Next time if I take a picture again, I promise to be more creative.

supermoon

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Vivant

Bucharest is holding these days a Vivant Statues International Festival, unfortunately I could only catch a glimpse from its first day.

vivant

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