Religious or not, the Easter is a public holiday, which means a reason to celebrate for everyone, is at least a day free from work. This year the Easter Easter is close to May Day, meaning for some even more free days from work, more of a reason to celebrate. So with so many reasons around, I took my model out, for a themed shooting session. As you can see, she still needs assistance.
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This spring picture is not taken in a real village, but at the Village Museum in Bucharest
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The Village Museum in Bucharest hosted a fair for the Flowers Day (that’s one day before the Easter), this fair is pretty much a tradition, it happens every year and many people try not to miss it.
I went there to take some pictures with flowers and old buildings in the background and also pictures of people.
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At the first thought, one wouldn’t expect a St. Patrick parade in Bucharest, where we probably have more Irish Pubs than Irish people (or maybe this is the reason), but our city had one for the first time. And I don’t think is a bad thing, is a good opportunity to get people out from their houses, walk, listen to music, meet other people, enjoy a show. Yes, as a first edition it has some (many) flaws, but that’s to be expected. Looking forward to the next year.
There was a Romanian riverdance group, a couple of Irish music groups, but there was a serious presence of Romanian traditional dance and music groups, from Săpânța, Vaslui and Vrancea. Which probably enjoy better the local palinka over the Irish beer.
Personally my biggest disappointment was not seeing any green beer, which I understand is an international tradition for the day. Not in Romania… fingers crossed for the following edition.
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This is already a tradition for orasul to get people dancing tango in the subway at the Unirii 1 station, as is a tradition for them to offer chocolate in the same place in the Martisor day every year, so guess what? Today I shoot people doing tango in the subway.
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If the experience yesterday shooting Martisor sellers was less than stellar (I had one security guard come to me and ask to stop, since the market is private property, even if everything happened on he street, so I have to move to the opposite side of the market), today at Unirii it was much better.
People asked me to shoot their dog (carrying flowers in his mouth), complained about the mayor and the chaos he created, talked about photos and such.
A couple of them even asked to be shoot and offered me free flowers (snowdrops, which I had to decline as my hands were busy). Of course, it was not all perfect, I heard some mumbling they better get paid “100 Euros” for being photographed (even if I didn’t shoot them, but the flowers they sold).
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I just love trolling on Mărțisor day, so this year I prepared a series of pictures. Fave fun!
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Only a few hours left, is the time for men to run for their lives: tomorrow is March 1st, the Romanian holiday where they are supposed to gift all women around with crappy shiny trinkets on a string.
Not only for their beloved one, not only also for their mother, not even only also for their sister, but also for their coworker, mother in law, neighbor and so on. Run!
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Being at the Village Museum for the photo exhibition opening there was a Dragobete fair and this cute little girl wearing a traditional peasant costume.
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Is not that for this season I put the cart before the horses with New Year pics first and Christmas last, after a stupid accident my main camera is spending the holidays at the repair shop and I am left shooting with a weaker backup, so my enthusiasm and technical means are limited. Still, I had to show a picture with my tree.
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After in previous posts I may have engrossed some with explicit pictures from traditional pig slaughtering>, is probably the time to show some pleasant-looking pork based food. From Caru’ cu bere in Bucharest (the same place I enjoyed papanași a while ago), here’s what they call, in the English language menu “Romanian pork shank served with pan fried sauerkraut, polenta, horseradish and chili pepper” (ro: ciolan de porc cu varză călită, mămăligă, hrean și ardei iute). This is a serving for two, the dish is large enough.
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It was interesting to watch the children reactions at the pig slaughtering, on one hand was the boy, he was a bit grown-up and obviously used with the process. He was excited, eagerly waiting to eat some pig skin. While the men worked to clean the pig, he kept shouting “it looks good!” and “it smells good!”. When done, he didn’t wait for approval to rip and eat some skin.
On the other hand, for the little girl it was probably not the first time to assist, but maybe the first she understand some part of it. She was unhappy, not liking the color of the pig skin she got to eat: it was red (from the blood). Actually, I don’t like it red either (people claim is softer) and prefer it clean.
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Something struck me when photographing a traditional pig butchering, a guy told me with pride “Europe should not tell us how to kill the pig!” (background: European Union tries to impose rules for sacrifices of animals raised in rural households, Romanian peasants refuse due to convenience and price increase).
That is the key to read many recent [in/e]volutions in our society: populist politicians protesting “we are not a colony” when EU tries to push us into civilization, modernization, morals or anti-corruption: we keep the old ways, killing the animals with our hands (and eating their blood), we elect known corrupt politicians and delinquent to rule the country.
And then we drink and wait for an elusive deity to save us all. Welcome to Romania!
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Is an old tradition in rural Romania to raise pigs, starting from early spring. They may receive a name, Ghiță being a popular choice, and become almost a member of the family: getting carefully feed, being talked to and such. Still, their final mission is to provide food for the family.
Cleverly, the pigs are sacrificed and transformed to food, at the start of the winter: on one hand, the fat pork is consistent food, will help people deal with the cold weather, on the other hand the cold weather will help with preserving the meat (in old times they had no freezers, nature was our big freezer).
On top of that, there is the religious side: is handy to have some special food for the Christmas meals. But… Christmas is preceded by a long fasting period, no meat allowed, but people were clever again, they re-used a Christian holiday, St. Ignatius (Ignat in Romanian) which takes place on 20 December for the pig sacrifice: it leaves enough time to prepare the Christmas food (bacon, sausages, leberwurst and such) and just pretend they know nothing about fasting that day.
Sorry, pictures with the pig being killed are not included, my aim here is not to shock people but to present a tradition.
Once sacrificed, the big is cleaned: the hair is removed with fire. Traditionally hay was used, but in modern days using a flamethrower is more convenient (powered by the gas one will use in the oven).
Everything is carefully cleaned: the hair has to go and leave the skin clean and tender (skin is the only part of the pig which can be eaten raw, uncooked: just add some salt).
Washed, the pig will tart looking like pork, the meat you can buy from the store.
An important tradition, before the pig to be chopped or even a single part to be eaten, a cross is cut on its forehead and they put some salt on it (from childhood, I was remembering something about holy water too, but I am unsure, it seems not used everywhere). Then the chopping begins.
With the operations still under progress, is time to bring some boiled țuică (with sugar, pepper and cloves), workers, family and guests will drink it warm wile eating some fresh, salted, pig skin.
I missed this step this year, but right after is the time for a small party, the pig’s requiem, with freshly cooked pork, pickles, polenta and more boiled țuică. More work will start after that, the meat has to be prepared to last for the winter: stuff the sausages, boil the bacon, dry, smoke and so on.
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This picture, showing a herd of sheep from a Romanian village, won the fifth place in a contest organized by a national rural development agency/network.
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