Customs and traditions for Christmas and New Year’s Day in The Village of Corni, Botoşani County

SIMPOZION  JUDEŢEAN  CU  TEMA

„Tradiţii  şi  obiceiuri  de iarnă din zona Botoşanilor”

Customs and traditions for Christmas and New Year’s Day in The Village of Corni, Botoşani County

The specific atmosphere of customs and traditions for Christmas and New Year’s Day begins three weeks earlier, on Saint Andrew’s Day which is on November 30^th. According to the tradition, young people and children  in the village have agreed with the singers since the beginning of Advent, have established the roles they play in the Christmas procession, which will go carolling from house to house during the holidays, and they start rehearsals.

 The custom of singing carols on Christmas Eve has existed since ancient times  in the village of Corni only, not in the neighbouring villages. Children, young people and even adults go carolling at the homes of  their relatives and friends.

      A custom, which is supposed to be of Slavic origin, is Hoiranul. This is a carol in Russian, with many words changed over time. The parade is made up of young people who play games on Christmas and New Year’s Day and who are accompanied by The Fanfare from the village of Balta Arsă. They play Hoiranul in the evening of the first day of Christmas at young people’s homes, who take part in the dances that are held at the community centre during the holidays, as well as at other householders in the village that receive them.

     Another custom which has been kept until today is the Star carolling  by groups of children (mostly boys) in all 3 Christmas days.

(day only).

 The holiday everyone loves is New Year’s Eve. It starts in the morning of the last day of the old year when the leaders of local community and much of the village population watch “Alignment Game” (Alinierea) and the games of masks. On this occasion a member of the procession says a “little plough” about the significant achievements  of the village during the year and the satirical aspects in all fields. After viewing the procession, all the lanes and streets of the village are crossed until the evening of January 1^st , when at one of the main crossroads of the village is organised  the closing ceremony, which the villagers call it the “beardless man cutting”. The members of the group “Alignment” includes the following characters: a head ( a journeyman), Turks (dressed in Turkish costume), officers. Throughout the ceremony held in the streets of the village, the masked people  are most loved. During the New Year’s Eve  day and on New Year’s Day, you see groups of people, of all ages who go out to admire and join the multicoloured procession of masked people (old women, brides, Turks, doctors, female artists, evil characters, gentlewomen). A few hours on New Year’s Eve, children go from house to house saying the traditional “little plough” and making wishes for the new year to come. Once the children have completed their mission, young people and some of the peasants, in larger groups, come into play  and keep saying “the little plough” in  the evening of New Year’s  Eve, too.

     Folkloric Theatre is represented both by the theatre itself, in outlawry version (Iancu Jianu’s outlaw band in the village of  Corni) and by component parts of thematic games with masks. In the village of Corni, these are: the game of căiuţi (men dressed as horses dancing specific dances) from the village of Sarafinesti, a game of authenticity and unknown originality elsewhere, the Bear game (a man masked as a bear dancing in front of the peasants’ houses), the Goat game (Jocul Caprei) and then the game of masks themselves.

     Iancu Jianu’s outlaw band includes the following characters: Jianu (he is the Captain’s band, he dresses like a bandit and holds pistols in his hands), Old  Year (a man with white beard, pointed hat, a coarse-stuff peasant coat, traditional peasant sandals), New Year (a young man dressed in national costume), 1^st Turk, 2^nd Turk (with pompom hat and silk ribbons, red tunic, double baldric with rosettes, military aiguillettes); a waist belt that disperses its fringe over the white skirt, tight peasant trousers, boots, sword), the bride (Jianu’s fiancée, a young transvestite), Alexa ( a young man who wants to enter the band), 1^st Bandit, 2^nd Bandit.

     The band consists of married young people (and children, too). They walk in the night before New Year to the homes of the most important peasants in the village, to friends’ places. A young man says good evening at the window and asks the host if they receive Jianu’s outlaw band . If the answer is yes, young people begin to sing and enter the house, where they play their roles  very seriously.

Translated by the English teacher Florina-Cristina Condriuc from “Octav Băncilă” School in The Village of Corni, Botoşani County

Bibliografie:

The Romanian text belongs to the teacher Alexandru Vasiliu from“Octav Băncilă” School in The Village of Corni, Botoşani County.

Textul în limba română îi aparţine profesorului Alexandru Vasiliu, de la Şcoala Gimnazială „Octav Băncilă” Corni, Judeţul Botoşani.