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You have probably heard of Bucovina hospitality. Add to that dancing and good cheer with a local folk group or enjoy the local traditions and habits full of meanings.
Bucovina is a place where popular Romanian traditions have preserved their purity. Even the air is cleaner here, being one of the most green areas of the country. The region retains the mark of the Austro-Hungarian civilization as a result of its inclusion in the Habsburg Empire in 1775.
They say that the winters are the most beautiful here in Bucovina. But the joy of the real feast is, here, Easter. The celebration of Holy Easter is an occasion of great joy for the people of Bucovina and begins long before, with Flowers’ Sunday. It is said that as the weather will be on Flowers’ Sunday, so will it be on Easter, and if frogs come out on Flowers’ Sunday, then the summer will be beautiful.
The month of December is full of religious events, ancient traditions and winter customs, which have withstood the passage of time, being taken over as such or adapted to modern times. At Christmas and New Year, we go through a whole ritual of such traditions, among which carols, star songs, various greetings and shouts of Ploughusor, which vary from one region to another, and even from one village to another, stand out. In Bucovina, probably, most events related to the Winter Holidays have been preserved.
Groups of carol singers go to people’s houses to wish them health, fruitfulness and abundance of crops, growth and luck in their personal lives, accompanying all these messages with whips, bells, and boos, driven by the leader of the procession, called vátaf. In villages with tradition, the pilgrims are dressed according to the local specifics (itari, embroidered shirts, belts and chemires, sumanas, ornamented husks), accompanied by folk musicians who walk beside the plough pulled by oxen or horses. From the set of traditional winter events, the mask games are not missing, a famous custom in Bucovina, with animal or human characters: the goat, bear, horse, goat, buck, babes, soldiers, gypsies, the doctor, the salesman, etc.
In many villages in Bucovina, the last day of the year is full of traditional events, presenting the most interesting customs: the Game of the Bear and the Goat, the moments with “Urăţi” and “Bunghieri”, other games with masks specific to the area.
If you will be our guest for Easter, Christmas or New Year, you will enjoy the magic of the most important holidays over the year through a various range, extremely rich in artistic manifestations, literary, musical and choreographic folklore, which creates a real popular show.
Weddings in Bucovina are a story, because in the life of the Bucovina village, the wedding is an event of great complexity. This has multiple implications both in the life of an individual and in the life of the rural community. If you will attend a wedding in Bucovina, you will be delighted to observe old traditions such as: the petit, the invitation to the wedding, the bride’s table, the dowry game, bringing the bride in front of the grooms, forgiveness towards the parents, worship, the primary path. The forgiveness of the bride is an important stage in the wedding ceremony. The bride and groom must ask forgiveness from their parents, brothers, sisters, relatives, because they are leaving them, moving to another home. The bond between the two lovers is only seen well if they also have the consent of their parents.
At Casa Baciu you can also enjoy traditions in nature: you can take a walk with our carriage and taste a traditional polenta dish called “balmoș” at a nearby sheepfold.
