The celebration of Christmas is one of the year’s most popular and most eagerly-awaited celebrations. It is a time of traditions and customs, handed down from one generation to the next. The carol, the adorned fir tree, the episodes with religious motifs and the lavish meals are something usual all-around Romania, far and wide, mainly in the rural regions, there where customs and traditions are best preserved.
Located in northern Romania, Maramures is one of the most sought-after regions for people to spend the winter holidays. Our stopover today is an area made of twelve authentic villages, lying along the valleys of rivers Mara and Cosau; they are somehow embraced by the Gutai Mountains. The twelve villages make the Eco Maramures Destination. Welcoming us is manager Edi Pop.
“These authentic villages entice visitors to spend their winter holidays there. What does that mean? It just means visitors are enticed to be part of the village life. Tourists are expected, for Christmas and the winter holidays, to find out more about the local traditions and customs. There are a great many traditions that have still been preserved. There are those dishes typical for the winter holidays which the hosts prepare them with utmost care.
Since we are in a ecotourism destination and activities in nature are those we mainly offer for tourists, we invite them, the very moment they come to spend their winter holidays in the villages of Maramures, to take a walk along the streets of the village.
We invite them to discover the uniqueness of the place, to discover the wood civilization, the local architecture inside the villages and discover the hay culture in the villages’ surrounding areas. We shall find those hayfields, with hundreds of haystacks scattered there, which, at wintertime, create a fairy-tale scenery. “
At Christmas time, the old wooden churches become the main attraction of the Maramures village. Locals and tourists alike head towards the beautiful religious edifices with tall steeples.
“It is practically the main activity or attraction for tourists. They are invited to take part, alongside locals, in everything related to observing customs and traditions during the winter holidays. And they, if they turn up a little bit earlier as part of their Christmas package, can take part in pig slaughter on December 20 on Saint Ignatius feast.
The most interesting are Christmas and Christmas Eve since on the Eve of Christmas all houses are floodlit, all gates are open, children and youngsters go a- caroling from one house to the next, announcing Nativity. It is only after that when the Christmas celebration begins. They are rewarded, by the hosts, with Hogmanays, nuts and apples because until the Morning Star rises in the sky, the Maramures villages still observe Advent.
Everybody in the village dresses in traditional apparel. The tourists who are in their holiday destination are being dressed by the locals in traditional clothes and are asked to join them for the Nativity mass. There are loads of activities tourists can do at the end of the year. If we’re lucky enough to have snow, the horse-drawn sleighs are quite trendy. If we do not have snow, sleighs are being replaced by the wagons taking tourist to fairy-tale places, Maramures is beautiful with snow, yet it is also beautiful without snow. “
And, in all that dream scenery, standing out are the finely-carved gates, the fences of the house, all made of wood. With details on that, here is Eco Maramures destination manager, Edit Pop.
“The wood civilization or the story of wood, just as we’re wrapped it as part of a tourist offer, is somehow the cultural spine of the destination. Wood has been the raw matter at hand, of course, in the villages of yore. Of wood were made both the houses and the outhouses, of wood were made the carved gates. Of wood was made the braided fence and also of wood were made the churches, which make the cultural attraction of the villages in the destination.
Every village has a wooden church or there also are a couple of villages that have even two churches. We have very many tourists from the Nordic countries, from the United States, Australia, Israel. I don’t know how that happens, but there are quite a few of them, who come to get acquainted with Europe, and Maramures is never left out. They are fascinated with village life, there isn’t a single thing about which you can say they do not like. It is that spirit foo the place. It is a way of life, the way of life of the Maramures village that has still preserved its uniqueness.”
About the warm atmosphere of the winter holidays in Maramures, we also found out more from Father Valeriu Mircea Vana.
“There are also specific events. The Customs and Traditions Festival in Sighetu Marmației has reached its 55th edition. It is held in the this day of Christmas. Also, each guesthouse, but also the public authority, because they collaborate, try to offer joy since it is a celebration of family and of joy, a cozy atmosphere where people also take part in traditions, and everybody enjoys the culinary delicatessen.
Apart from that, there also is a part saved for the soul, the authentic part, the clean part. And that comes as an extra, apart from the visiting of the assets, as there are also cultural objectives, museums, wooden churches, the eight churches included in the UNESCO heritage list, the monasteries, and Maramures puts on its feast clothing. By all means, those who come will not regret it, but for that, they need to get in touch with people who are in the know, with specialists, if they want their experience to be unique, in a positive way. “
We also found out, from Father Valeriu Mircea Vana, about how important craftsmen are, at a time of celebration.
“Craftsmen are present as part of the holiday tourist packages. Not only is it important for us to participate in the show, but also we need to experiment, to carve a saucer ourselves. Here we have the art of weaving, the art of carving, the art of glass painting, the Dacian ceramic. You can take part on various workshops, for instance, in pottery-making workshops, not at professional level, though, but we can experiment. What we do, everyone of us, looks interesting, beautiful and we take this gift with us, back home.
After we pay a visit to a monastery of the UNESCO world heritage list, we move on to the interactive side, irrespective of the age. Children and adults alike, but also the elderly, can participate in a glass painting workshop. After that, we can get to know the cuisine, as well as the traditional outfit, as man’s relationship with the divine has always been eternal. We can thus find the motifs, the colours with their own symbolism. “
In Maramures you can also opt for accommodation in traditional houses, preserved just as they were over a hundred years ago. The interiors are specific while the windows are small, with the window frames made of wood. They are decorated with interior objects manufactured by the local craftsmen. They can be visited but they can also accommodate tourists, being examples of local initiative.
