Dobrogea does not only mean the Romanian seaside as it is wrongly interpreted from a tourist point of view. Yes, the seaside represents one of the most important points of interest, just like the Danube Delta. But why wouldn't Dobrogean traditions become an experience ? Because too few decision-makers have asked themselves this question and sought an answer from their comfortable armchairs, I decided to promote on the funkytravel.ro platform small projects that can transform Dobrogea into a true EXPERIENCE.
Traditional Romanian holiday port in Constanța county
Discussions about the holiday costume of Dobrogean Romanians are either non-existent or extremely clumsy. We often hear the obsessive repetition of the idea of external influence in regard to festive clothing. The discussion related to the influence refers directly to the idea that there is a core, an "authentic" harbor core over which foreign elements have settled over time. It is often correlated with the idea of cultural contamination that is very present in the nationalist-Ceauşist discourse. The problem is the following, the costume did not have a linear evolution, rather we can talk about represented lives within certain eras. After which we have to think, what is the standard of authenticity? The mountain one? Each area evolved differently in terms of material culture. Dobrogea became a Romanian province in 1878.
And as we approach Easter, we decided that the first article taken from the platform https://studiuetnograficistru.wordpress.com/ should be about traditional holiday attire. Let's start with the ladies and gentlemen!
The Băneasa placket shirt worn with a fishnet, fez and scarf. The costume was worn at the end of the XNUMXth century, beginning of the XNUMXth century. The festive shirt was sewn on "chirachie" cloth woven in the house, the cloth representative of the area. The placket shirt was adapted following urban influences, being found in several regions. Its seams ranged from cuffs and placket to no seam. The traditional Romanian port from the Dobrogea region is not distinguished by the stitching, but by the woven fabric and the complex patterns of the petselcia (short).
The Romanian men's festive costume in the form of the picture above was captured and documented by ethnographers and anthropologists such as Elena Secoșan, Maria Bîtcă, Maria Magiru, and Eugen Pittard. Costume pieces collected from the fieldwork are on display in the folk art museums in Constanța and Tulcea.
Who are the two young people who bring the Dobrogean port to light
Iulian Mitran is involved in researching the oral and material culture of the Balkan area, focusing on the communities of Dobrogea and by extension southern Bessarabia. He has written numerous articles and studies on the cultural-material evolution of the populations of the Balkan area. He uses computerized three-dimensional construction techniques to reconstruct artifacts with ethnographic value. He is currently a doctoral student at the Doctoral School of Sociology at the University of Bucharest , working on a thesis on the intangible heritage of the Bulgarians and Gagauzians of southern Bessarabia. He attended the courses of the "Tomis" Technical College - construction design department. He graduated from the "Theodor T. Burada" Cultural Center in 2012, obtaining a diploma in interior decoration. He has over 10 years of experience in digital design, publishing transdisciplinary studies in the area of material heritage conservation, the most recent being through the Sringer publishing house, entitled Vernacular and Urban-Influenced Housing Types in Constanța County in the 20th Century. Other studies have also been published in specialized journals in Romania and abroad. Since 2017, he has been co-editor of the Journal of Ethnophilosophical Questions and Global Ethics, a German publication, being responsible for the content in the area of heritage studies. He currently holds seminars at the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work. Recent public appearances include participation in the Brăiloiu Workshops organized by the Institute of Ethnography and Folklore "Constantin Brăiloiu" of the Romanian Academy, presenting a study on the evolution of housing in Constanța County.
Simona-Elena Niculescu founded the traditional sewing workshops Sezătoare Constanța in January 2015. She deciphered sewing patterns specific to the Constanța area from the shirts exhibited at the Constanța Folk Art Museum and from the pictures from the old archive. She is also the founder of the Universal Day of Constanța event from 2014-2016 and Sânziene in Urban 2015-2016. Currently, he continues his activity as a researcher in the Dobrogea area of interest and reproduces the material invoice elements specific to the Constanța area.
If you want to discover the work of the two, follow the platform https://studiuetnograficistru.wordpress.com/ and the Facebook account https://www.facebook.com/login/?next=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FTraditionaldobrudja%2F
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