The "religious"
carols contain popular legends of God end they are of ten imbued with pagan
elements. God and the Saints are personified: God as an old shepherd with
a white beard, playing the flute as he watches a flock of sheep; Got and
St. Peter dressed as beggars are driven out of the house of the rich, and
the apocryphal content of the latter has determined the churchmen to try
to remove them.
The
Star-songs, whose poetical contents is inspired by the Scriptures,
were created to that end. Poor in artistic images, they differ from the
genuine folk creations both in language and style. Their melodies and rhythms
draw them nearer to the pious Christmas hymns of the West. Here and there,
as in the western part of Oltenia for instance, the texts of the Star-
songs appear to have borrowed ancient carol melodies. Persistently diffused
by the Church and old time schools, the star-songs have achieved a certain
popularity. They are, as a rule, sung by children carrying a paper star
painted and sometimes illuminated from within. This blending of creations
pertaining to two different cultures have much contributed to the false
conception which certain people still have of the "colinde", considering
them as a whole to be religious, mystical, etc. The aim of the carols is
to greet and to praise in an allegoric way those to whom they are sung.
Hence their specialisation, here and there, into carols for a young man,
for a young girl, for a newlywed couple, for a shepherd, for a hunter,
for a fisherman, etc.
Reaming the village from
house to house, play on flute and drum the "Song of the drum". On this
melody is superimposed a carol for a young man, which the carollers sing
as they march. The "Dube" (drums) also accompany certain carols from the
other villages of our county. The poem tells gracefully of a young shepherdess
who wanted to pluck a flower in bud. The flower advises her to wait till
it blossomed, to adorn herself with it and to dance the "hora" with it:
as its petals will be scattered and tossed about by the winds so
will her beloved be tossed about by his thoughts of her.
The luck –visit of The
Plough, (Little Plough) is a very ancient fertility rite performed
on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. A long recitation in verse representing
allegorically the whole work of the field, from the ploughing to the kneading
and baking of rolls of pure cornflower is intoned against a background
of sounds produced by the bellowing of a friction drum called bull ("buhai").
Also it is added sometimes the melody of flute or other musical instruments:
Our plough works
wonders
It has four or five coulters
Sharpened, tempered
Sharp and cutting,
Never sleeping
And where it passes it leaves
A soft and fertile furrow;
And where it furrows!
The field laughs and blooms!…
Among the masked dances
performed during the winter feast, the most remarkable are “Capra”
(Goat) and Vicleimul (Nativity Drama),
emblem of fecundity. This custom, whose magical significance has become
lost during the course of time, consists of the dance of a masked man generally
representing a goat or a stag. The muzzle of the mask is made of two pieces
of wood covered with hare-skin.
Many of the midwinter musical
customs nowadays find excellent means of diffusion through the activities
of organized artistic groups, whether amateur or professional.