Another year, another
chapter to be written in my life. Mihail Pandrea, Braila, Romania, studying
Architecture at Northumbria University.
Taking a quick
retrospective at 2015 I must say that it was the peak of my decision-taking
skills, choosing to move to England, where I found my second home. New city,
new life, new friends, new atmosphere, new things to learn, Newcastle upon Tyne.
For me, synonym to the year that just past was NEW.
My first semester
kick-started with few projects, making me find out that being an architecture
student requires a continuous flow of creativity and hard work. Later, I found
out that the first projects were nothing but a quick warm-up for the ones to
follow, bigger and bolder ones. Beginning with a quick urban sketch, followed
by few serial visions inspired by the urbanistic beauty of Newcastle, and ending the semester with a
massive project, that used our imagination at most, requiring to build a house
after resuming our lecture of Italo Calvino’s invisible cities to only three
words to get inspired by.
I will not lie about
counting the days to holiday, because even if I got used to the new stage of my
life, I missed them from the first day I left, we all do, and last but not least,
I can not imagine winter holidays without my family.
I have reasons to
state that holidays strictly relate to family. At least that is how it is in
Romania. A country bursting with tradition, on each and every level, but during
this time of the year, it seems like everything tastes, sounds, looks, smells
and feels better.
Gastronomical Tradition:
One reason for you to
visit Romania, is food. Trust me! We usually have traditional menus that we can
eat each and every day such as “ciorba” which is a kind of a sour soup made of
a variety of ingredients. We have “ciorba de burta”-beef belly soup, “ciorba de
oase” – pork/beef bones soup, “ciorba de perisoare” – meatballs soup, and so
on. Further on, we eat a lot of meat traditional specialities, but the most
known ones are:
Caltabos – a sausage made
of pork chitterlings, rice and spices.
Toba – a mix of minced pork liver, kidney, tongue and
meat pressed and covered in a pork stomach
Leber – Romanian version of “foie gras”
Carnati – Saussages made with a specific amount of fat
and a special/traditional mix of spices
Sarmale – minced meat rolled in matured cabbage leafs and
cooked in ceramic vase
Salata Beuf – salad made of minced vegetables and pickes
with meat and dressed with home made mayonnaise
Racitura – pork/chichen/turkey jelly
When talking about desert we do also have some
traditional cookies called “cornulete” and a very traditional sweetbread filled
with cocoa cream, nuts and Turkish delight, which is called “cozonac”. But the
main tradition regarding sweets is in the New Year’s Eve when we eat cheese pie
in which we spread some little letters with predictions for the New Year and we
call it “placinta cu ravas”.
Carolling tradition:
Carolling tradition
in Romania is ancient, having its origins from the early times of Dacia (Tracia).
Even if a specific date can not be stated regarding the apparition of carols,
the poetic content of carols point to the fact that hey come from the deepest Christian
and Romanian history times, more exactly from the 1st century, in the times
when St. Andrew was spreading the Gospel lessons in south eastern area of what
we call today Romania.
The carols represents
the popular and artistic echo of church liturgies.
Every single child in
Romania goes carolling all the members of their families and then go trough
their shire or city to spread the Christmas Christian message, to other
families and friends.
Me and my brother
were respecting the tradition since the age we could first sing, and we still
do as this year we went singing and carolling to everyone we thought about.
New Year’s Eve
Traditions:
Last but not least,
we also have few New Year’s Eve traditions such as always having money in your
pocket in this day, so the new year will not catch you without, or, for
example, in Romania, we always eat fish on this specific night because
tradition says that you will act in the new year exactly like what you eat in
the first hour of the year. Fish swims always forward and it is very agile,
also, it is a symbol of Christianity. Last but not least, kiss your soulmate at
midnight so the year that comes will carry you together to the next year’s eve.
Thanks for reading!
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