De Secerat

YouTube Music Video Description (translated…needs some tweaks)

Suzana and Daciana Vlad are two sisters that time, in its impatience, decided to give birth to at once. They were born on May 8, in Săliștea de Sus, Maramureș county, they grew up in the same General School in their native village, they left under their mother’s wing to the Pedagogical High School in Sighetu-Marmației, during which time they met worthy people to bear his own name of OM. Daciana chose, further, the Faculty of Journalism at the UBB University in Cluj-Napoca, following her master’s studies at the University of Bucharest, the section ‘Ethnology, Cultural Anthropology and Folklore’ and now she is pursuing doctoral studies in History and Philosophy, within the University UBB. Suzana, studied at the ‘Gheorghe Dima Academy of Music’, following her master’s studies in the same university. Even so, the voice kept them together, collaborating with different ensembles: the Săliștea de Sus Ensemble led by Iuga Simion, the Mărțișorul Ensemble, of the House of Culture from Cluj Napoca and the Icoane Ensemble, led by maestro Ioan Bocșa. So far, they have brought to the public four discographical materials, one entitled ‘Moroșancă-s bine-mi šade’, with their own songs from Maramureș County, the second with carols, entitled ‘Mândru ninge-n asța săra’, the the third one ‘Maramureșu resuna cu Ardealu together’, in collaboration with their colleague Costel Popa, and the album number four is entitled ‘Bate ceasu’ nu sta-n loc’, and contains songs from their own repertoire.

Through this video ‘Dragu-mi-i a secera’, we tried to translate into images a small sequence from the work of the Romanian peasant: ‘SECERATUL’

• ‘The Wreath of Wheat’ is a show whose scene is the field and the village.
• I set out for the border with God’s will, with song, play and good cheer, but above all with the desire to work. Once they arrived at the hold, after the sign of the Holy Cross, the women took the sickles and started working, and the men bet for the sheaves.
• The wreath was made at the end of the reaping, from the most beautiful ears taken from the last sheaf or from a piece of wheat left unharvested.
• The braiding of the crown was done by young and beautiful girls, but also by older women, with the specification of the condition of ritual purity, by skilled women. During braiding, the girl faces the east.
• After the wreath was woven, it was offered to the most diligent of the girls who was present at the reaping, carrying it on her head to the host’s house, to the tunes of the ‘Wedding Song.’
• Once upon a time, on the way to the host’s house, the housekeepers came out of all the yards with water bottles and ran down the street to water the ‘wreath’, which, when it arrives home, looks like it was taken out of a river. At the gate of the house, also all those in the chief’s yard watered it so that the water flowed like the valley from it.
• Watering is an essential condition for the fulfillment of the function of the custom: ensuring the rich fruit by causing the rains in time but also the growth of the harvested wheat.
• Once they arrived at the host’s house, the procession was greeted by the host at the gate with a cake or bread and water to wet the crown: “God bless! / Stack as big as the house/ Table as big as Colacu [a village in Romania]!”
• The crown was taken by the host who placed it in the place of honor in the house above the table, and then, the good will surrounding the host, the ceteras singing the game until dawn.