These are photos of what's left of a very old winter season tradition, the Bear Dance. Usually accompanied by gYpsies, the Bear Dance brought good fortune for the new years'. To train the bear, as the animal was not that a good dancer, they used hot coals thrown on the ground, so that the animal could lift his paws very fast while they were playing. After a while, the coals were no longer needed.
During the rest of the year, the bears for taken from town to town and village to village and were used to walk over people with back problems. Word was if such a bear would step all over one's back, one would no longer have back pains.
It turns out this wasn't only performed in Romania, as a recently found out it was also performed in Turkey and there is an onld Turkish movie on this subject. So I wouldn't be supprised if the neighbor country would know this dance.
These days they no longer use a real bear, a man is impersonating the wild animal, which is highly preferable to hot coals! It is still mainly performed by gypsies, or Roma minority, to be politically correct, and I think this tradition of theirs would use some promoting, as we all have almost forgotten it.
During the rest of the year, the bears for taken from town to town and village to village and were used to walk over people with back problems. Word was if such a bear would step all over one's back, one would no longer have back pains.
It turns out this wasn't only performed in Romania, as a recently found out it was also performed in Turkey and there is an onld Turkish movie on this subject. So I wouldn't be supprised if the neighbor country would know this dance.
These days they no longer use a real bear, a man is impersonating the wild animal, which is highly preferable to hot coals! It is still mainly performed by gypsies, or Roma minority, to be politically correct, and I think this tradition of theirs would use some promoting, as we all have almost forgotten it.
2 comments:
Very, very interesting! Why this very gracious dance is done în the dark?
It was evening when I took the pictures and not too much light. This was performed on an alley near my block.
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