Saturday, February 17, 2024, was a big celebration at the Golești Museum. It was a day of șezătoare (social soiree), with good cheer, songs and dances, with shouts and stories, in the organization of the wonderful ladies from the Șezătoare Argeș-Mușcel, coordinated by Flori Buia. The guests came from beyond the mountains, bringing with them the beautiful costumes of Transylvania, with their elegance, sobriety and urban influences, an expression of the Romanian soul in a multicultural space. They honored us with their presence: Șezătoarea Scheii Brașovului, Șezătoarea Veneția de Jos, Șezătoarea Făgăraș, Șezătoarea Codlea, and Șezătoarea Sfântul Gheorghe.
The social soirees come from ancient times, when, in the countryside, women, girls, sometimes accompanied by boys over 18 and married men, gathered in the house of a worthy housewife to work together on the wool, hemp, linen or shirts with which he went to class in the spring. These meetings began with the Christmas fast and ended before the Easter fast. They were moments of community reunion, in which not only work mattered, but the opportunity to be together, to tell stories, to sing and to say jokes with meaning, to leave space and time for young people to get to know each other and fall in love, and parents the opportunity to set up incarcerations as dictated by social status and family interests.
Rediscovering the traditions, the art of sewing and needle-making, today’s generations have revived and updated the tradition of social soirees. On Saturday, in Golești, we had the opportunity to meet wonderful ladies, who skillfully handle the sewing needle, the spindle and the loom, who know how to sing and laugh, prepare delicious food and cakes. The invited guests entered the courtyard of the Golești mansion with song and good cheer, with wishes for the hosts who were waiting for them with bread and salt and welcome verses.
Once all the participants are gathered in the meeting room, Mr. Iustin Dejanu, the manager of the Golești Museum, emphasized the collaboration between the museum and Șezătoarea Argeș-Mușcel , in order to promote the traditional costume and to transmit the art of the Romanian shirt to the younger generations. After Mrs. Flori Buia’s welcome speech, there was a service of blessing and thanksgiving by Laurentiu Bălășoiu, the parish priest of the Holy Trinity Church in Golești.
An emotional moment was the dance recital of the “Resteul” ensemble, coordinated by teacher Sorin Cioc. The school-age children who are part of this folklore group are our hope that the traditions will continue, that our folklore has continuity and will be preserved for the future. All the participants of the event got together in a large hall, in front of the Golești mansion, as a reminder of those moments in the 19th century when the young noblewomen (Zoe, Felicia and Anica Racoviță, the granddaughters of Dinicu and Zinca Golescu ) were dancing with the peasants of the village.
The Golești Museum thanks the ladies of Șezătoarea Argeș-Mușcel and the other similar groups in the country for the work dedicated to preserving and promoting the art of sewing and our ancestral folklore.
