POTD 3: Moldovan Legends

I love the patriotism here. Blue, yellow, and red are everywhere. There are all sorts of ways Moldovans celebrates their country. They have a day to celebrate the colors of the flag. At school, at any formal event, they wear a tricolor (a ribbon of the three colors of flag with a pin). The Moldova flag is everywhere. During my service, Criuleni constructed this flag pole and garden area for the Moldovan flag.

But one of my favorite parts is how there are stories behind the meaning of everything. There’s a legend of Criuleni and its name; there’s a legend of Moldova’s name; there’s a legend of the aurochs symbol on the coats of arms and flag. And the nerd I am, I love hearing/reading them. So here’s the legend of Moldova:

Dragos - The Sun of Maramures

There was a young man Dragos, a son of the local ruler in Maramurus. Having heard of Negru-Voda's success, Dragos longed to be just as brave and as great since early childhood. He grew up to become a strong and beautiful ambitious young man. His beauty was the reason why the people gave him the nickname "the Sun of Maramures". His dream was to become the Ruler of the Country of Romania. But with his father still feeling capable of carrying out his duty, Dragos couldn't even think of becoming the Ruler of Maramures in the near future.

Often he would gather a team of his mates and would go hunting throughout the lands of Maramures and other counties for days and even weeks. His real intent was to meet the people of these lands and make friends and connections in the nearby districts. But hunting was always a high priority too as he never came back without a good catch.

The Hunt

During one of such 'hunts', Dragos came across a doe, so beautiful that no one had ever seen anything like it before. Dragos decided to chase it. They raced like mad - many times they nearly caught it, but still it managed to get away. They could easily shoot and kill it, but Dragos wanted the doe alive and unharmed as it possessed a divine beauty.

At one point, the doe vanished into the thin air. Despite this, Dragos continued the pursuit in hope to find it. The hunt led them far away to the east from their home - to the other side of the Carpathian mountains, but Dragos didn't want to give up and carried on.

God's Messenger

During the chase they came across a glade that looked as if it was in heaven. On the glade, a beautiful young girl was picking flowers and singing a song. The sight of the girl made Dragos forget about the hunt, the doe, and everything else. He dismounted and approached the girl: “Who are you? Are you a mortal or an angel or a fairy?”

The girl replied: “You don't know who I am and never will, but I know that you are Dragos, The Sun of Maramures, and I'm here to advise you. Give up your hunt and the doe and go to the Valley of Siret (a river in Romania). There are Romanian domains there and God has chosen you to spare the people from the rage of the Tatars and be their master. But there is one thing you must do first”.

“What thing?” Dragos asked.

“You must kill the furious aurochs that is roaming these lands unpunished. Take its head and show it to the people. And then all Romanians will gladden, praise you and will say: 'Long live Dragos the Great and Strong!”

That was all that the girl said. Dragos, glad that his dream was about to come true, wanted to hug the girl but she vanished just like the doe...

The Battle

So there he was, the Sun of Maramures, ready to face the bloodthirsty beast. He didn't have to go far to find the aurochs. The beast was as wild as a wolf, but much bigger and much more ferocious. It had a strong body and legs that could carry it with the speed of arrow and sharp horns as tough as steel.

As soon as the aurochs had spotted Dragos, it turned around to face the warrior and bowed its head showing the sharp horns. Dragos, not intimidated by the aurochs’ threatening position, squeezed his spiked cudgel harder, raised it above his head and, when the aurochs approached, hit it on the head between the horns with all his strength. The aurochs screamed so loud that, it seemed, the end of the world had come. Then, it turned around and started running away from Dragos, who immediately engaged in the chase to finish off the beast.

After an exhaustive chase, Dragos caught up with the animal and hit it again a couple of times until the beast dropped dead. Then, Dragos took out his war axe and cut the aurochs’ head off, which he took to the people of that land.

The people praised Dragos, just as the girl had predicted, and the rulers of that land decided to unite under his rule just like Romanian rulers united under the rule of Negru-Voda on the other side of the mountains.

Moldova’s Name

Dragos had many hunting dogs, but one he favoured the most - the smartest and the best at hunting, whose name was Molda. He had had the dog for a long time and it was very devoted to him. But it grew old by the time of Dragos' adventures. During the chase after the buffalo Molda jumped into a stream but didn't manage to get ashore and drowned. Dragos missed the dog a lot and, to give the animal the credit, decided to name the country after it - Moldova, or the Country of Moldova.

Legend of Criuleni

Today, my students told me the legend of Cruileni. It doesn’t quite feel complete, but here is what I understood: There were two teenage lovers named Crio and Leana. Their parents forbid the two to be together, so Crio and Leana ran away to the Nistru River. One day, they were swimming in the Nistru River during a storm and they drowned. At this place, the town of Cruileni was started, and it was named after the two lovers.

Moldova Lessons

One nice thing about being a schoolteacher is the textbooks have sections for the students to learn about Moldova. I really like it because it often has basic information about Moldova that is not talked about in everyday conversation. And sometimes it has an explanation about the history or meaning of symbols I see around her. I think I’m more eager to learn this stuff than they are.

So today, I learned about the Capitoline Wolf monument. I’ve seen this statue in Chișinău and other cities in Moldova. The copy of old Etruscan Sculpture with image of she-wolf breastfeeding the founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, was installed in the late 80 in front of the Museum of History of Moldova. The sculpture symbolizes the Latin origin of Romanian Bessarabia. The sculpture pedestal is engraved a quote from the famous Romanian poet, Mihai Eminescu, about the origin of Romanian nation.

Romulus and Remus are Rome's twin founders in its traditional foundation myth. They are descendants of the Trojan prince and refugee Aeneas, and are fathered by the god Mars or the demi-god Hercules on a royal Vestal Virgin, Rhea Silvia, whose uncle exposes them to die in the wild. They are found by a she-wolf who suckles and cares for them. The twins are eventually restored to their regal birthright, acquire many followers and decide to found a new city.

According to a legend, after a flood, Romulus and Remus were found and suckled by a she-wolf (Lupa) and fed by a woodpecker (Picus). My partner teacher tells me the statue represents the Latin languages. And since Moldova’s official language is Romanian, they honor the statue.

So maybe it’s kind of nerdy, but I really like learning about Moldova. So I try to use that curiosity in classroom, and I ask the students to teach me about Moldova. I think they really like the idea of students teaching a teacher.

Marțișor

Marțișor: the first day of spring. Today is a celebration of the rebirth of life after the hard winter. And Moldovans celebrate by giving loved ones marțișors. “Marțișor” literally means ‘little March’, and they are symbols of serenity and happiness. They are small pins with red and white thread sewn together. Some have flowers, others have something crocheted out of the red/white thread. Here is a picture of some of the marțișors I received.

The receiver of a marțișor wears it until the end of March. When March is over, the receiver puts his/her marțișors onto a blossoming tree as a way to acknowledge the onset of spring. Someone who gave me a marțișor also told me that putting the marțișor on a tree would guarantee me many healthy children in the future.

There is a legend behind marțișor. An old Romanian legend says that once in a fight with Winter Witch who didn’t want to give up its place, the beautiful Lady Spring cut her finger and a few drops of her blood fell on the snow. There, the snow melted and a snowdrop flower grew. In such a way, the spring won the winter.

Meșterul Manole

Today in Criuleni, there was a celebration called Meșterul Manole. It is an international folklore festival, with groups from Lithuania, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, and Başchiria dressed in authentic folkware. This year is a particularly important celebration because it is the 20th year of independence for Moldova.

There were a lot of venders selling all kinds of things: paintings, beaded jewelry, pieces of lace knitting and crochet, woodworks, and other kinds of handmade crafts. It was all very impressive. Doamna Parascovia had a booth as well; she was selling her knittings.

In addition to the venders, there was a lot of dancing, which was my favorite part. Each ethnic group did a performance of some kind on the stage. I often found myself bopping along to the music before realizing that people might notice me. But it didn’t matter because there were many people who danced to the music in the middle of the square. I really enjoyed hearing the music and watching the dancing. 

I wanted to know what the festival was named after, so I looked up the legend of Meșterul Manole. There are some differences between different sites, but this seems to be what I saw the most.

In Romanian mythology, Meşterul Manole (roughly meaning “the master builder Manole”) was the chief architect of the Curtea de Argeş Monastery in Wallachia. The myth of the cathedral's construction is expressed in the folk poem Monastirea Argeşului ("The Monastery on the Argeş River"). 

Negru Voda wanted to build the most beautiful monastery in the country so he hired Master Manole, the best mason of those times, along with his 9 men. Some mysterious curse made that everything Manole and his masons were building in day-time, was doomed to fall down by night. Because the walls of the monastery were always crumbling, the prince threatened him and his assistants with death. 

Manole prayed to God for help in order to continue his work. His plea resulted in a vision in which he was told that, in order to build the most beautiful monastery, he had to wall in someone very beloved by him or by his masons. He told his masons about it and they agreed that the first wife who came there on the following morning should be the victim. The other masons warned their families, so Manole`s wife, Ana (who was pregnant) came first. 

A well-known fragment of the poem depicts the struggle the oblivious Ana took in order to reach the construction site. A devoted wife, she aimed to show up in time with her husband's meal. Manole would have been watching her from atop the walls, begging God to present her with all possible challenges. While God paradoxically listened, and unleashed all sorts of small-scale disasters, Ana kept on walking. She was sent by the destiny and built alive, with her unborn baby. She implored Manole to let her go, but he kept his promise. Thus the beautiful monastery was built and the curse vanished. 

When Manole and his masons told the prince that they could always build an even greater building, Radu Negru had them stranded on the roof so that they could not build something to match it. The action forced Manole and his team to build themselves wings out of shingles (the only material available to them) and attempt to fly off to safety. One by one, they all fell to the ground. A spring of clear water, called after Manole, is said mark the spot where Manole fell.