Paper short abstract:

In the northern part of Romania, people still wear traditional clothing on festive occasions. The presentation will investigate the forms and meaning of two different types of traditional clothing, one considered to be used only on important festive occasion, and one used on any festive occasion.

Paper long abstract:

Maramures is a region situated in the northern part of Romania, where the local tradition has an important dynamic. People still wear traditional clothing on festive occasions (every Sunday, on feasts or celebrations, but also on festivities and festivals). During the years, the traditional clothing composition has changed, some pieces of clothing have been abandoned, and new ones have been included. The best example is the women's traditional dress that, for the old type of costume, which ethnographers deemed typical of the region, the long white shirt is covered by two aprons, locally called "zadii", and which were woven with stripes of different colours (black and red, or black and yellow etc.), corresponding to different communities and different age categories. At the beginning of the 20th century, these two aprons and the white part of the long shirt covering the lower half of the body have been replaced by a cashmere made dress, locally called "sumna", with flowery patterns (complying with a special generational code), an object that was first described in 1925 by the Romanian ethnographer and dialectologist, Tache Papahagi. This dress has replaced and taken up the meaning of the former "zadii". The presentation will focus on the contemporary meanings and uses of the two different customs, as revealed, mainly, by the members of the communities themselves. The paper is based on an ethnological research made in three villages from Iza Valley (Maramures), during the years 2001-2013.