Why  – The fairy tale Romania – Sanziene celebration?

In Romania, people keep in the rural areas, in those villages where time has patience and the new world can not find its place, old traditions and immortal stories. Sanziene celebration is one of those. In correlation with the symbolism of this festive occasion we offer you a series of unique experiences in Romania.

What is so special about this seven days experience, Sanziene celebration?

1.                          In a village from Dacian times you will celebrate Sanziene as people did hundred of years ago you will taste delicious food, will wear old traditional clothes and will learn traditional dances and rituals.
2.                          You will discover how life is at the countryside, how animals are raised, how the land is cultivated and why the Romanian and the forest are twinned.
3.                          You will discover the old traditional crafts: pottery and sculpture and you will find out how they take further people’s identity.
4.                         You will see natural landscapes so beautiful and will be amazed by the way in which Romanian old villages find their place in the nature without altering its beauty.
5.                          For seven days you will eat organic, traditional food; it is said about Romania that it is “the Garden of the Virgin” and besides its special beauty, it is an unique environment for cultivating vegetables and fruits and for animal husbandry.
6.                          We have prepared for you a rich experience; besides the villages you will get to know the Romania of kings and rulers and you will understand how all the things and people of this country have cohabited. You will visit royal courts, castles, citadels and rulers’ hermitages.
7.                          …and the most important you will meet simple people but full of life and happiness, you will enter in their houses and households and will understand the charm of life in communion with nature and in harmony with time. You will have access to authentic Romania.

Where – The fairy tale Romania – Sanziene celebration?

You will spend a good part of your holiday in the traditional village Corbi, but you will also visit a number of special places.

Fairy tale places

Bucharest, Curtea de Arges town (the Royal Court, Curtea de Arges Monastery), Corbi village, Corbii de Piatra Monastery, Dracula’s Fortress (Poienari Fortress), Vidraru Lake and Dam, Stan’s Valley, Horezu area (Horezu pottery), Hurezi Hermitage, Polovragi Hermitage, Bistrita Hermitage, Polovragi Cave, the Mausoleum of Mateias, Rucar-Bran passage, Magura traditional area, Poiana Brasov ski resort, Brasov city, Peles Castle.

When – The fairy tale Romania – Sanziene celebration?

20th -26th of June

Description – The fairy tale Romania – Sanziene celebration

We, the Romanian, enjoy the happy moments that last over time; we like to give a meaning to everything, to bind strong our lives to the divinity, the nature and the beauty that surrounds us. This is why Sanziene celebration exists. It is a special celebration by its meaning, by its purity and by the moment of the year that it represents (the middle of the solar year).

Because this moment of happiness, celebrated for thousand of years sacredly in Romania has the power to inspire, we, the Pure Romania team together with La Blouse Roumaine have made a seven days story for you. This is based on Sanziene celebration and the reasons related to it.

On the mysterious night of Sanziene, heavens open and these magical beings may be seen. They are Sanziene, the priestess of the Sun, Beauty and Love. The Sanziene celebration is based on solar motifs, old before Christian era. This celebration of the summer solstice, the middle of the solar year, practically coincides with the Christian celebration John the Baptist’s Birth (six months after Christ’s birth).

Sanziene is an ode to life, is a celebration of happiness, beauty, hope and the blend of the sacred and the profane, the eternity and the transience. It is a celebration of symbols. On this occasion, in the traditional villages during the day before Sanziene the girls pick Sanziene Flowers and at night the young boys spin lit torches in order to cast away evil spirits and bring wealth and happiness.

You will see all these mysteries and many more in Corbi village from Arges county.

Daily schedule – The fairy tale Romania – Sanziene celebration

• Day 1 (Saturday, the 20th of June)

Route: Bucharest – Corbi (accommodation in Corbi village)

This is the day when you will arrive in Bucharest.

You will make a tour of Romania’s capital city.

In the afternoon you will go towards Arges county in order to get to Corbi village.

The day ends with a traditional meal with dishes specific to the area.

You will stay for a few days in a natural and clean environment, in a village old for thousand years; you will eat traditional dishes made only of organic ingredients.

On this day, after the traditional meal you will find out stories about Sanziene, about the meaning of this celebration and its implications. Unlike other mythical characters like Iele and Rusalii, Sanziene (Dragaice) are kind to people, bring fertility to crops, to married women, to birds and animals. They give scent and magical powers to the flowers, heal people’s diseases and sufferings and protect the crops from the weather. These mythical creatures exist under a name or another in all the nations’ folklore, not only in Europe, but on all continents.

• Day 2 (21st of June) – (accommodation in Corbi village)

Trip to Horezu

Route: Corbi – Curtea de Arges – Ramnicu Valcea – Horezu – Polovragi – Woman’s Cave – return to Corbi

What are you going to visit? – Hurezi Hermitage, Polovragi Hermitage, Polovragi Cave, Bistrita Monastery, a pottery workshop in Horezu (Horezu pottery), you will have lunch in Horezu area.

Horezu pottery is included in UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists being very special by its patterns, chromatic and production technique. You will try this pottery technique in a traditional workshop.

Also on this day you will visit Hurezi Hermitage which is bind to Constantin Brancoveanu, ruler of Wallachia who has enriched the national patrimony. It is very important here Brancovenesc architectural style which became an identity element for the Romanian people.

This is the day of the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. It is three days before Sanziene celebration. It is a crucial moment in the middle of the year under the sign of the fire, under the sign of the Sun.

Horezu pottery is based on a series of solar motifs. You will see here a number of correlations between the solar symbolism, Romanian folklore and Sanziene celebration.

• Day 3 (22nd of June) – (accommodation in Corbi village)

Route: Corbi – Curtea de Arges – Vidraru – return to Corbi

Activities:

In the first part of the day you will visit Curtea de Arges town (Curtea de Arges Monastery, the Royal Court etc.), then you will go to Stan’s Valley, Dracula’s Fortress, the Statue of Prometeu from where the panorama of Vidraru Lake can be seen.

Lunch – in the fortress area (Argeseana House)

Dinner – at Corbi

This is the day when you will visit the first capital city of Wallachia, you will see the first royal court and you will enter in the most famous and the most special monastery in Eastern Europe – Curtea de Arges Monastery built by Master Manole. Here you will find out about the creational myth and about Ana, the master’s wife who was buried alive in the church’s walls.

You will also get to the famous Dracula’s Fortress and climb 1400 steps so you can discover the beauty of the Carpathians’ nature. You will make a short trip in an area of a unique beauty.

This is the day when we will give a greater attention to the nature and will understand its bond with the Romanian people and the Sanziene celebration. Sanziana flower (Gallium verum or Gallium mollugo – depending on the white or yellow color of the flower) is a plant that grows on fields, with small flowers, full of pollen, beautifully scented, which blooms around the summer solstice during the ripening of the grains. It has numerous uses in medicine and cosmetics. That is why the Romanian mythology gave it mystical properties. It is used in the magical practices performed on the night before Saint John the Baptist celebration. If a young girl places it under her pillow that night she would surely dream about her destined one. If they put the flower in their hair or in their blouse, both girls and women will become more attractive and loving. If they wash their face at dawn with the dew fallen on Sanziene or bathe in a river they will become more beautiful.

•  Day 4 (23rd of June) – (accommodation in Corbi village)

Traditional life and Sanziene celebration

Route: Corbi village

You will visit the old church (Corbii de Piatra Monastery), you will enter in a household, discover traditional activities, you will attend the ritual of gathering hay and you will pick Sanziene flowers.

This is the day when you will discover what Pure Romania means, what is the charm of the communion with nature, of living far from urban agitation, of nature caressing, of old traditions which inspire and guide you further.

For the peasants this day is very important for weather forecast. In the popular belief it is said that if it rains on Saint John the Baptist celebration day or after Sanziene celebration, it is inauspicious because in the next 40 days it will rain ceaseless. On this night one has to surround the house, the grain fields, the meadows and the stables with lit torches so the next year would to be richer. At the same time people make strong noises during the night in order to cast away the evil spirits.

Another custom is the traditional solstice bathe (21st of June) or the bathe for Saint John the Baptist celebration day (24th of June). It must be performed in a river and it is believed that it washes away all the sorrow and distress from former year. It also helps to fulfill all the wishes for the next year. There is also a custom of a ritual bathing for staying in good health. For this ritual are chosen special places, waters from the wilderness.

Sometimes small boats with candles are let to float on water. It is used to jump over the cleansing fire. It is believed that who will passes through fire or jumps over it in that night will be purified and during the next year he will be protected from evil spirits and diseases and will be happy.

• Day 5 (24th of June) – (accommodation in Magura, Magura guesthouse)

Route: Corbi – Campulung – Dambovicioara – Ciocanu, Sirnea, Magura

You will visit the Mausoleum from Mateias, Dambovicioara Cave and will make a short route to Magura

Lunch – Rucar-Dambovicioara area

Dinner – at Magura

In Romania there are a lot of places like heaven, but Rucar-Bran area is indeed a wonder. It is a wide passage crossed by valleys and depressions, bordered by two spectacular mountain ridges. This area allowed the rise of fairy tale human settlements.

•  Day 6 (25th of June) – (accommodation in Sinaia)

Route: Bran Castle, Rasnov, Brasov, Peles.

You will visit: Bran, Rasnov Citadel, Brasov city, Peles Castle.

This is the day on which you will discover a little bit of Romanian medieval history, but also royal patrimony elements – Peles and Pelisor castles.

Also during this day you will get to Bran, the famous castle of Dracula. Here we will talk about the stories about famous Vlad Tepes (Dracula) and will find out a series of historical data.

•  Day 7 (26th of June) – Bucharest + departure

The end brings melancholy, but we believe that this seventh day will actually be a beginning, that moment in which you realize that you have lived a different experience, that you have enjoyed it, that it has brought you peace and that you will come back. In other words, this is the day when you will build a relation with these places which you will see from time to time. It is actually the beginning of other visits.

Includes: 6 accommodations in beautiful, traditional guesthouses, three meals a day with drinks included, trasnportation, entrance to museums and cave, tour guide, a celebration evening – Sanziene night, renting of traditional Romanian costumes, workshops (traditional activities).