Hi Everyone,
Winter has decided to stay, but the roads were good to drive on and get around and the almost full moon helped light the way home tonight.
Thank you Lauren for opening up for us. :-)
For 13 years we have been dancing Mascaţii during the months of November and December. Every year we relearn it! :-) You can watch Eva dancing Mascații, which is from Suceava, North of Moldova, Romania; - when she taught this dance at Steam and Stomp 2016.
Eva and Max learned it from Sonia Dion and Cristian Florescu during a cruise, (From Boston to Montreal,) organized by Yves Moreau in 2011. Here's the Sylibus from Stockton Folk Dance Camp, 2012; where Sonia and Cristian taught this dance: 
This dance is typically danced between Christmas and New Year.
I looked up Mascatii, and that word translated from Romanian to English means Mask. A nice website by Florin Andreescu, found this information:
At Winter Solstice
Mascaţii (the masked men) use animal-like masks, sing, dance and generally make a clamor to scare away evil spirits ahead of the new year.
Their dance symbolizes the fight between good and evil, between light and darkness, mimicking nature’s transformation at Winter Solstice.
Thus, by scaring away evil and darkness they help the Sun win and thus bringing a good year.
“Candles lit up the night sky,
Old men ring bells in the valley,
Masks are caught in ancestral dances,
And the carolers are coming…
Leru-i Ler”
(Anotimpurile Luncaviței – Petru Bruma)
See this video (by @obiceiuri.suceava) on Stanley R. Fields' Instagram page. See a man dressed up like a Wookey! Maybe this Romanian tradition inspired Star Wars costume designers!
Stanley R. Fields" "Do masks hide or reveal? Across Romania, as the year gasps its last icy breath, the Mascaţii—masked figures both beguiling and terrifying—spill out into villages and towns alike, their wild procession a spell woven through cobblestone streets and frostbitten squares. This is not mere revelry but an ancient dance of dualities: of chaos and order, light and shadow, the human and the divine. Clad in fur, feathers, and macabre masks of twisted wood and bone, they move with an otherworldly purpose—warding off evil, shaking the slumber from winter’s bones, and clearing the way for the new year’s first tender breath. "The origins of the Mascaţii are shrouded in mist, whispered through centuries of folklore that blends pagan cosmologies with Christian symbolism. In this ritual theater, masks are not simple disguises but talismans—manifestations of ancestral fears and hopes. Some mimic animals: the bear’s primal strength, the goat’s stubborn tenacity, the wolf’s cunning. Others evoke spirits—grotesque, spectral, otherworldly faces meant to terrify malign forces into retreat. In towns like Piatra Neamț or Suceava, the spectacle becomes a public exorcism, a vivid drama performed before crowds whose laughter mingles with awe. These masked rites are rooted in agrarian cycles and solstice mysteries, bound to the belief that the liminal spaces between seasons are fraught with danger—and potential. "But there is more than protection in their frenzied movements and clamorous songs. The Mascați are philosophers of the grotesque, reminding us that renewal requires confrontation. The clamor of cow bells and cracked whips, the guttural chants and frenetic dances, serve as an invitation—and a challenge. What lies beneath the masks you wear? And, when the music stops, will you have the courage to take them off?" |
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Dances 12-06-25
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- Connie
- Denise
- Dianne
- Don
- Eryn
- Eva
- Isaac
- Jon
- Lauren
- Max
- Molly
- Roger
- Rose
- Russ
- Ruth
- Sam
- Sharon
Until next time,
Roger