The wedding from Tara Oasului represents one of the most spectacular elements of the traditional culture form of the north-western Transilvania, and it is also the most important habit in a traditional person’s life. Prepared in time by the youth and parents, this moment is polyvalent, having implications in the social life of the community, in the inheritance system of the wealth, in the economical life of the above mentioned families etc., constituting, in the first place, a passing by ritual, fact that supposes good established acts and gestures through the tradition: preparation of dowry, costumes, choosing the godfather, the call to the wedding, manufacturing the wedding flag, bulciugul, bakery, religious wedding, magic act for luck, feasting and collection of the gifts, all this associated with the call outs, poems songs and dances.
Some of the most important and symbolist ritual acts within the wedding from Oaş can be considered the following: decoration of the flag of the groom, fact accomplished by “steag” and “druste” (until 12), the flag having a special meaning in the course of the entire ceremony, especially in the nuptial one; the dressing of the bride is the moment with the most conspicuous characteristics of an “so long” ritual, as well as the last dance of the bride with the girls from the village, a dance in a circle, accompanied by special songs, or the last dance of the groom in circle of boys accompanied by the traditional violin and guitar, by “callouts” and “crying outs”; the good byes from parents called “bulciug”, are the occasion for the churchwarden to say the wedding orations, the exchange of the knot-shaped breads or the „colacaria” is a ritual custom with a profound symbolic load, a special place in the Oas wedding having the „knot-shaped bread of the bride’s chicken”, in the arms of the young bride being brought a „cocon” who receives from her a knot-shaped bread, „for her to have only cocoons”, at the feast (large table), a special moment represents the calling and the gathering of the gifts (as response to the man with the flag) only at the groom’s house, moment coordinated by the man with the flag and the churchwarden, being a very good example of archaic prestige economy (of exchange).
As a whole the Tara Oasului wedding is a complex socio – cultural manifestation, a spectacular ceremonial in which a non initiated would have the opportunity of discovering the Oas tradition.
The important step of the Oas wedding, "the preparation" of the bride is a good bye ritual, a ritual of status change of the young girl. The basic elements of the head preparing are "the tail" of the bride, the crown and the decorations around the neck. "The tail" is a special way of braiding that holds entirely the hair of the young girl, being made by a professional woman within 10-12 hours. Before the braiding, the hair is oiled with pork fat and combed until it splits and then it is divided in three parts, held together at the end, and this way obtaining a real lace of hair with small parts around the face. The braiding is decorated with flowers and glass beads, and on top of the head putting the bride crown. The oldest type of crown is the one that had at the basis a row of silver coins, a wire support, wool buttons, mirror pieces, glass beads, end so on, fixed usually on three rows.
Around the neck, the bride wears a thick neckless, straight, made of glass beads of various colors and another one semicircular with small triangles. The colored glass beads complete the decoration of the neck, being a chromatic and decorative balance with the rest of the costume.