The Mushroom game

The traveler who rests in Oas Country has to be all eyes and ears. Everything that happens around them appears under the shape of a spectacle played by actors who appear to have landed here for centuries and remained unchanged. Natural in all that they do, the people seem to belong to a different breed.

Theyr ancestors invented the natural, and the nowadays people who live in Oas have the sacred duty to preserve it. The heritage left by the free dacs is but far ritcher. No doubt, the Oas Country is unique. I don’t believe here to be anything left randomly. In love with life and “palinca”, people from Oas couldn’t forget the cheerfulness and happiness. Their style goes far away even to self irony.

The musical folklore is for the famous zone’s match, with mysteries and riddles. The sacred mixes with the profane, but for someone who doesn’t know it is impossible to brake the lock crafted by the cunning ancestors.

Doomed to failure is also the attempt to capture in a few lines aspects from the musical folklore of the zone. Every dance is a real demonstration, in front of which you can only be amazed. Reason to celebrate can always be found. One of these people’s wonders is the Dance at the Mushroom, organized at great celebrations. It bares this name from the wooden gazebo in which the crowd gathers dressed in traditional clothing.

Dancing folk in Certeze - 1988

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The gazebo is by no means a rudimentary construction. Built by the village craftsmen, it over consists in folkloric motives. The wood obeys the craftsmen and the dancers respect the wood in its final shape. The shape of this temple of the dance is circular, exactly like a mushroom’s hat. The number 0, the sign of the circle, are representations of the Absolute, symbolizing the approach to Divinity, to the sacred.

The dance depicts a perfect round dance. The shape of a round dance is, of course, the circle. The central point of the circle, the most important one from the infinity of points, is represented by the violin player. Placed in the middle, suspended above the dancer, he observes and coordinates the whole motion.

His role becomes one of connection between the mass of people and the absolute. The violin singer is never taunted; in extreme cases, the only thing that gets harmed is the violin. The lad dances to impress the girls. A good violin singer has to know almost 300 dances.

The men dominate the ritual, being the first to step into the Mushroom. The girls watch them blushing from the side of the road and each lad asks his chosen one to dance with a shouting: “Mary, will you dance with me?” The answer is not a verbal, but a gesture.

One by one, the girls enter the dance and the round dance becomes larger. The ones left outside watch the dance and can’t intervene in any way. The village elders have their place on the side of the gazebo. They are by no means ignored. Nostalgic, they watch the youngsters who “stole their craft” years ago. Their word weighs heavy; sometimes it can even have the value of a sentence.

The village elders thus become the members of a high jury. After reaching perfection, the dance becomes eternal. The round dance flows under the eyes of the tourist who, unused, tries a weird sensation, not described. At given intervals, the dancers cheer. Cheering is a shouting only here encountered. In fact, it represents the transforming of the shouting into art.

The dance ends and unfortunately there is no promise of an immediate start of it all over again. The custom is dying and the tourist who assisted can consider himself a lucky one indeed. Today, only the great celebrations represent an occasion to gather and dance. But for as long as there will be palinca and cheering people, the gazebo will breathe under the touch of the dancers.

Alexandru Olaru