The County Council Brasov, the Centre for Conservation and Promotion of Traditional Culture Brasov and the Ormenis townhall organized at the beginning of June the traditional feast of Farsang. The carnival is a tradition of the Magyar community, talking about the resurrection of nature. People wear various human or animal masks, mocking the wedding and the engagement. Local girls help the boys to manufacture the masks, to adorn the horses and the allegoric cart that cross the village?s streets.
Noise against the Evil
As the mayor Gergely Janos said, ?the cultural and administrative authorities support this traditional feast, in order to conserve its authenticity. The deafening noise the procession make on the streets is meant to chase away the evil, the infertility, the dark and even the cold season assimilated to the temporary death of the nature. The inhabitants watch the procession as it cross the village, giving the participants donuts, money, eggs and brandy. Everything is excessive: the beverage and the noises to chase away the bad spirits and prepare the entrance in the new temporal cycle ? the Lent. The Farasng Ball closes the feast.
Masks ? a Way of Life
Much more than simple accessories used in this ludicrous manifestation, the masks are the sign of a fantastic world, issued from the traditional societies thinking, Romanian, Magyar or German.
Personifications of the ancestors? spirits, real or fantastic animals, spirits of the vegetation, the popular masks and the activities they are involved in represent a way of life, lost in the times fig, the modern man cannot understand anymore.