The children from Sanpetru wished for peace on Christmas
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The commune Sanpetru is part of the metropolitan area Brasov and formerly it used to be a town in Tara Barsei and there are documents from old to latest accounting for its past. This historical settlement lies at the foot of hill Sanpetru, considered to be the highest from Tara Barsei. 4-5000 years old lacustrine square and round housing were found, and the main food of the inhabitants used to be the fish from Olt river.
Revived history
"We currently carry out a promotion project for the tourism potential of commune Sanpetru. Historic research activities were carried out in this place and much information about the past of commune Sanpetru and its legends resulted from here. Painted and tattooed clay idols were found on the Cheese Hill from Sanpetru. Documents about the customs and traditions of the people living in this area, both Romanian and German, were found, as well as traces of the Teutonic knights and a small monograph containing 10 pages for writing, the contents being a landmark for future works," said Ion Rusu, the Mayor of commune Sanpetru.
Letter for Santa Claus
The Romanian language copy-book of student Manoliu C. Elena from the 4th grade was found in the archives of the elementary school from the commune. In this document a few of the customs organized on the occasion of the holidays in commune Sanpetru from 1943-1944, during the Second World War, were written down. The student mentioned, among others, the joy of the first flakes of snow bringing the long waited Christmas holidays and told how she used to wait for Santa Claus with the bag packed with gifts, but not to forget to "bring peace", her parents and brothers in the war.
Fragment from the copy-book
Here is a small part of the student's copy-book notices (May 11th 1944): "The New Year's Eve comes after Christmas. Meanwhile the children make the "buhai" (a kind of a drum), whips and prepare their bells. On New Year's Eve, as well as on Christmas Eve there is a lot of roistering. From time to time, one can hear "buhaiele" and the whips snap, and the bells jingle. Nobody sleeps all night long. Some families gather at one place to bury the year and especially where there is a radio. The girls go to the fountain with an egg in their hands and if they break it they will see their beloved...".
