Universitatea de tiine Agronomice i

Medicin Veterinar, Bucureti

Facultatea de Inginerie Economic n
Agricultur, Anul II

ReferateEnglez de afaceri
Corneci Diana Mihaela

Romanian wedding: traditions and

superstitions
A wedding in Romania can be one of the most
authentic and inspiring way to understand and see
with your own eyes.
There are no witnesses in Romanian weddings.
Instead, the bride and groom choose 1 or 2 couples
who they are especially close to and who will be
their "Godfather and Godmother". These couples
have to be married or about to be married and will
have the role of spiritual guiders and advisers of
the newly married couple. Next to the bride and
groom, they play the most important role in a
Romanian wedding: they participate in the religious
ceremony and, at the party, they sit with the bride
and groom at a separate table.
It is also a complex custom which has various
traditional forms all over the country and combines
religious, ritual and folkloric elements. The popular
"show" which is only used in certain rural sites as
globalization takes place is fabulous. The acts from
the marriage foundation are ritual and ceremonial
meant to bring prosperity, fecundity, happiness
and social integration to the young family. In this

moment the popular costume gains some specific

significances and the act of the ceremony is
composed from many customs: the well - wishing
at the bride's gate, the dowry dance in the bride's
yard and the parents forgiveness, then the
wedding at the groom's house, the gifts and the
bride's adorning.The musical repertoire is suitable:
"the dowry dance", "the big dance", "three times
around the table", "the bride's grief song", "the
bride's ring dance", "and the big ring dance".
At the church, the priest performs the orthodox
ritual ( in most cases ) . The ritual takes about 30
minutes and in it, the couple must listen to the
priest and his deacons who read from the Bible and
wish the married couple, in chanting voices, all the
best. The two grooms dont get to say anything. At
some point, they receive some bread to eat and
then some wine which symbolically represents the
body and blood of
Jesus . Because of the
traditionalist ways of the orthodox church using the
Bible learnings, the priest wishes them love and
happiness but also warns the wife to be submissive
and always follow her husbands decisions. In the
end, the couple, the parents and the godparents
have a round dance around a middle church table.

Depending on the regions it takes place , the

wedding can be even more specific which vary
from traditional dance to traditional popular
costumes and habits.
A Moldovian maxim says: "The person who has
failed to build a home, to raise a son, to dig a well
and to plant a tree has wasted his life". The
traditional wedding party is magnificent in its
arrangement, and intense from the moral ethical
point of view. The singing and dancing continues
until the daybreak. At dawn everyone sits down for
a minute and the bride is given a child to hold in
her arms. According to tradition, the bride will then
be sure to have a home full of children. The young
husband then leads her to the threshold of their
house. But before they step over the threshold the
couple is showered with grain - a sign of prosperity.
The wedding in Maramures has a unitary
structure and as most important sequences, the
asking-in-marriage, the "belief" (engagement) and
the wedding. The secondary characters, but with a
very important position within the ceremony are
the "callers" to the wedding, the bridesmaids, the
"socacita" (chief-cook), the "man with the larder",
the musicians, the group of the lads and the
wedding guests. The rituals preceding every

sequence or level represent the picturesque of the

traditions. For example, on the night before the
wedding (which is called "the flag evening") the
"flagman ", accompanied by a group of lads and
musicians goes to the groom's house with the flag.
Here they start dancing a certain ritual "flag
dance", with the adequate witty couplets.
In Transylvania , he wedding dress of the
maidens was a proof that the girls knew to sew and
weave, which was a very important condition for
marriage. The wedding is a performance with wellestablished rituals. Poetry, song, dance and
ceremonial costumes all have a detailed role in the
wedding ceremony. Dance forms, especially for the
young people, are an essential part of the wedding,
as well as the birth ceremonies. One dance, called
a "hora" marks the decisive moments of the
ceremonial. It is a seal of the marriage contract.
Very rarely , wedding ceremonials in Romania last
for three days. The final day ends with a "dance of
masks."

Some Romanian superstitions for the

wedding day:

Rain means luck in marriage

The bride should cry before the weeding so she
would be happy in her marriage
It is a good sign if a relative sneezes before the
ceremony
On the wedding day, no woman should stay
between the bride and the mirror. If this happens
it means that the other woman could steal the
grooms heart
A spider found in the creases of the dress
means good luck
To drop the wedding rings means death
No weddings are allowed in feasting time
It is really bad luck to see another bride on
your wedding day

Environmental issues in Romanian

Resorts

While tourism provides considerable economic

benefits for many countries, regions and communities, its

rapid expansion can also be responsible for adverse

environmental impacts. Natural resource depletion and
environmental degradation associated with tourism
activities are sometimes serious problems in tourism-rich
regions. The management of natural resources to reverse
this trend is thus one of the most difficult challenges for
governments at different levels. The fact that most
tourists chose to maintain their relatively high patterns of
consumption (and waste generation) when they reach
their destinations can be a particularly serious problem
for developing countries and regions without the
appropriate means for protecting their natural resources
and local ecosystems from the pressures of mass tourism.
The main environmental impacts of tourism activity
are: pollution and waste generation, damage of
ecosystems, pressure on natural resources, climate
change, etc. Water, and especially fresh water, is one of
the most critical natural resources. The tourism industry
generally overuses water resources for hotels, swimming
pools, golf courses and personal use of water by tourists.
This can result in water shortages and degradation of
water supplies, as well as generating a greater volume of
water waste.
Often tourism fails to integrate its structures with the
natural features and indigenous architectural of the
destination. Large resorts of disparate design may look
out of place in a natural environment and may clash with
the indigenous structural design.

Tourism sector in Romania is currently attempting to

deal with various complex environmental problems that
cannot be neglected, because the environmental
conditions determine the demand for tourism products.
Ensuring the economic, social and environmental
sustainability of Romanian tourism is crucial both as a
contribution to" sustainable development" in Romania
and for the viability, continued growth, competitiveness
and commercial success of this economically highly
important sector. Many environmental problems in
tourism resorts are associated with mass tourism in high
season,
pressure
on
the
local
resources,
low
infrastructure development and a weak environmental
policy agenda. The challenges for sustainable tourism are
linked on the one side to the consumption patterns (in
particular considering the seasonality, consumer/tourist
behaviour and tourism travel) and to the other side to its
production patterns (i.e. the supply of tourism products,
services and activities in tourist destinations, including
mobility).
Prahova Valley resort is one of the main tourism
destinations in Romania, on its turn the most important
regional cluster of winter tourism resorts in Romania.
Having an important part of the ski domain situated at
medium and low altitudes, all the significant ski resorts in
the area, among which this area is also considered, will
confront, according to the scenarios of the climate
variability, snow-deficient winters in the future, a reality
already in place. The main type of tourism which are

developed in Prahova Valey is winter tourism because of

the configuration of the Carpathians permits the practice
of skiing from800
-2200 m altitude, without the danger of avalanches
and snow storms. Among the many natural environment
prejudices in Prahova Valley, the most frequentare
-air pollution- a consequence of increasing car traffic
in summer, as access in the park is permitted to all kinds
of vehicles; especially in weekend days because is just
one road of access to mentioned area.
- rivers and small streams pollution this is a effect
of human behavior, because in every summer on GuraDiham camping area - are a lot of garbage let by the
tourist. Also the construction of factories near Prahova
river affects the aquatic life.
- soil erosion and pollution. Soil erosion in the tourism
area occurs along the many paths and trails that cross
the park through all directions, in camping areas and
insight seeing spots. We must specify however, that most
of the soils are heavily eroded by forest exploitation and
the erosion caused by tourists is by comparison,
insignificant. But more important is the pollution of soil by
depositing domestic waste and insufficiency of waste
disposal system. This problem is present on the forest
road leading to Urlatoarea waterfall.
The tourism activity has increased his income impact
on economy, but new challenges appear, because
dynamics of tourism industry, so is necessary to research

on main theme -sustainability development of an whole

area. In Romania, although tourism has registered a
decline comparing with the reference year 1990, some
positive trends are foreseen in the next years according
to the Master-plan estimates. The tourism sector has to
be prepared to face extreme climatic events at national
andlocal levels through improved coordination between
disaster management offices, tourism administrations,
businesses and host communities, and national
meteorological services.