CEREMONY AND SACRED IN TRADITIONAL GASTRONOMY FROM SOUTHERN ROMANIA
CEREMONY AND SACRED IN TRADITIONAL GASTRONOMY FROM SOUTHERN ROMANIA

Summary/Abstract: Since the dawn of human history, food has been given a symbolic charge, being one of the points of connection between man and the adored divinity. During traditional Romanian celebrations, but also during Christian ones, food is transfigured, imbued with sacred value or even metamorphosed. Ritual food accompanies human life in its most important thresholds, at birth, marriage and death, and depending on these it receives its ritual value. Obviously, the Romanian village has adapted its food, implicitly that with sacred value, depending on occupation, habitat or various social factors. In most popular holidays, we will notice that starting with the spring equinox (Martyrs) to the winter solstice (Christmas) and continuing with the New Year, the food, through its form and method of preparation, acquires the quality of a communion. There is in Romanian tradition a time of death and rebirth, considered sacred, in which ritual food serves to make the transition from the profane to something worthy of veneration. Food sacrifices to agricultural deities have long since lost their pre-Christian meaning, under the influence of the Church, but the customs still continue in Romanian villages.

• Details
• Contents