Ritual documents various aspects of the Romanian culture, a post-communist country that succeeds in keeping alive the richness of its traditions in a modern era. Many of the old traditions can be discovered in the countryside, which is considered to be the heart and soul of Romania, where peasant culture remains a strong force and medieval life prevails.

The New Year’s traditions have some of the finest winter attractions, diverse, colourful and rich in symbols and meanings. These customs bring to the present, glimpses of pre-Christian rituals and underline the predominant agrarian lifestyle from the past, rich in symbols and meanings.

The project is playing with the narrative of contrasting masculinity represented by the bear tradition, with the femininity represented by the women dressed in traditional costumes with their headscarves, bringing light into the dark of masculinity representation.

Being fascinated by the idea of masculinity and the representation of men’s power, the second part of the project explores the bears’ tradition and it’s influence on people’s beliefs. They evoke death but bestow fertile life. They live in the modern era, but they summon old traditions, accompanied by their Gypsy trainer and a youth beating a tambourine-type instrument, the animals crawl through the crowd. Reaching the centre, they perform a dance until eventually, the bears fall dead on the ground. After their hearts are taken by the trainer, they return to life, theoretically, a more gentle one. Even today, more bears exist in Romania's Carpathian Mountains than any other place in Europe and this ancient rite suggests the power of man to tame nature.

The traditions and the customs are an integrated part of the Romanian national conscience, as they express the ancestral wisdom of the people and are the core of their spiritual legacy.

*I am grateful to IdeasTap for providing funding through its Ideas Fund for this project and to Loxley Lab for their help in creating the final book for this project*