This week's blog entry is a continuation of the interesting Christmas we spent in Maramures County. One of the Peace Corps volunteers has intentionally sought out a site to teach English in a little village at the end of the road in the most traditional of Romanian areas. Eleven of us visited her for Christmas. What follows was taken directly from the information provided by the village. Please pay particular attention to the final portion explaining the Viflaim play. I did not correct the translation. Compared to many translations we read, this one is well above average, but it is also apparent that it was not reviewed by a 'native English speaker'.

The wooden church of Poienile Izei, with thatched roof, was built in 1604. Its interior frescoes, dating from 1783, are Australian Aboriginal-style paintings depicting the torments inflicted by the devil on sinners who fail to obey the rules represented in the frescoes.

The red walls depict dozens of sinners being tortured by demons with goat-like heads and clawed feet, while beneath them processions of sinners are driven into the mouth of hell – an enormous bird’s head with fiery nostrils.

The pictures constitute an illustrated “rule book” too terrifying to disobey – the scenes presumably formed the nasty part of a huge Day of Judgment. Its message is still understood by the villagers.

●A huge pair of bellows is used to inflict punishment for farting in church
●A woman guilty of burning the priest’s robes while ironing them is herself pressed with a hot iron
●Adulteresses are courted by loathsome demons
●A woman who aborted children is forced to eat them
●A liar is hung by his tongue
●A witch is gored by cows for casting a spell on them
●A farmer is plowed by two devils for stealing his neighbor’s land
●The person who sleeps while the priest is preaching is forced to lay on a burning bed and endure the devil’s violin

Other paintings in the church include gardens and distant cityscapes; from the balcony you can recognize Adam and Eve, the Fall and episodes from the lives of Christ and John the Baptist.



The “Viflaim” – religious theatre in Maramures

There is still present in Maramures a diversity of folk theatre, among which the “Viflaim” has an important status – a play acted by a group of lads in the first days of Christmas.

The variations nowadays in rural collectivies largely use the Petru Biltiu-Dancus's text (1875); he was a teacher in Ieud. The test was published by his son, prof. Ioan Biltiu-Dancus in 1924. It is said about the text that the author transformed a text with 'traditional origin' which was simple, primitive and turned it into a real, dramatic play. The author also says that the play "was assimilated by the people and transformed upon their taste."

Village actors of the “Viflaim” try to give the characters the features and concerns of the local customs and spectacular visions, very proper to their way of living. What is impressive is the complexity of action, the costumes, the lyrics and the extraordinary masks. All characters are masked but the most peculiar masks are the ones that represent the devils. The costumes, handed down from generation to generation, are taken care of and adorned by every possessor; the noisy objects of the devils – bells of all sizes – are periodically cleaned.

In the Viflaim there is a certain orientation towards the spectacular; the attendants are enthusiastic while following the devils' performance, the extraordinary movements, grimaces, antics, jokes and rhythmic noises. The play gains a lot of grandeur by the fantasy act of the 'Old Man', one of the main characgters. Everything is completed by the masks - they give a certain color to the winter feasts.