Romania

On Saint George's Day With The Hahols*

A white fur cap walks its way boldly above the fences, turns left all of a sudden and appears in front of me, before the gate of the church. The churchyard is full of people but the old man walks determined, bold, with his chest pushed out front, straight to the target:

Ivan Patzaichin - The Most Well-Known Lipovan Russian In The World

Between 1968-1984 Ivan Patzaichin (b. 1949), won seven Olympic medals (four gold and three silver) and eight world championships in canoeing. A golden Lipovan who has never denied his identity of a Starover (i. e. Old Believer) Russian from the Delta. He is modest, honest,

The Bilingualism Of The Lipovan Russians

At the beginning of their existence on the Romanian territory, the ancestors of the present Lipovan Russians were speaking only their maternal language, since they didn't know any other language. They were mono-lingual. In time, since they were in the midst of the Romanian

How Lipovan Russians Live

TULCEA Our journey to a few of the Dobrogean places inhabited by Lipovan Russians began in the town of Tulcea. Before everything else, we wanted to stop over in those neighborhoods where the population of Lipovans is more or less compact. There are two neighborhoods fitting

The Danube Delta - Places, People, Customs

Institute for Ecomuseum Research in Tulcea Ethnographical research in relation to this habitat allows us to distinguish between the various particular aspects regarding lifestyle and traditional culture, which prove the importance of the human factor in defining the features

Ethnicity And Imagination In The Danube Delta

The Danube Delta is a land inhabited by Romanians coming from Transylvania, Moldavia and Oltenia (Little Walachia), as well as by people who came here from Russia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey. There seem to be two causes that led to this ethnic mosaic: a political one –

The Mirage Of Bird Migration

Head of Romanian Ornithological Center Over hundreds of thousands of years, Nature has searched for and found the most efficient adaptation mechanisms for each species, as well as for ways in which groups of animals and plants could support the big natural systems. In their

Spoonbills

At times, in vernal Romania, one may observe large birds migrating in triangular formation, high above towns, in a north-westerly direction. Their elongated necks remind one of our storks, still – the swift, fast propelling pinion flaps make one acknowledge a different

Pelicans...Pelicans... Truth And Myth

excerpts The Austrian Eduard Hodek made a series of trips on the lower Danube between 1869 and 1886, which resulted in his thorough studies of the Danube pelicans and brought important contributions to the information on their life and habits. At the time, birds nested

The Road Of The Pelicans

As it is quite rare in Romania, the pelican has been declared a monument of nature. There are two species, which are hard to differentiate: the white pelican (Pelecanus Onocrotalus) and the Dalmatian pelican (Pelecanus Crispus). The Dalmatian has red eyes and is slightly

Reed, A Herbal Miracle

Among hundreds of vegetable species of the Danube Delta, I insisted only upon reed (Phragmites communis). It deserves to be called an amazing plant even though it doesn't belong to the rare or unique botanical species which can ensure the celebrity of an ambitious academician

The Letea Forest - The Original

After a bewildering trip by boat on the old branch of the Danube, to the left of the village Mila 23, at the end of the channel Madgearu you run into a strip of dry land, a stable island in an infinite kingdom of reed. It is the Letea grind (sand bank) that welcomes you