Mourning in Romania

Pantry of fairies but also of longing… left more locked than unlocked, this place seems to keep time still, waiting steadfastly for its people that have left, wandering exiled in foreign countries, so far from the custom order of Tradition, but closer than ever to the order of the Heart. Respecting Christian tradition, Cămârzana is the only village in Oas where people bury their dead in the yard, on hills or in valleys at the periphery, there are 18 private cemeteries. realizes a true symbolic pilgrimage that lasts two weeks. He descends one by one at each place he is called to raise libations for the dead or consecrate the new crosses, after a well-established timetable, announced prior during Sunday's liturgy. Those left among the shadows are commemorated by the faithful by the lighting of candles, by the flowers and wreaths that adorn the graves cleaned of weeds and arranged in the smallest details, the ritual food items, the prayers, the holding of hands, all the elements of the ceremony which sanctions the cult of the dead, initiated for the forgiveness, salvation and joy and renewal of their souls. The people of Oas leaving for London – from a world of longing, to a world with a different kind of longing. Between longings, there, Cămârzana stays hidden, as if to escape the flow of irreversible time, bounded vertically by the mountains that bring it closer to the bars of heaven and unbounded by the emotions, nostalgia and memories of those who have travelled the world to seek their fortune and their yet undiscovered purposes. Nostalgia. The return journey has already begun.... text Mihaela Grigorean