Celebrate the Romanian Blouse in Luxembourg!

The Romanian Blouse celebrated in Luxembourg in 2016

Romanians in Luxembourg will celebrate for the fifth consecutive year the Romanian Blouse, called IA. Initiated by the online community “La Blouse Roumaine”, the festivities will take place on Saturday, 24th of June.
At 6 p.m. we will be in Place Clairfontaine, in Luxembourg City, wearing our traditional Romanian Blouses. After that, we will go to a beer garden where we can get to know each other better, and we can share the story of our IA.
If you are curious about Romanian traditions and folklore, and if you want to get to know us better, please join us! You can admire first hand this beautiful piece of clothing.
The Romanian Peasant Blouse is a representative piece of our folklore. Rooted in an idyllic past, Romanian women carried on the tradition of sewing peasant blouses. With everything being done manually, from the fabric to the thread and embroidery, just a single blouse can be created during the winter season. For just one blouse, the woman would work from three weeks to three months. During Easter Celebrations, she would wear her new blouse, being admired by the whole village for her craftsmanship and ingenuity in creating these authentic pieces of art.
IA preserves tradition through its ornaments, which highlight the differences in age, social status, and life events. The structure of the Romanian blouse has remained unchanged over the centuries.
In 1940, the famous French painter, Henri Matisse, created an important series of paintings which portrayed women in Romanian blouses. The beauty and handmade embroidery of peasant blouses inspired several designers, like Karl Lagerfeld, Tom Ford and John Galliano, but the Romanian Blouse is the original.
That is why, the celebrations of the Romanian Blouse in Luxembourg, give you the unique possibility to admire and ask questions about this piece of our heritage. Every Romanian Blouse that traveled to Luxembourg is bearing a story, either they are inherited from grandmothers, or they are found in a remote village or bought at the market. No matter the case, in their migrant luggage, the Romanian women found a place for their blouses.
The 24th of June gives us the possibility to proudly wear our blouses and tell their stories. For five consecutive years we celebrate our dear blouses in Luxembourg, and we would like you to be part of our story.
In 2013, over 24,000 people, in 50 countries, across six continents, chose to voluntarily participate in the day of the Romanian blouse. In many cities around the world, Romanian women wore IA and then posted their pictures on social media. The day of the Romanian blouse is celebrated every year on 24th of June.
Celebrate IA in Luxembourg! To view the full program, visit our Facebook event at:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1790860431229383/
Raluca Caranfil

Luxembourg - Remish - Salsa Cruise

The weather in Luxembourg is definitely better then last year and the year before. So much so, that I managed not only to insolate myself daily, but to burn my arms and face. I'm not complaining though, I have all the sun protection creams in the world and I actually prefer this weather to the cloudy and rainy one that Luxembourg usually has this time of year.

I've told you about the weather because there will be a lot of posts with outdoor activities, cause what to do when It's sunny outside?

One of those activities was a Salsa cruise on Moselle. I honestly have no idea how to book such a cruise, my friend took care of the booking, but I guess if you look hard on the Internet you will find all the details. They went a long way, but people living in Luxembourg are still not that Internet and social media friendly so you have to know someone who knows something, unfortunately that's how it works.

On that particular day there were a lot of someone on that boat cruise, I would say around 200 people if not more, so somehow this Salsa cruise is advertised, I just don't know where to look.

The cruise started at 7 p.m., the boat left at 8 p.m. and it came back to the shore around midnight. As I understood the party continued until 2 a.m., but the boat was docked.

We started in Remich in Luxembourg, we went up to Schengen, we crossed into France, we spent almost an hour to go through the flood gate and then we turned, spending another hour to get back through the flood gate and back to Remich.

Of course this are small details, because people who embarked on the cruise were not there for the itinerary. A Salsa Cruise means that people are dancing salsa while the boat travels on the Moselle. As I am not much of a dancer, I enjoyed the scenery, I took a million pictures, I ate pesto pasta and danced a little, but not too much.

I was in great company and I had a lot of fun. I will definitely repeat the experience!

 

If you liked my post you can find me on my Facebook page, Dichisuri.ro 

Raluca

Luxemburg - Romania - Mi-am purtat IA peste tot

Dragilor,

va scriu acum pentru ca am timp și pentru că perioada mai încărcată s-a terminat. La mine e așa în valuri, ori mă plictisesc de mor de viață, ori am treabă și evenimente de nu mai am loc în agendă. Tocmai am încheiat o astfel de perioadă, care recunosc că îmi place, așa că acum am detașarea de a vă povesti. Și despre ce să vă povestesc eu, dacă nu despre IA mea. Ați mai văzut-o, am mai purtat-o, e o ie veche de cel puțin 60 de ani care se ține încă bine, care nu respectă întru totul canoanele, dar eu o iubesc.

Cred că v-am mai spus că eu port ii pentru că simt că mă protejează, așa și cu IA asta, o iau când am nevoie de ceva acolo să nu fiu singură. Și până acum nu m-a dezamăgit. Pe foarte scurt, am organizat în cardul unei conferințe la Universitatea din Luxemburg, un panel/un atelier.

Eu am intrat în treaba asta de undeva de pe margine. Am făcut un filmuleț în care spuneam că IA este un obiect al zonei mele de contact și vorbeam cum îmi păstrez eu identitatea cu ajutorul Iilor. Cred că am și postat pe aici respectivul filmuleț, pe care la vremea lui eu l-am considerat mediocru. Profesorilor mei li s-a părut genial și m-au invitat să spun două vorbe în cadrul conferinței, așadar la început trebuia să vorbesc de filmulețul meu maximum 5 minute.

Însă, pe parcursul pregătirii conferinței, fără să vreau am ajuns un fel de coordonator. E o poveste lungă și nu vă mai bag în ea, dar panelul trebuia organizat de artiști, iar tema era cum se poate integra actul artistic în educație. Eu nu am nici o treabă cu tema asta, dar pentru că nu am trac la vorbitul de vorbe în public, am ajuns coordonator.

Evident că am purtat IA (și evident că fiind coordonator și vorbitor, nimeni nu mi-a făcut o poză decentă), am primit complimente și am și câștigat un premiu pentru cel mai bun panel al zilei.

A doua zi am plecat spre București și evident că IA a venit cu mine. Am spălat-o seara și am uscat-o pe calorifer și cu uscătorul de păr ca să o pot pune în bagaj și să nu putrezească, fiind udă. Și am purtat IA și la București și mă credeți că au fost vreo 5 oameni care mi-au zâmbit? Și e chiar greu să îi faci pe oameni să zâmbească în București.

Am mers cu IA la cel mai nou muzeu din București, Muzeul kitschului, unde am pozat în Pirandă pe o canapea kitschoasă

Apoi am mers de la Universitate la Romană și înapoi, pe jos să căutăm o carte la Cărturești Verona. Probabil că am să scriu cât de curând și o postare despre cum s-a schimbat Bucureștiul de când nu l-am mai văzut, dar important e că am purtat IA.

Scuzați multitudinea de selfie-uri, dar trec printr-o fază în care cred că doar singură îmi pot face poze decente. Probabil că o să treacă :)

Mă găsiți pe Facebook, la Dichisuri.ro

Raluca

Luxembourg - Live Cinema@Philarmonie

I've just made a list with all the posts to write on the blog and I've panicked a little because I have a lot of stories. First thing first, let me tell you about Live Cinema at Luxembourg's Philharmonic.

I don't know if you are familiar with the concept (I wasn't) of Live Cinema. You watch a silent movie and the orchestra plays some sort of a soundtrack. The "official" definition I found online describes Live Cinema as "live musical accompaniment of silent movies".

Nevertheless, if you live in Luxembourg you can experience Live Cinema at Philarmonie every month. You have to check their website for information and tickets. I went to The thief of Bagdad, but there are more silent movies to choose from. Next I might try a Charlie Chaplin movie

A word of advice, although you might be tempted to buy a ticket in the first rows, don't. If you want to watch the movie, it's uncomfortable. If you are more interested in the performance of the orchestra, maybe it is a good idea. I had tickets in the forth row and my neck was stiff for a day after, but because I was the first time at this sort of event I've learned my lesson.

I am more active on my Facebook page: Dichisuri.ro.

Raluca

P.S. Wearing a fancy dress is not mandatory, I even saw people in their jeans. I am old school and I've dressed up for this occasion. I so rarely wear my doll dresses, that I have to take advantage of every chance I get.

Belgium - Found yellow flower fields in Arlonia

First of all, I am obsessed with this yellowish/mustardy colour this season and I bought a lot of stuff on this colour. Plus I had some more stuff from past years, so now my wardrobe is filled with this colour, which is not yellow and it's not mustard, it's something in between. I'm sure it has a proper name, I am just too lazy to look on the Internet for it. So I didn't match my outfit with the flower field, as I said on Instagram, I just have a lot of items on this colour.

That being said, I am known to stop the car in the middle of the road just to take a photo, well actually I ask my husband to stop the car since I don't have a drives's licence yet, but yes I would do that.

Third, I don't know how to call the flowers, either. In Romania we call them "rapiță" and I used to call them rapeseed in English, until someone pointed out that they are called rape, what an ugly name for a flower! So I will continue to call them rapeseed. It is a plant used to make oil, which I've heard it's good for something, but in this area they use them to make paint. The fields appear in this area around the month of May and I like their smell :)

I took the pictures with my phone (I have to get used to carry my camera again with me), on our way to grocery shopping. Luna was also present, but for some reason she didn't like the flowers so she did not stay still for a single picture. I have a nice GIF with her, but I am too stupid to upload GIF's to blogger.

You can find it though on my fb. page: Dichisuri.ro.

Raluca

A new symbol for Luxembourg?

Following my recent trip to the Nederlands and Amsterdam, I've tracked this sign through Luxembourg and I wanted to show it to you, because it can possibly (hopefully) become one of this old town symbols.

Now it sits in Park Pescatore and from what I could see it was already a public's favourite as I queued to take a picture with it on a rainy day. Still after a lot of Internet digging I found out that it will not stay there for a long time, but it will travel to Moselle region and than to the place where Tour de France, will pass through Luxembourg.

The sign is 14 meters long and it is part of the new campaign to brand or re-brand Luxembourg. Basically this country is struggling to go from "We want to remain what we are" a slogan they used after WWII to "Let's make it happen". A sum of questions rose to my mind about the campaign and the slogan, but this post is about the sign, which I love. I would have thought that as wealthy as they are (or they appear to be), they would leave the sign in Luxembourg and make another one to travel the country, but... We are talking about a town who send the real Gelle Fra to Shanghai for an exhibition, so there is not much to ask for... 

So there you have it. I am glad I got to take pictures of it, I hope you will do, too. If you have the nerves to look for more information on the sign or the campaign here are some sources:

Nation Branding Results in New Signature and Tools to Promote Luxembourg

New logo & promo for Luxembourg

“LET’S MAKE IT HAPPEN”: CLOSENER

Let's make it happen website

Something about Luxembourgih symbols from Wiki 

National Symbols from Luxembourg public website

Hope you enjoyed this article. If you did check my fb. page: Dichisuri.ro.

Raluca

Nederlands - Costume Museum in Amsterdam

If I wanted to visit one museum in Amsterdam, this was the museum. I've researched it a long time before our trip to Holland and I knew that when the occasion came I will visit it.

Don't get me wrong, this was my fifth or even sixth trip to Amsterdam so at this point I've visited all the major museums, starting with Van Gogh, but I have to say that I like this small museums better. And on top of that they are very easy to find since most of them are on Herengracht street.

The national or folk costumes of Romania are one of my passions, I collect them, I wear them and I am proud of having them, so I try to find or to visit other ethnographic museums or even costume museums everywhere I go. I wrote about them on my blog, but some posts are in Romanian, The Ethnographic museum in my hometown, Iasi, Village museum in Bucharest, The Ethnographic Museum in Krakow, Poland, The Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw, Poland, The Ethnographic Museum in Split, Croatia, The Ethnographic Museum in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Roscheider Hof Konz, an ethnographic/village museum in Germany. I know I've visited more, there is one even in Luxembourg, but it probably didn't make it to the blog.

Going back to our topic, the Costume museum in Amsterdam is a small museum, only 7 rooms, on three levels. Be careful though, the staircases are so steep, that I almost fell at least one time.

As I understood, the museum started when three or four costume collectors teamed up and decided to show their collections to the public. The house of the museum was donated and as I said it is in a central location in Amsterdam. The ticket is 10 euro and during the summer season the opening hours are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m..

What I liked at the museum was, besides the collection, the photo booth where you can dress in those costumes and take a picture. You can do that without visiting the museum, so next time that is on my bucket list :) This time my husband was visiting another museum as he is more into technical stuff and taking a picture by myself was no fun. But if you are interested, a single picture is 15 euro and a family picture is 35 euro, for two adults and two children.

When I visited the museum, I found a woman who was doing her PhD in folk costumes of Holland and we visited the museum together. It was such a pleasure, that I didn't need the audio guide or any other form of guidance, as she told me a lot of stories and helped me to place the costumes and explained some elements that did not make sense to me. I even visited the bathroom, because on the website it said that it still has the Delft ceramic toilet.

The seven rooms of the museum represent seven regions and one could find the stories that go with the costumes displayed. I like that, because all Romanian blouses have stories to tell and I found a connection between them and the Dutch costumes. Different from the Romanian costumes though, the Dutch ones always have something to cover the head and also I found a lot of printed or painted fabrics as opposed to embroidered ones in Romania.

Overall it is nice to notice how the history and trade influenced the costumes, how they still have some practical parts (they are large to be comfortable when riding a bike) and how some communities still maintain the habit of wearing the costumes. So if you are passionate about costumes, as I am, I definitely recommend you to visit this museum. Here are some pictures.

These were not installed by jealous husbands as I initially thought. They actually go close to the forehead, similar to the ones in the cover picture of the museum's fb. page.

This is from some sort of material that we put on tables, some sort of rubberised fabric.

Similar to the Romanian costumes, I've noticed that they pay a little more importance to the top part of the costume, the bottom is sometimes black and undercoated. They also have some aprons in front, similar to Romanians, it's just that in the case of the Dutch costumes they seemed to me to be more functional, as opposed to Romanian ones which are more decorative. Also the length of the apron is different, the Dutch ones are larger going almost fully around the women's body, the Romanian ones are just pieces of cloth in front and sometimes in the back of a woman.  The same as with Romanian costumes, the richer and influential the person was, the more decorated the costume. 

It was a pity that I visited the museum on our last day in Nederlands and I didn't had enough time to grasp everything. I will surely go back to the museum.

If you liked this article or if you are interested in folk costumes, drop me a line on my Facebook page is Dichisuri.ro.

Raluca

Nederlands - Bags and Purses Museum in Amsterdam

I didn't plan to visit this museum, but as we parked the car almost in front of it I said is some sort of a sign and I've entered. I love Amsterdam, love it, but I hate it's parkings or lack of parking spaces or how expensive they are once you find a spot. I think I've been to Amsterdam five or more times and every time we had parking problems. So to anticipate them I researched from home some public parkings near the Flower Market, but one was closed although the website didn't announce that and the other one was no where to be found. Plus, in the area there are some one way streets and even my app updated when we left for Amsterdam didn't knew them. So we basically drove around the area and when we found a spot on the street we parked. And we parked right in front of the museum.

They say they have the largest collection of bags and I am inclined to believe that. The museum is in an old house and the collection is displayed on three levels. It starts with very old purses and ends with fashion purses from our days and they even have some purses worn by celebrities, such as Madonna or Elizabeth Taylor. Overall it is a museum worth visiting if you like museums or you like fashion and bags.

The price is more on the expensive side, 12 euro, but what is cheap in Amsterdam? I will leave here some photos from the museum, the ones that I really liked.

I loved all the purses in the museum, but my heart belongs to this one, which was not even displayed in the museum, but on a hallway near the tearoom. They said it is from Russia and now I am looking for an identical one on etsy or ebay. So if you find something similar, give me a sign. 

I am not into fashion, but when I've heard that this year the rattan purses are in fashion, I've dusted my old purse which I bought on a flee-market in Arlon. Although it was very cheap, in my mind it belongs in a museum :)

My Facebook page is Dichisuri.ro.

Raluca