Another special activity organised during the second short-term exchange of groups of pupils hosted by the partner school Şehit Ali Aksoy Ortaokulu from Akhisar (Turkey) between May 13th and 17th, 2019, was recreating ancestral rituals. Talented pupils from each team performed a sketch or a dance depicting old folk traditions and customs from their country. The recordings of the ancestral rituals performed by the pupils will be added to the collection “Dance, Music and Colour”.
All the pupils involved in the project from Şehit Ali Aksoy Ortaokulu from Akhisar (Turkey) worked very hard to organise the exchange visit and prepared many Turkish rituals that allowed the guests to become acquainted with Turkish customs and traditions. The members of the club “It’s us! – songs and dances” performed the Turkish folk dance “Zeybek” from the Aegean region on the song “Kerimoğlu Zeybegi” by Turgay Basyayla.
The Turkish pupils also prepared a sketch illustrating the ritual of asking a girl’s hand in marriage. The family of a young woman prepare to receive the visit of a young man and his parents. After finding out more about the young man, the girl’s parents give them their blessing, and then the boy and the girl receive their engagement rings.
The members of the club “The magical world of fairy tales” from Şehit Ali Aksoy Ortaokulu from Akhisar (Turkey) also performed the ritual of “kina gecesi” (henna night), which is a women’s party that takes place the night before the wedding and involves applying henna on the bride’s hand.
In the next material, you are invited to a Romanian wedding! During the exchange visit hosted by the partner school from Akhisar (Turkey), the members of the club “Art heritage” from Liceul Tehnologic “Mihai Eminescu” Dumbrăveni (Romania) performed a sketch illustrating the vivid customs and ample rituals of a traditional Romanian orthodox wedding from the region of Bukovina. Their sketch includes the rituals of inviting people to the wedding, preparing the bride and groom for the wedding, asking for the parents’ forgiveness, tearing the bride’s bread, performing the “Song of the Hen” and removing the bride’s wedding adornments, as well as dancing the hora, a traditional Romanian folk circle dance. The talented young actors are: Daniel Vatamanu as the best man, Cornelia Macovei as the maid of honour, Andrei Denis Rotaru as the godfather, Bianca Gabriela Grădinaru as the godmother, Bogdan Chiriac as the groom’s father, Bianca Mădălina Isăcescu as the bride’s mother, Fabio Adrian Zamă as the groom and Camelia Rață as the bride. The pupils were coordinated by the teachers Niculina Pintilii, Simona Rica Șorodoc and Andreea Popovici.
The members of the club “Art heritage” from Istituto Comprensivo “Giovanni Pierluigi” Palestrina (Italy) performed the traditional dance of the Taranta from the region of Puglia (southern Italy), which evolved from the ritual performed to cure the bite of the tarantula. Tarantism is a form of behaviour affecting peasants on hot summer days, popularly believed to result from the bite of a spider, and its only treatment was said to be dancing.
The girls from Rīgas 22. vidusskola from Rīga (Latvia), helped by their teacher, Ms Larisa Fjodorova, and by two volunteer pupils, performed “Gulēja saulīte”, a game accompanied by music symbolising the struggle of light against darkness. During this game, the participants make a circle and dance around the Sun. The Moon comes out and tries to catch the Sun, and in the end they both go inside the circle.
The pupils from Agrupamento de Escolas de Samora Correia from Samora Correia (Portugal) performed the ancient Careto tradition. The protagonists of this ritual are Caretos, young men dressed in suits made of colourful fringe wool quilts, wearing brass, leather or wooden masks and rattles on their belts. On the days before the beginning of Lent (the period of fasting before Easter), in some regions of Portugal, Caretos appear in groups from every corner of the village running and shouting excitedly, playing pranks, chasing and frightening people, their preferred targets being single young women.