Memorial hora

On the territory of our country, the custom is practiced in Oltenia (Dolj, Olt, Mehedinți, Gorj, Vâlcea counties) and the south of Banat (Caraș-Severin county), isolated also in villages on the left bank of the Olt river, as well as in the west of Muntenia (Teleorman county).

Across the Danube, it is practiced among the Romanian origin population in Bulgaria (almost 30 villages in the Vidin region, and also in the villages with a Romanian-speaking population between Lom and Svishtov) and in the north-east of Serbia, in localities located in the regions of Bor, Boljevac, Zajecar, Negotin, Kladova and Majdanpec.

The memorial collective dance (hora)is part of the wider spectrum of horas or traditional dance. Horas are practiced on different occasions of celebration in human life, on different holidays of the year, on village days or on other festive occasions.

Hands hora (hora de mână) is the hora is danced through hands holding by all the village natives , from 6-7-year-old children to the elderly. The scope of hands hora also includes the memorial hora (hora de pomană), which is a post-funeral choreographic ritual, mainly practiced between Easter and Pentecost, but also on other major holidays throughout the year: on Christmas, Saint Mary’s Birth Celebration (September the 8th), Saint Elijah Day, Saint Peter’s Day or nedei (folk rural feast, of pastoral origin, usually organized on the occasion of a holiday or a church saint patron’s day).

During the Bright Week, horas were paid for the dead, starting from the first day of Easter. Horas are danced after the Christian service and after lunch.

Memorial hora was, as the name reveals, a dance or a cycle of dances, which also included a hora offered as a memorial, alms or offering, to the deceased. As a rule, they were given to those who died before they had completed their full cycle of life, to those who died unmarried or “unlived in the world”.

Those who hold hands and dance the memorial hora keep respect for the deceased and their family, showing a restrained attitude, without shouts during the dance.

The memorial hora has the role of uniting the community, of psychologically coping with the difficult moments of separating the family from the deceased.

From the meaning of a posthumous wedding, the memorial hora expanded as a ritual, in some villages being performed for all the deceased, younger persons, regardless of whether they were married or not.

Contributor: Gorj County Culture Directorate