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 –
Nightfall On The Lake
He'd come with his head down, as if searching for something among the rocks on the road. What could he have possibly found new here, in a land surrounded by waters, on the shore laden with miasma? The narrowness of the bank? He knew all about it; the shiny grit? –
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