25 incoming Erasmus+ students attended this year’s ‘Mărțișor for everyone’ event, a yearly workshop where DIMA specialists and International Relations staff introduce foreign students to this unique Romanian tradition.
This is the fourth consecutive year for the Mărțișor workshop at our university. The event was held at Fab Lab Iași in a DIMA building. Professor Irina Lungu, PhD. Eng., Vice-rector of International Affairs, Professor Neculai Eugen Seghedin, PhD. Eng., Vice-rector of Didactics & Quality Assurance, and Professor Mirela Blaga, PhD. Eng., DIMA specialist and Erasmus+ coordinator, other DIMA PhD students and professors were also there.
At the start of the workshop, the foreign students learned about this Romanian trafition, why people here celebrate and gift each other ‘Mărțișoare’. 24 February is also Dragobete, a Romanian holiday celerating love, our version of Valentine’s Day, so love was the central theme of the event, dubbed ‘Dragobete & Mărțișor – Let’s celebrate Romanian traditions together’.
‘People, especially those over 20 years old, often say that this may not be the most important holiday, not that they haven’t experienced love, but because they’ve went through it several times. This is the role of the Dragobete, to remind everyone to celebrate love. Even though in recent years it’s a bit eclipsed by Valentine’s Day, we Romanians like to think that we celebrate love twice in February, on 14 and 24,’
said Vice-rector Irina Lungu.
Professor Irina Lungu talked about the mythology behind the Mărțișor, saying that they originated as symbols of the coming of spring. They were worn on the chest or on the wrist until 8 March, Woman’s Day, and were thought to bring luck.
Each of the students who took part in the workshop made their own Mărțișor, some of them were left as gifts for the Fab Lab hosts, while also taking a few to give to their friends and colleagues.
Professor Mirela Blaga spoke about Romanian traditions, with special regard to traditional clothing. She talked about Răzvan Mădălin Ivănuș’s bachelor’s degree project. TUIASI alumnus, Răzvan created a costume inspired by the one worn by Her Majesty Queen Marie of Romania, a three piece suit from Muscel region. The student devised a knitting program that reproduced with high fidelity the photograph model.
Students from 12 countries attended the even: Finland, France, Ghana, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Spain, Turkey and Turkmenistan.
