Holy Thursday

 


Here we are healthy in the last week of Lent, known as Holy Week. Each day of this week has a special connotation. If in the interval Monday-Wednesday they are performed in the church "Deniile Mari", starting with Holy Thursday, the importance of the services and their significance is much greater. But let's find out, one by one, the meaning of each of the last mentioned days, starting with Thursday.

In Tinutul Padurenilor, as in the other areas of the country, Holy Thursday has an enormous significance. Starting with the morning of the day, when the priest and other people go to the house of the "pasteri", a family from the village who decided to put the "Pasti" in that year .. There is a service held in their house. Next, all the people leave with the procession to the church. Several groups of 2 people are formed who will take bread and wine in special baskets, in order for those, for sanctification during the Liturgy that will be celebrated. Once at the church, the service begins with the process of sanctifying Easter bread and wine. At the end of this mass everyone is invited to an Easter alms, in memory of those who passed away from the "Pasteri" family.

Later, on that day, another important service is held, named the service of the 12 Gospels, or also known as "Denia of Holy Friday". This special service is performed on Thursday after dusk and sums up all the feelings and events that happened to the Our Savior, Iisus Hristos, in that week. Besides all these religious aspects of this day, it has other meanings among the Foresters. Some mythical if we can say so. I made you curious, didn't I? Let's find out more about this day.

As I told you, besides the religious importance, Holy Thursday also has popular meanings. In the evening of this day, in the villages from Tinutul Padurenilor, "Alii molii" was shouted, also called the shout over the village. Due to the relief from Tinutul Padurenilor, the alternation of hill-valley, made possible the shouting over the village, not only within the village, but also the shouting between 2 villages. "The most concise and complete characterization of the meaning of the cry over the village I remembered from Oprinesc Domnica (b. 1911) from Socet: "people are shouting  "alii molii" for the morons, for the cute ones, for the women who don't work ".

Here is the ritual of this evening in Padurenime: "On the evening of Thursday, before Easter, after a preliminary agreement, in which they determined who to be mocked, some boys climbed to the edge of a hill and others to another edge, At a great distance, but still to be heard in the village, each group carried to the top of the hill at least one old wagon wheel, between the spokes of which they stuffed dry straw. After they reach the top of the hill, they start shouting and release the wheel downhill.

Ali molii
Photo:https://luncacernii.blogspot.com/

Regarding this strange expression "ali molii", which differ from village to village, we are inclined to believe that it has its origin in the name of the day. Starting from the words of Stăncoane Gheorghe from Runcu Mare, who said that “on Easter Thursday Joile Mari was shouted” or as Bistrian Hermina (b. 1922) from Dăbâca remembered, “"Joile Mari" was shouted a long time ago when Easter was consecrated”, we consider that, in an incipient form of shouting over the village, the expression at the beginning of the dialogue was "Joile Mari, Joile Mari!". It was a statement that was allowed to be said on that Thursday, considered great, being the one before Easter and only then. In the tendency to simplify the expression, in order to be pronounced as easily as possible, but shouted as loud as possible, over time, the formula "Joile Mari", the local and archaic form of the demonstrative pronoun of distance "those" , which replaced in the shout the noun "joile", consisting of five sounds, reaching the phrase "ali mari" from where it is not long until ali molii, the most common expression. It is possible that Joile Mari was, in the local spiritual universe, some mythical characters.

Another story from the beautiful Tinutul Padurenilor comes to an end. How many of you knew these things? Are there other local traditions that we young people have not yet learned? STAY TUNED!More articles to follow. We are slowly growing our community. Thank you for all your interest in our materials. We wish you a blessed Easter, with peace of mind and with a lot of happiness with all your loved ones!

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