~ A yearly Romanian socio-cultural evening filled with poetry, history & good cheer, featuring Romania's National Day ~
On December 1st is Romania's National Day, and despite the fact that the current year is so much different than all what we have experienced before, on Tuesday (December 1'20) I was happy to organize a video-conference having each guest connecting virtually from the comfort of their own living-room.
Also, at this time, I would like to extend a warm "Welcome!" to the new friends who are joining my circle, bringing so much joy to my heart.
The official program of the evening began with the Romanian Anthem (since this evening we were honoring Romania's National Day), followed by the Canadian Anthem (since Canada is our country of adoption), allowing the musical notes to warm up our patriotic sense, and at the same time, widely opening the door for the subsequent, appropriate, discussions.
At this event I was glad to have with us again a guest of honor - Dr. Ovidiu Grecea, who is the General Consul of Romania and the Head of the Romanian Diplomatic Mission in Vancouver, as well as Plenipotentiary Minister of Romania in Canada.
This time, Consul Grecea brought along a renewed message of peace, re-iterating the significance of a productive collaboration, effective communication as well as the importance of unity. He also stressed that the generations to come are the ones that would take further in time the Romanian pride. Consul Grecea, as a Romanian official as well as a Romanian fellow, comes often to my Romanian literary evenings, and I appreciate his presence each time he could join the group, because he represents for all of us the country we each left behind.
As I've mentioned a number of times before, I would like to refresh again that by commemorating our roots, implicitly we honor our ancestors and cultural traditions, helping us remember our dear parents & grandparents, most of whom are gone today, but whose memory will be eternal, no matter where in the world we each are.
My program continued with a number of interesting presentations, evoking famous Romanians, reciting poems, recalling dear traditions, sharing personal perspectives, or reminding important pages of Romanian history, and here I will give you only a very brief synopsis:
- Our dear friend Dorina Aldea opened the presentations cycle with few fragments from an article she wrote (her article was published by "Observatorul" from Toronto, and with Dorina's permision, also published in comments section) and then shared few personal remarks about the historic event in itself
- This time, I was truly happy to have with us our friend Luminita Aldea (joining the group straight from Romania for a little while), who recited for all a brief prayer and sent us for publication a poem she wrote (with Luminita's permission, the entire poem is published in comments section)
- Then, Teodor T. continued with a summary sharing few historic facts, following with a personal poem & an original song, both referring to "December 1". - Further, our dear friend Sandu O. brought to our attention a number of 6 contemporary names of successful Romanians.
After all the announced presentations were delivered, the famous Romanian patriotic song "Treceti batalioane Romane Carpatii" ("Romanian Troops, Cross The Carpathian Mountains") was referred to, followed by a lively group tribute (as we each, from the comfort of our house, were accompanied by a glass of champagne or wine)....we all toasted unanimously: "TRAIASCA ROMANIA MARE!" ("LONGLIVE THE GREATER ROMANIA").
At this point, I would also like to briefly refer to another theme related song, many Romanians enjoy, called: "Tara noastra-i tara noastra". The group discussions of our evening together were lengthy, fervent, animated by lots of comments and different personal remarks, jokes, perspectives (some of them quite controversial), dear memories, making us feel that time was passing by much, much faster. Without any doubt, we all had a refreshing and cheerful time!
Aside of that, while at this page, I would like to express my profound gratitude to those who were able and willing to join this gathering, when we all got the chance to fondly talk about our homeland - Romania.
Until we meet again, dear friends, my best wishes to each of you for a peaceful rest of the year!
Alice
Mesaj personal din partea lui Alice, adresat în limba română, la ceas aniversar:
Dragii mei,
Şi pe această cale, doresc să vă
transmit sincera mea apreciere pentru prezenţa, susţinerea şi participarea la întâlnirea
noastră de grup, având ca tematică "Ziua
Naţională a României".
Cu această
ocazie am avut posibilitatea să aducem un aport omagial ţării
de baştină, onorându-ne rădăcinile,
străbunii, părinţii şi dascălii
care au pus o piatră de temelie la fundaţia formării
noastre ca oameni şi profesionişti.
Am petrecut împreună nişte momente absolut speciale în care
bucuria de a fi român s-a împletit într-un mod armonios, cu sincera dorinţă
de communicare şi relaţionare.
Calde mulţumiri!Alice
“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.” AliceFriendsCircle.blogspot.com
"Once you understand and appreciate other people's cultural background then you would connect more with them."
This event has been delivered in Romanian Language, featuring Romanian culture.
● Previous events I organized on the same theme: ROMANIA's NATIONAL Day – 2019, 2018 ● Some of my greetings referring to ROMANIA's NATIONAL Day – 2020, 2019, 2018 NOTE: Dear readers, please be advised that on this website each of the previous postings, pertaining to the recurrent annual themes, portray a different perspective of the subject/s presented (same theme/s, but a different outlook without duplication due to the cultural richness of the specific topic/s discussed).
