The role of popular customs in the social sphere

Abstract
Traditions reflect a way of life in which, mentality, social units
and forms of artistic expression constitute a unitary whole, an
indestructible unit, which approaches traditional values through
an interdisciplinary study of popular customs and an overview of
nature and its role. in the social sphere.
Keywords
folklore, customs, values, educational values, evolution,
continuity.
For those who love their homeland and nation, popular customs
are an invaluable treasure trove.
In the European context, the Romanian village with its traditions
affirms its originality through distinct ethnographic and
architectural writings.
On our objective is reflected the amazing richness of traditions
and customs, from the perspective of folklore, of the dynamics of
its cultural forms, by obtaining an overview on the Romanian
ethnography.
Romanian ancient customs, after a long effort of knowledge,
represent a true treasure of wisdom, whose resources and values
will never fade away.
In the social sphere, the popular customs are a great attraction,
starting with those that delight the view - the wood carving and
the popular port - and continuing with those that enchant the
soul, through games, songs, rituals and specific Romanian
manifestations.
Folklore preserves the popular values that were closest to the
soul of the rural community. We can talk about the popular
habits of the year, which manage to outline in depth, the general
atmosphere of the role they play in society.
In 1948, the English archaeologist J. W. Thomas first proposed
the term folklore, in the Atheneum magazine, a term composed of
the words folk, which means people and lore- science.
„Folklore means all the artistic works created or existing in the
masses of villages and cities, creations which, as a rule, circulate
orally, in a large area and for a long time, without the
consciousness of their author”.
In our culture, the term was assumed by B P Hasdeu in the
preface to Etymologicum Magnum Romaniae, by which he
defined the most intimate beliefs of the people, his customs and
habits, his sighs and joys.
”I wanted to get to know the Romanian as he is, in all of his
ways, as he has been shaped by a gradual development of eighty
centuries, as he has been slipping through thousands and
thousands of ethnic, topical and cultural situations”.
Through the variety of folklore, we know, understand and value
the glorious past of our people, the customs, occupation, feelings
and desires of the past generations. Customs have a special
importance in the crystallization and formation of the individual
moral conscience, in the formation of the family spirit and the
aesthetic taste, which are proper to man until he gets old.
The social norms or of the social group can turn into norms of the
personality, in intrinsic structures, inalienable to the human
being, which will determine the social position and his behavior.
The customs and traditions of our people establish etiquette and
mutual respect in the family.
„Traditions, customs, rituals have long been the only means by
which the social relations between people are regulated, because
there is a trust in the justice of the order established by them,
which was based on their existence and age”.
In the traditions of our people, we notice a multitude of customs,
which have been preserved, even if they have suffered at times,
the influence of modernity and which give the specificity of the
Romanian village as it is presented today: the folklore, the folk
dance, șezătorile and clăcile, paparuda, mucenicii, the baptism,
the caroling, the wedding, ursitoarele, the funeral rituals are
some elements that have not yet lost their identity in the rural
area, as they are maintained and they are carried on by the young
people who have the older inhabitants of the villages as advicers
and tutors, who knew how to preserve, create and carry on these
legacies.
The popular customs represent the living proof of the existence
of the Romanian people, a striking expression of the ancient
cultural unity.
The immense folklore treasure of our people is a valuable
component of this heritage. Traditions represent us and constitute
a true value of our country, appreciated in the world, which
determines the desire to know the beauty and depth of customs in
which the popular clothing, the authentic folklore and the local
way of speaking are mirrored.
„In culture, nothing should be lost, everything must be
transmitted and renewed”.
Being related to the most important events in humans’ life,
traditions and customs have resisted to this day, with all the
transformations and changes that contemporary civilization has
brought into the life of Romanian villages.
An important objective of the traditions is the re-evaluation and
reinvention of the way in which the Romanian folklore can be
viewed.
The traditional Romanian calendar includes a series of customs
and ceremonies, which celebrate and commemorate the most
important moments of nature and human life, existence and
work.
Important objects of study in folklore are also the rites of
passage, considering their universality and their frequent
occurrence during the social and cultural life of the community.
The concepts of the popular creation are related to birth, marriage
and death. The classification is based on the importance of
habits, emphasizing the idea that each tradition has a special role
in the social sphere.
Birth is considered the beginning of life and is a ritual of the
family cycle.
„The ritual acts and the magical practices occasioned by the
moment of birth, guarantee the passage of the child from pre-
existence to existence”.
The most important folklore celebration remains the marriage,
which gives rise to customs that still retain the perfume of its
ancient age. It is a moment in the cycle of life, full of joy and
which marks the transition from one social category to another.
The whole traditional custom of marriage is inlaid with
pragmatic faith in God.
The family is a communion that, according to the traditional
model, consists in the natural union between a woman and a man.
The diversity of the wedding, in all its aspects, is spectacular and,
under any of its forms of presentation, in its essence, it represents
a show, either traditional, or contemporary.
Death, known as the climax of our existence and of our lives, is
surrounded by a multitude of rituals.
Funeral rituals are a set of practices designed to restore the social
balance broken by the death of a community member.
Conclusions
The objective of our reflection focused on understanding the
amazing richness of traditions and customs, from the perspective
of folklore, of the dynamics of its cultural forms, in order to
obtain an overview of the role it plays in the social sphere.
We can say that the theme of popular customs and traditions is
quite common in literature, considering both the large number of
variants related to different places and types, as well as the
variety of interpreters who approach it, ensuring its popularity
even today.