Conferences

On Sunday, March 1st, 2020, from 11.00 am, at the NTB Small Hall, Acad. Sabina Ispas will hold the conference with the title March 1st, "Head of Spring".

About the conference
The month of March, called by Romanians “marţ” or “mărţişor”, originates from the Latin Martius. For areas with mild climate and four seasons, it is the first month of spring. In the Jewish calendar, which we remember in order to have an objective historical perspective on the great holidays in the traditional calendar, the first month, Nisan is March - April, when the Passover holiday is held, between the 15th and 22nd. The holiday that signifies the release from slavery, is a feast of spring, which has ancient connections with agriculture. In the old Romanian calendar, March 1st marks the New Year. The position of March in spring, one of the four seasons characteristic for Romania's climate, prompts us to associate it with the moment of the revitalization of the dormant or numb flora, of the plants’ awakening to life. For the Romanian community, the "vegetal code" is one of the decisive benchmarks for defining cultural identity. Substitutions and analogies are made between the human person and the vegetal element, especially according to the Eucharistic model, by which the blood sacrifice was replaced with that of the processed vegetable: wheat - bread - ring biscuit, grape - wine. Acad. Sabina Ispas

About Acad, Sabina Ispas
Member of the Romanian Academy since 2009, General Director of the "Constantin Brailoiu" Institute of Ethnography and Folklore.
Graduate of the Faculty for Romanian Language and Literature of the "Al. I. Cuza” University of Iaşi and the Faculty for Romanian Language and Literature of the University of Bucharest, the folklore specialty.
PhD in philological sciences at the Faculty for Foreign Languages ​​of the University of Bucharest.
Author or co-author of several specialized books, among which: Love Lyricism. Motivational and Typological Index, vol. IV, 1985 - 1989; Popular Love Lyrics, 1985; White Apple Flowers. From the Poetry of Winter Habits, 1987; The Romanian Epic-Heroic Song in the South-Eastern European context. Songs of Match-Making, 1995; Under the Wing of Heaven, 1998; The Romanian Man, 2000; The Sung Story, 2001; Oral Culture and Transcultural Information, 2003; Siminoc and Busuioc. Romanian Fairy Tales, 2005.
She holds several prestigious awards, including: Special jury prize for ethno-anthropological studies, Pitrè-Salomone Marino, of the International Centre for Ethnography, Palermo - Italy (1989) for her work in four volumes Love Lyricism. Motivational and Typological Index; Simion Florea Marian Award of the Romanian Academy (1995) for the work The Epic-HeroicSong in the South-Eastern European context. Songs of Match-Making; Etnos Prize (2000) for the whole activity; The "Constantin Brailoiu" prize of the „Magazin Istoric” Cultural Foundation, offered by Erste Group Immorent Romania IFN SA, (2013) for the work Meanings and Morals of Yore.

Translated by Simona Nichiteanu