The City Hall of Dragus together with the County Council of Brasov and the County Center for Traditional Culture Preservation and Promotion of Brasov organised in DRAGUS the MACE day on July 20th 2009. This custom has been celebrated each year for 50 years, with no changes. Nevertheless the folk costumes are much older than that and the floral motifs are made by loom which has now become a museum object. However, such weaving looms are still preserved by the elder women who know the trade and transmit it to the next generations. At the celebration of the Mace?s Day, everybody in the village - young and old people, dress in folk costumes and start the procession through the village.
The meaning of the ?Mace?
Being a traditional custom in the village of Dragus, the MACE?s Day symbolises the end of a cycle. This custom usually takes place at the end of the harvest season when the young people having worked in the fields organise a party to mark the end of the field labour. The mace is made up of specific elements to this area, a reeling device, 3 rows of wheat sticks and ears and it is made by a local inhabitant.
Both girls and boys in groups of 12 participate to the holiday. The 12 girls symbolise the calendar year and the bouquet is made up of 4 wheat ears representing the four seasons of the year.
The procession
What is interesting is that young people gather at the church and then they go through the village accompanied by musicians. At all gates there are old women dressed in folk costumes who join the young people. By the time they reach the end way through the village the procession of people is getting larger and larger. Tourists, relatives and other persons who come especially to take part in this event may also join.
Mr. Gheorghe Socaciu, Mayor of Dragus commune, said: ?The young people shall walk all the way from the field, right from the wheat fields, to the Cultural Centre?s courtyard. In the Cultural Centre?s courtyard there will be folkloric shows all day long performed by ?Mugurii Dragusului? Folk Group and the women choir from Dragus.?
