Laughter Day (Fool's Day)
Description:
Romania, among its other features, could be singled out and called the country of laughter and humor, so often here you meet with a beautiful joke and healthy humor. This is an abundance of folk humorous characters and stories that almost have no analogues in other peoples, such as the ancient Paekale and Tyndale, who often ridicule themselves, modern Bule, or the inhabitants of some areas of Romania - the Oltians, the Aardelians, as well as some ethnic groups that carry something peculiar and stand out from among other ethnic groups - such as the Gypsies and Jews.
People are not alien to any form of humor, everything that makes it possible to shine with the mind - anecdote, ironic joke, pun, other forms of wordplay, pampering, irony or subtle mockery, cheating, everything comic that can cause a smile and healthy laughter. All this makes up a huge family of humor. But a special place in it is occupied by such a folk phenomenon as short humorous stories called snoava.
Oral folk humor has deep roots and this form of humor crystallized over many centuries into a special genre, the presence of which in Romania can be felt at every step. Dictionaries say that a snoava is a narrative in prose, folk or cult, of small size, having an anecdotal character, in which the epic is intertwined with the satirical. In form, it is closer to sayings than anecdotes, which, by the way, are not very popular in Romania even in our time. A good snowava is like a philosophy, like a sweet fruit grown by the people and preserved for centuries, delicious smelling and saturating so much that it can satisfy hunger for a lifetime.
The people can make fun of themselves, the priest, the boyar, the gypsy or the Jew, St. Peter, the village girls or boys, in general, everyone who catches the eye. But this laughter is devoid of anger and sarcasm, most likely it is laughter for the sake of laughter, for the sake of having fun. Snoav arises because the behavior of the ridiculed characters reflects harmful human habits, misfortunes and malice that can not be silenced.
Characteristic of Romanian humor are the following features:
In jokes and humor, a positive beginning prevails, you rarely find pearls of so-called “black humor”. Most often, the personal qualities of the characters and their loved ones are ridiculed.
Since Romania has its own territorial, as well as national characteristics, then, of course, these features are given due attention in jokes and humor.
The Ardelians (residents of the Transylvanian region) – the peculiarity of their pronunciation is ridiculed, and most of all – a special mentality – behave with cunning, often trying to show themselves smarter than they really are. They live with a constant feeling of inferiority complex. Characteristic features of pronunciation is the “swallowing” of letters in words, which, of course, serves as a reason for ridicule and jokes.
- Vasile! Does your cow smoke?
- No, where did you see a smoking cow?
- So your barn is on fire.
Oltyan and Jews are ridiculed for the stinginess, practicality and greed that any tourist who has visited southern Romania can experience.
“These chickens are local or imported,” the buyer asks at the bazaar.
- What do you care? Are you going to eat them or chat with them?
Gypsies pay attention in jokes and humor, first of all, the gypsies themselves, who with great pleasure tell snoavs and anecdotes about themselves. Other ethnic groups of Romania do not deprive them of attention.
- Tenase, it's Saturday, you should go to the zoo with the kids.
You know, Smaranda, if anyone wants to see our kids, they should come and see us.
But the most interesting phenomenon of Romanian humor is the presence of two characters who have been present in the snoav for many centuries and are not yet going to give their place to anyone else. These, of course, are known to all those familiar with the Romanian culture of Paekale and Tyndale. In folklore, these are two inseparable characters - Paekale (small - cunning, but kind and honest) and Tyndale (tall - rustic and crooked), who for centuries appear in the arena of folk humor as the main characters and on which the people endure all their jokes, irony and fun.
We invited Paekale to visit, put a treat on the table. But since borscht was with meat, Paekale quickly began to eat only meat.
“Pekale, you eat and borscht, not only meat,” says the owner.
- But, you know, the meat isn't bad either!
It's not bad, but it's also expensive.
- But you know, it's worth it.
The modern Romanian joke character is Bulay. However, he often acts as a hero of jokes than edifying prose.
There are other features of Romanian national humor, but they can not be described in a short article. We stopped only on the most characteristic and on how it seems to us that it does not occur in other peoples.