New Year Mask Dance

La Mulţi Ani! is how you say Happy New Year! in Romanian. It’s also how you say Happy Birthday. Welcome to a New Year! I had an enjoyable New Year’s Eve celebration with my new Romanian friends. Any (pronounced like Annie) was home from college and we had a bunch of young people over to the house to celebrate the New Year. One of the highlights was a long and grand fireworks display at the city center just before midnight. All across Romania people were not only celebrating the New Year, but the fact that Romania is now part of the European Union

We also had a visit from three young gypsy boys who are part of the after school program for underprivileged children. They came by to share a Romanian custom with us that consisted of a dance (complete with costumes), drum, and chant/skit. New Year mask dances are quite popular in Romania, especially the Nanny Goat mask. The goat mask is made of a wooden stick with a stylized goat’s head whose lower jaw can be made to clap by pulling a string. The goat’s head is decorated with colored ribbons. It is supported by a rod over which there hangs a colorful cloth cover – a sheet in this case – which conceals a member of the group. The chant/skit consists of a number of lines addressed to the nanny goat and of the goat-dance which is done by jolts accompanied by the rhythmical clapping of the goathead’s lower jaw. At the end, the nanny-goat performs various acts to entertain the audience. In this case, the nanny goat pretended to be dead and revived when she was promised gifts. Other mask dances choose a bear, ram, deer, Billy goat, etc.

It was a wonderful surprise to see this dance performed live for us…especially since I had never seen anything of the sort before. I had to laugh when I saw these star football (soccer) players wearing make-up! Francis played the drum, chanted, and wore a painted on moustache and goatee. Marius chanted, danced and wore a skirt, matching top, lipstick, rouge, and eye make-up. George was the Nanny goat and thrilled us all with his clapping and dancing! What a great New Year’s treat!