#vlach

[songs-of-the-east]

Romanian Women Play the Bucium (Trâmbiță)

The trâmbiță is a traditional long wooden horn, similar in form and function to the alphorn. It is primarily associated with Romanian and Vlach shepherd culture, especially in the Carpathian Mountains. It is also used in other Carpathian areas within Slovakia, Serbia, Poland, and Ukraine; in the last two countries it is known as trombita (Polish) and trembita (Ukrainian).

These instruments and their associated traditions are clear markers of the shared Carpathian highland pastoral culture, much of which was shaped by Vlach shepherd settlement between the 13th and 18th centuries.

It's used was traditionally for communicating between long distances between shepherds, announcing events, and as a community signal system with different sounds expressing different events such as births and deaths, alongside ritual purposes. One of those ritual purposes was the belief that it's sound lead the souls of the dead and ancestors through the mountains.

[gorskivijenac]

Traditional costumes of Romanian (left) and Vlach (right) girls of Majdanpek, Serbia. Ana Bulman and Sofija Vojvodan, 1918. Museum of Majdanpek

[alatismeni-theitsa]

Hi Theitsa! Your latest post about male dress was very helpful. I was wondering if there is a difference between Aromanian traditional dress in Macedonia, Thessaly and Epirus? I have seen some old pictures of Aromanians from Bulgaria and North Macedonia, and their style of dress looks very similar to that of Vlachs from Serres. Is the clothing in Thessaly and Epirus similar? And also, did the women have tattoos? What is the symbolism behind this?

We don't call them Aromanians in Greece but Vlachs. (Βλάχοι - "Vlahoi") The name "Aromanioi" (Aromanians) is used very rarely afaik. In their own language they self-identify us Armanoi or Remenoi. As you said, they are an ethnic group native to the southern Balkans who speak Aromanian (or "Vlahika" in Greek), which is an Eastern Romance language.

The traditional clothing of Macedonia, Thessaly and Epirus is diverse even within those regions. For example Macedonia has at least 50 different types of clothing because each cluster of villages or sub-areas had its own dress. At the same time, the dresses of one region have many similarities and most of the time it's easy to tell if you're seeing one from Macedonia or from Thessaly. And generally, traditional clothing in the Balkans can be categorized on its own group compared to (for example) Central Asian traditional clothing or Hawai'ian traditional clothing. So it's natural that the different countries in the Balkans have traditional clothing that looks like one another.

Vlach dresses tend to be similar to the others in the region, with a few differences. This is a very good article with photos of Vlach dresses from various Greek regions. The text is in Greek but feel free to put it into Google translate and it will all be decent. It is too long for me to translate it all. If certain sections don't make sense, feel free to send me a message and I tell you what it says.

Finally, take a look at my #Vlach tag to see more Vlach/Aromanian traditional clothing from various Greek regions.

Afaik in the Helladic region Vlach women didn't have tattoos.

[zubata-zhaba]

Background for the idea of the drawing:

I was reading this paper this winter and it seems to give further evidence that the highest percent of genetic heritage in modern Bulgarians can be (conditionally) attributed to medieval Slavs, while the rest would ought to be distributed between other groups (such as Bulgars, local population, later migrations, etc). And at one point I had the image in my head of a medieval Slavic toothless peasant girl having to choose between a flea-ridden Vlach shepherd boy and a bow-legged Bulgar horseman. I thought it would be funny if this was represented in this kind of YA-style novel/film of a young woman being in a love triangle during a military conflict (which the Middle ages abound with).

So I thought of this story that takes place in the 9th c. where a young girl whose village was raided by the Byzantines led her to want to join the Bulgarian army. She met resistance from the chiefs, however, there was a compromise - she was still allowed to help out with logistics, cooking and distributing resources among the soldiers, etc. One warrior though believed in her ability to learn to fight and trained her at night, when the others were sleeping, which led to them becoming close friends. Meanwhile she would regularly buy provisions for the army from a local shepherd boy and they also seemed to develop a liking to each other. Political conflict escalates and leads to the battle of Pliska between khan Krum and emperor Nicephorus I, where on the side of the Bulgarians women join the fight. Our girl tastes blood for the first time and it changes her forever..

Things from here on become a little different and I'll keep the rest of the story to myself in case I ever turn this into something, but it's meant to make fun of itself to some extent. I made the drawing in the style of YA poster films and the Menologion of Basil II. The main character was based on the personification of Sclavinia in the gospels of Otto III. Except for the Bulgar boy and the girl's temple ring, the clothes and hairstyles are speculation based on later ethnographic data.

[necromorph-slayinglovemachine]

From an AU I've been getting into with @kikatzu where Vlach and Ludwig join up with/get corrupted by the Unitologists and are worshipped like deities by them

[folkfashion]

Vlach Serbian women, Serbia, by Benjdo Academy

[lydiaplain]

Here.. Looking for balance.. ⚖️🎶✨

[magnoliamyrrh]

Nomadic Vlachs on a Voyage, Thessaly, 1897, photos of Burton Holmes