Urșii din Vânători-Neamț - Tradiții de Anul Nou (Târgu Neamț, Moldova, România)

Street show of the group of “bears” + “gypsy bears” who came to Târgu Neamt to participate in the New Year folklore festival (carnival) that takes place in Târgu Neamt, from ancestral times, at the beginning of each year on 2 January. This video was recorded on January 2, 2020. The ”dance” of bears is perhaps the most spectacular in the suite of New Year's masks. The bear dance in a frantic rhythm sustained by drums and whistles and urged by the "gypsies" bears, moving the adrenaline and the feet of the spectators. The scene performed by bears symbolizes the passing of the seasons, reminding that this animal was once considered the character that overcomes winter and brings spring. Thus, the rolling of the bears in a circle, the beating and death of the bear, then the miraculous resurrection (sometimes at a different rhythm of enchantment) as well as its climb on the club, metaphorically reproduce the succession of seasons that were once under the sign of this animal, able to defeat winter and herald spring. Walking with the Bear is found only in Moldova, on New Year's Eve. Bears are led and urged by lyrics (sometimes slightly licentious) by one or more "gypsies" bears, sometimes accompanied by musicians and often followed by a whole procession of characters. In the roar of drums or on the melody of the whistle, often aided by a club, the bears murmur and imitate the swaying and jerky footsteps of the animal, striking the ground hard with their feet. The significance is the purification and fertilization of the soil in the new year. There is a hypothesis that at the origin of this custom was a Thracian-Getic cult. Unlike other groups, we notice the agility and impetuousness of these bears. These bears arrived in Târgu Neamț coming from the neighboring commune Vanatori-Neamt and most probably from the Fagi area of this commune.