June 24th, the Day of the Romanian Blouse in Luxembourg

You all know by now my passion for Romanian Blouses, but I've never wrote in English a post about the Day of the Romanian Blouse which is June 24th and how we celebrate it here in Luxembourg, almost 2000 kilometres from our country.

The Universal Day of the Romanian Blouse was first celebrated in 2013 when in Romania people became interested in the traditional Romanian attire and started looking for old blouses, researching the patterns and eventually recreating them. It started online, a Facebook page called La Blouse Roumaine had the idea that on June 24th to celebrate the blouse all the women should change their profile picture with one in which they were wearing a Romanian Blouse.

It went even further and even in 2013 women wanted to meet and small events were organised all over the world, so much so that over 50 countries celebrated that day. Luxembourg was one of them. It was my first year living in the Grand Duchy and it was a good way to meet the people that later became my friends.

A year later I wanted to get involved in organising this celebration and that is how I've met my good friend Elena. I remember we chose to meet in the centre and I only had time to stay for an hour. Five hours later we were still talking and planning and that is how this year we celebrate five editions of The day of the Romanian blouse in Luxembourg organised together.

In 2015 organising the Day of the Romanian Blouse was a little bit intense, there were conflicts with some persons who thought that maybe we will stop organising something nice and free, so that they can earn some money from a payed event. When that did not happen a lady in particular started spreading rumours about me and my friends. Nonetheless, I was unaware of that and managed to have a lovely celebration. By that time, my hobby related to Romanian Blouses evolved into passion, I've started dreaming of maybe one day organising an exhibition... It was also the first time I was wearing an old Romanian Blouse from Muscel region. If you don't recognise me, I'm the one in blue on the left.

2016 was a busy year. In the morning I had the defence for my masters thesis and in the afternoon the celebration of the Romanian Blouse. I choose to wear a new blouse which brought me a lot of luck. I've passed the defence, I had my masters degree and the celebration was full of surprises. I found out that my colleague from high school was living in Germany, an hour away from Luxembourg. She came to the celebration with her family and that for me meant a lot. Also, I hope you can see Luna in the picture. After a depressing time we decided to have another dog and that is how Luna came into our lives.

In 2017 we decided to introduce some of the trademarks of the celebration, the hashtag in online, the lavender and a picture frame. There are still people who have a profile picture on social media done on that day.

I was wearing a blouse which is so dear to me. I found it at a fair in the Village Museum in Bucharest. It was so cheap for its value so I bought it on a spot and loved it ever since. It is a Romanian Blouse from Mehedinți region.

And that brings us to this year, the sixth of celebrating the Romanian Blouse in Luxembourg. I was looking at the pictures and I saw familiar faces. Some of the participants were there every year, celebrating with us. If you look closely you can see how the children grew and transformed and every year new children are introduced to our beautiful Romanian traditions. The lovely people of Romania for whom it is worth to sacrifice a few hours to put together an event. To them I say a big THANK YOU!

In the past year I've made new friendships, organised conferences and organised that exhibition in Luxembourg. I've met the people that I've followed for years on social media and learned a lot about the Romanian Blouse. This year I had a Romanian Blouse with "ram's horns" a strong and ancient symbol. I was passing through a rough time and needed some support when I spotted this blouse online. Although I now am able to tell that it has a lot of mistakes, I love its flaws. It's said that ram's horns when they are opposite means the fight for supremacy, well there is a fight all right, to stay strong, to stay me.

As you can see the Day of the Romanian Blouse is a very personal celebration. Despite organising an event for everyone to enjoy, it has personal meanings. This year I wanted to celebrate it in Romania, but faith brought me home earlier in time for June 24th. I was here and I was somehow happy. I'll leave you with some of the pictures from that day.

I hope you loved reading this post as much as I loved putting it together! Also, if you fancy keeping in contact with me, drop a line at Dichisuri.ro on Facebook.

Raluca