Traditional events

In the last quarter of the century in almost every village of the microregion they regularly or occasionally organized a folklore festival, a celebration dedicated to the days of the village or other event on a larger scale. These events have a similar pattern: they organize a parade of folk wear, a parade of the hussars, they have a show with the participation of different folk dance groups and other folklore groups from the locality and the neighboring localities, there are folk musicians performing, they organize cooking competitions – especially goulash – and towards the end of the program a few modern musical performers appear. During the event, they usually organize a few activities for children as well.

The most important regularly held festivals of the microregion are the following:

  • The folk dance camp in Voivodeni has been organized every summer, for 18 years. The organizers of the camp are a civil association from Voivodeni and a partner from Zala, Hungary. Within the camp’s program, participants are offered initiation courses in folk dance and music, but also workshops for making traditional clothes, handicraft workshops, horse-riding and archery activities as well as different competitions. Every night there are dance shows, concerts and camp-fire. At the end they organize a folklore festival with the participation of the region’s traditional folk dance groups. During the camp they teach traditional dances from Voivodeni, Glodeni, Pănet, Periș, Mădăraș, but also gipsy dances of Mureș.
  • The ”Gyöngykoszorú”, traditional Hungarian folk dance festival of Pădureni has been organized every year since 1990, by the Reformed Church of Pădureni, The ”Marosszék” Cultural Association, and The Carpathian Society of Transylvania, Mureș county branch. The festival usually opens with the parade of traditional costumes, held in the center of the village, followed by a show of the folk dance groups, presented in the local Community Center. At the festival, usually 15-20 traditional folk dance groups (about 500 people) perform on stage, representing all the folklore centers of the county and more.
  • The Festival of Traditional Folk Dance and Hussars in Glodeni is held in the memory of the battle that took place in the vicinity of the village during the Revolution of 1848. The festival is organized in the approximately 2 hectares large park in the center of the settlement. At the festival they usually organize the parade of the local hussars, two-horse coach driving competitions, soccer championship and different traditional activities: archery, whip and sword demonstrations. At the festival several traditional folk dance groups, folk- and modern music performers participate.  A special flavor of the festival is represented by the distillery of a local traditional plum brandy manufacturer.
  • The festival of plum jam in Iara de Mureș is dedicated to culinary traditions. However, traditional folk dance groups and amateur theater groups are not absent either from this event. At night, after the evaluation of the plum jam realized by the competitors, they organize a feast, where they serve stuffed cabbage and other traditional food. The event is closed by modern music show and street party.
  • The Castle Days of Gornești have been organized since 2010, hosted by the Teleki family. At this cultural event both the park and the entire building can be visited, where there are exhibitions about the old days of the castle, furniture, objects, photographs, and there are also documentary presentations, classical music concerts, theatre performances, there are literature cenacles and debates on different cultural themes.

In almost every settlement they organize events called the Village Days. The largest of this kind of events take place in Gornești, Ernei, Periș, Păingeni and Dumbrăvioara, this last one having an additional special element, namely the white storks. Given the fact, that the locality has probably the largest number of stork nests in Romania, at this event there is an additional accent on nature preservation in general and storks in particular

In the localities where there are Roman Catholic or Orthodox churches, every year they hold the celebration / pilgrimage of the saint their church is consecrated to. The largest of this kind of events takes place in Călușeri.

Besides these cultural events, almost every village regularly organizes the dance of grapes, Christmas and Easter dances, or dances for married couples. In some communities – such as Glodeni – they organize social gatherings where they sing folk song.