The only time “Romania” and “eccentric” are used in the same sentence is when talking about our reality TV shows. Romanians truly enjoy jaw-dropping scandals. Feisty ladies throwing tantrums on live television for entertainment is one side filled with laughter and another with sheer embarrassment. However, it can be quite eccentric when we find out about the capital of paranormal activity in the outskirts of Cluj- one of Romania’s largest cities.
Hoia-Baciu Forest was named after a shepherd who went missing in the forest with a flock of 200 sheep, which is creepy enough to call it haunted, but not the only event reported.
Rumors say there is located a hole that penetrates other dimensions and times. This is reinforced by the story of a girl who once got lost in the woods. This girl had been missing for about 5 years but suddenly reappeared with the same condition as before and unchanged.
The forest was nicknamed a Romanian Bermuda Triangle and not just because of the time-travel hole and the vampires that roam at night looking for fresh, sweet, human delight, since they’re so tired of deer and sheep.
We, locals, know how to protect ourselves with garlic cloves in our pockets and silver jewelry around our necks. It’s tourists who are the real targets. Have you realized? Got you! Do foreigners actually believe that we have such creatures?
It’s true that Vlad Tepes - who ruled for some time in the 15th century- was known for his distinguished form of punishment: impaling people. Whoever disobeyed the rules would have a spike stuck from one orifice to another and we learned about this in school at the ripe age of ten years old. But that was just for torture, as I don’t think Vlad Dracula was actually drinking blood.
There are documented occurrences of unaccountable events in the Hoia-Baciu forest, such as materializations and dematerializations, unnaturally crooked trees, floating nebulae, colorful lights bursting from the grass and even strange shapes that only showed up in pictures.
In 1968, the international press agencies transmitted the exceptional photos of a discoidal UFO that had flown over the Cluj forest - read in the newspaper article. I was spending the summer at my grandparents’ countryside house, as I would do for most of my childhood, when I found out about these supernatural events.
My grandma shared with me this fascinating, yet spooky article from her Formula AS newspaper, that she would then use to start the fire for heating. Even though the paper was gone, the unimaginable scenes that were described so vividly stayed with me for a while. For several nights I was seeing a green dot in the sky at night. I kept wondering about aliens, strange forces and UFOs and the possibility that paranormal activity could happen in our small, boring country. However, I didn’t tell anyone about it because I was afraid: both of being made fun of for believing this and of these curiosities being further confirmed.
I guess living fearfully was really passed down generations- when you take a second to think about it, a big chunk of Romanians’ behaviour stems from fear. We care so much about our neighbors’ opinions, about showcasing our wealth and status, about the outer layer that we present to others - all in fear of being judged.
This isn’t an irrational fear, a lot of Romanians judge improperly what they don’t understand. Older generations in Romania are rejecting a more progressive, inclusive thinking when it comes to views on equality, racism and overall social issues. This is a common case of fearing the unknown: generations would rather stick to what has become familiar, even though it’s doing more harm than good, simply because it’s embedded in the unfair society they were part of. We cannot blame them, but we shouldn’t be like them either.
My family lived under a communist regime led by a shoemaker. People were waiting in lengthy queues for groceries that were given in minimum portions for survival, it was usual for children to be physically abused in schools, families had limited access to hot water and electricity, they were living under poor conditions and had to worship a “leader” whose whole experience was working with shoes.
Meanwhile, loads of money were being spent on some of the largest, most impressive buildings, such as the Palace of Parliament. Thousands of rooms, chandeliers and artwork that only the dictator got to enjoy, at the expense of a country’s population. And his story wasn’t the motivational you-can-do-anything kind, it was just about another politically incompetent, power-hungry and greedy man that traumatized generations to the point of revolution. Breaking free was liberating for a brief moment when everyone gathered in the streets in 1989, but what happened to Romania afterwards?
Based on:
Kommentare