This year's 1 December was more special than ever. 100 years of Romania means that each of us wanted to celebrate 100 times more intensely the country's national day.
Rompro decided to get involved for this event in a project that started 3 years ago, Spotlight: Romania organized Eastwards, the Romanian film festival in The Hague. So starting at 9am on December 1st we found ourselves there among the children ready to venture out for a day of activities.
The start of the day was marked by workshops for children in animation, music, history or character design. In parallel, a ROMPRO book fair took place. During the whole day people could exchange books, buy books in Romanian and more but especially listen to the stories of some great authors. Among them were Jan Willem Bos, Cristian Presură and Cristina Tanasă who decided to share with us how they decided to write in Romanian and the listeners were able to talk more with each guest.An unmissable part of the film festival was also the first Romanian Christmas fair in the Netherlands. Right from the entrance people were captivated by the smell of gingerbread and warm kurtos. If they didn't buy their traditional i's or Maria's knitted products they certainly decided to stop and buy cosmetics made in Cluj. The ROMPRO stand was also a great success in everything from traditional products to church antiques and jewellery. Attendees either enjoyed some of the most interesting Romanian films on the theatre seats or participated in Romanian and Dutch classes offered by Interconnections. What better way to celebrate 100 years of Romania for those living in the Netherlands?
Well, the party went on until late in the evening because at 8:30 pm we had the chance and the pleasure to have Stela Enache with us, singing with the Discotecă Romanian songs known by all. And to hear all the guests singing "Ani de liceu" at the top of their voices was clearly a good end to our national day. (video)
Spotlight Festival: Romania #4 https://www.eastwards.nl/celebration/
Organiser: EASTWARDS, ROMPRO partner
Author: Eliza Casapopol
Photos: EASTWARDS & ROMPRO
