#8March Rafila Moldovan, woman who turns home into museum, awarded 'Living Human Treasure'

One of the most reputed minstrels of the central County of Mures, Rafila Moldovan from the Idicel de Padure village, who has turned her home into a museum clustering the most important ethnographic assets of the Mures village, was awarded the "Living Human Treasure" title on behalf of the Ministry of Culture and National Identity (MCIN). 

Rafila Moldovan who will turn 80 this 19 October has arranged together with her son in a small cottage in her courtyard a museum where she preserved several items bringing to mind the life of the old village: folk costumes, household items from dowry boxes to jar-heated irons, items used for wool carding or to preapring the loom, to the traditional wooden goat young people once carried when caroling. 

A part of the items in the museum-cottage belonged to her mother and grandmother, others she just saved ahead of being burnt by the village people, some were donated to her, while other items she simply bought. 

"Such things are hard to find because people have given them to ashes. Now, if I ask anybody for an item, they ask me for money, but if they intend to trow it away they need nothing for it. They'd better burn those items! Many beautiful things were burnt in this village! I loved them and didn't wreck them (...) It didn't take long to collect all these things, many I have woven myself, while these are from my mother. Many of these items were stored by my mother in a large box and hidden underneath the bed, during wartime. At the end of the war, they were brought to light (...) Nobody is sewing today such folk costumes, now everybody is on the phone," said Rafila Moldovan. 

She added her soul is bound to each of the items in the museum-cottage, as tiny and insignificant as it might seem, since each has a story, personal or of the village. 

"I've noticed all things decay and I was so sorry when seeing that the people throw away clothes and put them on fire. It broke my heart. I remember the moment my mother dug up the clothes from the large box, at the end of the war, perhaps the reason why I love so much the skirt I wear. This one belonged to my grandmother, to my mother, it is over 150 years old. My mother taught us to take care of them, she used to say take care of them, do not ruin them, because they are so hard to make.' If not taken care of, they could not last that much time," aunt Rafila said. 

Recently, the Targu Mures Ethnography and Folk Art Museum presented Rafila Moldovan with the Ethnographic Cultural Merit title, collector, folk craftsperson and minstrel, for her involvement in salvaging and promoting the Romanian traditional costume in this area. 

Aunt Rafila, who became a widow at only 36, and having three little children, is one of the most reputed and beloved folk minstrels of the Mures County, who is volunteering in saving the Romanian folk costumes of the Upper Mures Valley. Obviously, these efforts didn't make her popular, the villagers are envious of her and most of the time isolate her. 

Aunt Rafila says she is accustomed to being appreciated "only from Brancovenesti onwards", meaning from 10 km away from her village whose culture she has rescued. 

Her merit is even greater as she managed to rescue and proudly wear a skirt over 150 years old that was witness to two World Wars and all of the tragedies they've brought about.