By Norah Vawter

When I attended this year’s Romanian Weekend at the Wharf, it was a hot, humid day in Washington D.C. According to the Romanian Cultural Institute, this three-day event is “the biggest Romanian cultural and public diplomacy program in the United States.” Organized by the Embassy of Romania and the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York, with the support of the Maramureș County Council, this festival showcased wide-ranging arts, culture, and customs. It took place on District Pier from July 7 to 9, 2023 and was free and open to the public. 

Surrounded by people from all over the world, I watched Romanians and Americans perform traditional folk dances of the Eastern European country. I was struck by how large and small the world is, at once. Bucharest, the capital and largest city of Romania, is about 5,000 miles from our nation’s capital. And yet, my ten year-old son learned to make a clay bowl using a traditional Romanian technique. The craftsman who guided his hands gifted the bowl to him, and it has since become one of my son’s most prized possessions.

My family joined the folk dancing, along with many other bystanders, when the dancers came down from the stage and invited us to hold hands with them and be part of the rhythm and the celebration itself. My movements were halting and awkward, but I laughed and danced and tried my way through the song, allowing myself to live in the melody and the beat.

This is the magic you find at a true celebration of culture. You are confronted by the foreign, you are reminded of how much your cultures have in common, and if you’re lucky you’re immersed in the customs, the music, the life itself. Then, if you’re paying attention, you start thinking about deeper meanings. There’s so much value in seeking out encounters with foreign cultures.

Beyond the fun day out, a cultural festival is an opportunity to engage with internationalism, to think beyond our borders and to consider the ties that bind all people together. We’re at a moment in the United States where nationalism and “America First” ideology looms large over our political discourse. That dangerous rhetoric makes an event like this, which celebrates foreign culture and internationalism, even more important.

The Romanian Weekend featured a variety of musical and dance performers, including The National Folk Ensemble “Transylvania”, which was founded in 1959 and hails from Baia Mare, Maramureş County in Northern Romania; the D.C.-based Carpathia Folk Dance Ensemble; traditional folk singer Andreea Rebăltescu; Ana Everling & Taraf de Chicago, a multinational band led by Romanian-American singer and visual artist Ana Everling; and Four Corners, a collaborative band of Romanian-American and American artists that blends jazz and folklore.

There were remarks by Andrei Muraru, Ambassador of Romania to the U.S., Ionel Bogdan, President of Maramureș County Council and Dorian Branea, Director of the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York.

Craftsmanship on display included woodworking by Ioan Bârsan, who creates both household objects and monumental woodworks; pottery by Vasile Chira, a potter and master of the clay with over twenty years experience, who continues old traditions into modern day and is eager to teach his methods to those willing to learn (including my lucky son); and weaving. Books by Romanian and Romanian-American authors were also on display and for sale by Bucharest Inside the Beltway, a Romanian literary organization that was started in D.C. and is now based in Denver.

If you’re looking for more opportunities to engage with Romanian culture, you might check out the work of Romanian-American artist Mari Calai, who is based in Northern Virginia. Calai’s first solo exhibition in the U.S., The Light Within, will be on display from Saturday, July 29 through August 8 at the Homme Gallery, located at 2000 L Street, NW in Washington, DC. The opening is July 29.

If you’d like to receive the Romanians of D.C. newsletter, you can sign up here. You can also follow events and news from the Romanian Embassy. And if you’re interested in attending cultural events at the foreign embassies of many countries based here in Washington, you can find events open to the public here and here.

Norah Vawter is DCTRENDING’s local authors editor. She has an M.F.A. in creative writing from George Mason University and is querying her first novel. She lives with her family in Northern Virginia. Follow her on Twitter @norahvawter, where she shares words and works of D.C. area writers every Friday.