Dorin David

Lolele in Agnita Dorin David

In the center of Romania, in the little town Agnita, Sibiu county, it was resuscitated an old tradition of the Transylvanian Saxons (in German, Siebenburger Sachsen), documented since 1689. It was practiced with intermittences and threatened with total disappearance after the movement of the Saxons in Germany in the last years of the communist regime and after the 1989 Romanian Revolution. It is named in German "Urzelnlauf" and in Romanian "Fuga Lolelor" (= run of Lole), or as it is called on short: Lole. The tradition was forbidden last time in 1941, then resumed and practiced between 1969 until 1990, when it was stopped again - and this time it seemed permanently. Luckily in 2006 Lolele were exemplary recommence in Agnita, this time by a group of Romanians, who understood the cultural and social importance of this event, beyond any kind of "ethnical" boundaries. Since then, this event was included in cultural manifestations of several other places from Romania, as Sibiu, Sighisoara or Cincu. Almost all the participants have the same costume: white covered with black slices, looking like some dragon scales; only the masks differ, some being quite scaring. Always present is the whip used by Lole to snap, and the bells which chink at every step; some of Lole have a sort of wood instrument which make a lot of noise, called "Ratsche," while others have a sort of pliers, also made from wood, named "Quetsche," where they keep donuts to serve friends. Lolele initially had the role to guard the chests of the guilds. Outsiders were not accepted in the group, because at first the participants belonged only to the guilds, where the access implied a long and tough initiation. Starting with 1941 Saxons women and children were accepted. Nowadays Lolele run through the city to ward off bad spirits out of the town.