Romania’s Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan on Saturday praised the Haferland festival, a yearly event that has revived the traditions of Transylvanian Saxons and created economic opportunities in their medieval villages, for ‘breathing a European spirit’ at a time of rising global nationalism.
The festival now its thirteenth year is held across 10 villages in the heart of Romania which are home to the small but industrious Saxon community that has historically punched above its weight.
The villages are slowly recovering after years of economic and social decline in part thanks to the boost to rural tourism that Haferland has fueled and encouraged.
This year, some 8,000 people are expected to take part in the popular four-day event which showcases Saxon music, dancing, crafts, food, haymaking, pottery and traditional balls, organizers told Universul.net.
Mr. Bolojan wrote to Michael Schmidt, the entrepreneur who started up the festival, Senate speaker Mircea Abrudean, a guest at the festival, and the Romanian-German Forum which develops business, political and cultural ties between the two EU nations. Members met Saturday at the festival for an annual meeting. Germany is Romania’s top trading partner and annual trade was 42.1 billion euros in 2024.
Romania’s destiny “is the European Union, and in Criț (Eds: the village at the heart of the festival) you can breathe the European spirit that demolishes prejudices and encourages all European peoples to coexist around the values of peace, solidarity, freedom of movement, tolerance (and) Christianity,” the prime minister wrote.
Speaking about tens of thousands of Saxons who emigrated to Germany under communism and return home every years to the villages where they grew up, Bolojan said that “any ethnic German who left Romania, when he returns to Transylvania, (he) returns HOME, and gets nostalgic listening to the stories of his ancestors, many of whom undertood the value of sacrifice,” he said, alluding to the communist times when thousands of ethnic Germans emigrated from Transylvania to Germany. When they left Romania, Saxons were forced to abandon their homes and livelihoods and make a fresh start in Germany.
He noted that the festival has developed rural tourism and other related activities “which are an important resource for Romania’s economy… and can revitalize villages and (bring) sustainability,” in the message made available to Universul.net.
“In addition to its cultural dimension, (the festival) it is a place of harmony, respect, the value that ‘otherness offers’ at a tense time internationally, where there is a resurgence of national resentment and (certain people) take advantage of the current context to fuel mistrust and antagonisms.”
The festival is “a commendable initiative” where we can “rediscover the depth of interpersonal relationships,” he said in the heartfelt message, adding that the government would “ consider supporting and developing rural tourism which must become one of its key assets. Haferland Festival, now in its thirteenth edition, is a successful model of rural tourism projects.”
