The Florii Painting
100x160cm, acrylics on canvas
Bringing the willow branches (“stâlpari” in Romanian), a custom specific to the town of Săliște, used to be the responsibility of the children, “the innocent ones”, who, under the guidance of the priests and cantors, would pick them from the river bank and bring them after a certain ritual in the church. The custom is practiced even now, almost unchanged, as in the middle of the 19th century, when Picu Pătruț composed the ”Hymn of the Palm Sunday”, which is sung, throughout the journey, by the procession that carries the willow branches.
In the afternoon of Palm Sunday, the children, in traditional attire, gathered in the schoolyard near the Great Church in the center of Săliște. From here, guided by the priests, they set off, in an orderly group, towards the river bank, at the edge of the town, where they collected willow branches. While singing the hymn, the procession then enters the Great Church. Here they are awaited by the parishioners, especially older residents, and the children’s parents. The children kneel, are blessed by the priests, and they leave the branches, keeping only a few to sprinkle on the family graves.
