The Macavei Painting
100x160cm, acrylics on canvas
“The Bear’s Maccabee”, “The Day of the Bear”, “The Mating of Bears” or “The Maccabee of the Hives” are names that lasted throughout time, to this day, relics of pre-Christian celebrations that coincide with the beginning of the bear mating season and with the end of summer.
According to a decree from Constantinople, this cosmic day of ancestral celebration was overlapped with a Christian one: The Day of the Maccabees is also called The Day of the Summer Cross, because the Church, on this day, celebrates the parade of the wood of the Holy Cross on the streets, with the role of protection and sanctification of people, their household and their crops.
In the southern parts of the country, in Oltenia, on “The Maccabee of the Hives” there is a tradition of cutting the honeycombs and collecting the last honey, leaving the bees only with the necessary reserve for the winter.
