#Exhibit of the Month

Christmas bells entered the Romanian cultural space through a long process in which archaic traditions blended with Christian belief and European influences. Long before the holiday of Christmas developed as we know it, metallic sounds played an important ritual role in old communities: they were used to drive away evil spirits, to purify spaces, and to protect people during transitional moments at the turn of the year. These beliefs have been preserved in winter customs such as caroling, the Plugușor, and masked dances, where bells and jingles were indispensable.
With the spread of Christianity, the sound of the bell also acquired a profound religious meaning, becoming an announcer of major feasts and a symbol of the Nativity. Small bells, however, were not originally used as decorations but primarily as functional or ritual objects.
The first decorated Christmas tree in the Romanian lands was the one at the palace of Prince Carol I of Hohenzollern, following his arrival in the Romanian Principalities in 1866. From that moment the tradition took root, and on Christmas Eve princes and princesses invited to the palace would take part in decorating the tree. Among the ornaments used were small metal bells, symbolizing joy, the good news, and divine protection for the home.
In the twentieth century, Christmas bells spread across all Romanian provinces and became a visual emblem of the holiday, appearing in both decorations and carols. Even during periods when religious expression was curtailed, bells remained in people's homes as signs of joy and the continuity of tradition. Today they retain this dual meaning: the echo of ancient beliefs and, at the same time, the announcement of the Birth of Christ - a symbol of hope, light, and the link between past and present.
These tinkling pieces are part of a generous heritage collection at the National Museum of History of Moldova (NMHM), which includes more than 200 cultural items. A substantial contribution to the museum's collection of decorative bells was made by Dorina Raischi, a teacher at School No. 94 in Chișinău, who donated 174 bells, of which around 30 are winter-themed. Made of ceramic, porcelain, glass, and metal, they were brought from different parts of the world and together offer a succinct picture of the global culture of bells. They add a festive note to the home and even to a gift, and it is hard to imagine Christmas without their cheerful tinkling.

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Events Archive

Symposium "The Union of 1918 in museum collections"

April 12, 2018

On April 12, 2018, at the National Museum of History of Moldova was held the Symposium "The Union from 1918 in museum collections". The event was attended by historians and museographers from various Romanian and Moldovan institutions, representatives of the Museum of History of Romania (Bucharest), the Museum of the Union (Alba Iulia), the National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History (Chişinău), the National Museum of Literature "M. Kogâlniceanu" (Chişinău), the Museum of Cahul Region, the Institute of History (Chişinău) and the State Archival Service of the Republic of Moldova.

The works of the Symposium began with a presentation by Ion Negrei, researcher at the Institute of History of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research of the Republic of Moldova, which reviewed the chronology of the events from Bessarabia in 1917-1918, especially the works of the historical meeting of Sfatul Ţării (the Parliament) on March 27th, 1918. All 13 papers presented were focused on the thematic of the symposium evoking moments, places, personalities that marked the history of the event.

The symposium was an attempt to approach with reverence the content of the museum heritage focusing on the theme of the Union, tangled testimonies coming from various categories of pieces: documents, photographs, postcards, medals, original personal objects, presented in a form of recovery and re-evaluation. Testimonies about Bessarabian personalities in the collections of the National Museum of History of Romania, Documents of the Union from the collection of the Museum of the Union from Alba Iulia, From the KGB archive - to the museum heritage. The history of a collection, The Mărăşeşti Book of poet Alexei Mateevici, The evocation of the Union for half a century, Photographic, documentary and numismatic testimonies with memorial value from the collection of the NMHM - are just a few of the subjects that have marked the contribution of the museographers to the process of collective memory formation in connection with the events of March 27, 1918 - December 1, 1918, these testimonies being a contribution from the perspective of writing history.

The event was part of the series of events, dedicated to the Centenary of the Great Union, organized by the National Museum of History of Moldova.