GROWING UP IN OSHANI: SHEARING TIME MEMORIES
Description: Looking back to the 1950s Archangelos, shearing time was a big event on the annual calendar when wool was very valuable. In this video, Stella Vragali and Stella Koziari are recalling the work carried by the sheep owners and the other men in the village during shearing time and grain harvesting. To the small children, this was a great day, in the houses the women were all day busy preparing the food they were going to provide on the day.
Cite as: Cum li tundeám cáprili ši óili – Growing up in Oshani: shearing time memories; performers: Stella Koziari, Stella Vragali, camera/ interview: Andreea Pascaru, transcription/translation: Thede Kahl, Andreea Pascaru, editor: Valentina Paul; retrieved from www.oeaw.ac.at/VLACH, ID number: megl1237GRV0007a.
THE GIRL WITH THE SCENTED COAT
Description: Travelling through the past of 1950s Archangelos, Northern Greece (Oshanj), Stella Vragali narrates a series of unique stories that marked her as a little girl. Through her autobiographical interviews, Stella gifts us with her love for stories on everyday life happenings and miracles performed through the intercession of Saints. Her stories reveal the portrait and the harsh reality of a village and at the same time of a little girl's life through the eyes of the distinguished woman she is today. Most of the stories reflect the social relationships and structures, the social and religious norms of those times. While she is defining the past in the most original way, her source of knowledge and inspiration is often called to be her family circle that shaped her views on life, social behavior and religious morals for the most part. In this interview, Stella Vragali, a Meglen Vlach speaker from a little village in Northern Greece, evokes her past and recalls how she, as a little girl working side by side with her parents, learned, cared for and cultivated a series of understandings, engagements and relationships which played a big role in her life and shaped her as an adult. We discover how the wish to resemble in many respects the girls her age, didn't always end in Stella being able to practice fashionable customs, otherwise widespread among the youth. By obeying her parents, with her mother's indulgence on one side and her father's strictness on the other side, she eventually didn't ask for more than needed. Sometimes though, it was worth trying.
Cite as: Fe̯áta mícă ši sétra cu ároma – The girl with the scented coat; performer: Stella Vragali; camera/ interview/ transcription/ translation: Andreea Pascaru, editor: Antonio Fichera, retrieved from www.oeaw.ac.at/VLACH, ID number: megl1237GRV0008a.
THE STORY BEHIND CHEESE MAKING
Description: In this video, Stella Vragali introduces us to the process of traditional cheese making by recalling memories of flavours, people and places linked to this special food practice. Stella intertwines a detailed description of how to make the artisan good with scenes from her daily life as a skilled little girl in charge of her siblings. An unwanted guest though, whom she fears a lot, is seduced by the smell of milk and would almost spoil all the hardwork and it is for this twist that the story remains unforgettable.
Cite as: Cum darám brɔ́nza – The story behind cheese making; performer: Stella Vragali, camera/interview, transcription/ translation: Andreea Pascaru, editor: Valentina Paul, retrieved from www.oeaw.ac.at/VLACH, ID number: megl1237GRV0011a.