National Culture Day at the Romanian Academy

On 15 January 2014, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of Romania attended the General Assembly of the Romanian Academy on the occasion of the National Culture Day and of the birthday of the national poet Mihai Eminescu. The event began with a concert of chamber music performed by a string quartet of the students of the University of Music of Bucharest.

The session was opened by academician Ionel Haiduc, president of the Romanian Academy. “The Romanian Academy considers that no better date could be chosen as National Culture Day than the birthday of the national poet Mihai Eminescu, for what he meant in the culture of the country. We have remarkable names in all fields of culture in Romania, namely in arts and sciences, science having been part of culture, although sometimes science and culture are mentioned separately. Several names of personalities could compete to define a certain day as Day of the National Culture, but Eminescu not only contributed a lot to the formation of the Romanian modern language, but his work also proves he was also acquainted with the basic scientific knowledge of his time”, academician Ionel Haiduc, president of the Romanian Academy said.

Then, the message of the Minister for Culture was read.

“Eminescu was, is, and will always be Romanian culture. Unless we are not born with Eminescu by our side, unless we develop through Eminescu, and endeavour to comprehend Eminescu, we cannot understand the sorrow caused by the absence of culture, we cannot understand the Romanian patrimony and language, cannot appropriate the great names of the later modernity and cannot situate them on the scale of the contemporary culture”, Radu Boroianu, State Secretary, Minister for Culture.

Academician Eugen Simion, President of the National Foundation for Science and Art and president of the Section of Philology and Literature of the Romanian Academy spoke about the accusations brought against Eminescu in our time.

Then, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel delivered a speech entitled Eminescu and the Church, in which he eulogized the personality of the national poet Mihai Eminescu, pointing out the poet’s relationship with the Church: “Born and grown up in the Christian Orthodox spirit of a religious family, who had close relations with the Church and Romanian monasticism, Mihai Eminescu has always been deeply inspired by the spiritual universe of his native places close to Botosani region, scattered with hills and much sky, with monasteries and sketes of holy life, as well as of folk traditions of great artistic beauty. Eminescu’s attachment, respect and admiration for the Church of the nation which he has always seen present in the development of the national culture and identity of the Romanian people were cultivated in his family, by his mother’s sisters who were nuns, one of them even abbess of Agafton skete where the child, and then young man Mihai Eminescu used to go rather often. This is how he got acquainted rather early with the church services and chants, reflecting them later on in some of his creations, in which he uses metaphors inspired by the Orthodox liturgical universe, such as the poem “Prayer”, for example. Beloved and appreciated by the people of the Church from childhood till the end of his life Eminescu was, in his turn, a lover and a supporter of the Church. Thus, he called the Orthodox Church “the spiritual mother of the Romanian people, which generated the unity of language and the ethnic unity of the people (…)”.

Academician Dan Berindei and academician Ion Aurel Pop, rector of the University of Cluj took the floor too.

“We are, as the law says, the highest forum of science and culture of the country, but we must also be her wise counsellor, with no political involvement, but with the only duty to watch over and draw the attention when issues come up and risk endangering not only our today’s constructions, but also those of the future”, academician Dan Berindei said.

“Eminescu does not need eulogies or praises, because he himself is the eulogy and praise of the Romanian people”, said academician Ion Aurel Pop, rector of the “Babes Bolyai” University of Cluj-Napoca.

To end with, the volume 150 of the collection “Basic Works” entitled “Mihai Eminescu – Poems” Perpessicius, 2013, was presented. The new stamps Romfilatelia dedicated to the National Culture Day were also presented. The event ended with a recital of actor Dorel Visan.

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