Diary for my daughter 24.12.2024 - Moș Gerilă

Hello, my beautiful daughter!

Tata here!

I wish you a happy Christmas Eve! I hope the Santa it will bring you whatever you wish for. I am fine today, I went to do the last shopping's for Christmas as tomorrow is everything closed as it is Christmas. Last night, I was watching at some Christmas movies, and I was resting myself. It is a nice and sunny day here outside today. A lot of people were outside for the last-minute shop, and all the shops were full. It's nice to see people looking for the last presents. So... let's go to your today story...

Moș Gerilă

Moș Gerilă is the name of a character from Romanian folklore and communist propaganda.

Origin of the name

The Romanian word moș means an elder male person. The term ger means "frost" in Romanian. Moș Gerilă's name is a translation of the Russian Ded Moroz and was adopted by the Romanian communists, under influence of the Soviet model, as a new name for Moș Crăciun (Santa Claus).

Appearance

In 1947, the newspaper Națiunea published an illustration of Moș Gerilă as a young, athletic, proletarian, bare-chested man.

History of the character

Origins

During the period from 1944 to 1948, Romanian Communist Party newspapers tried to denigrate the image of Christmas, emphasizing, for example, the peasant origins of many colinde.

In 1948, after the Communists took power in Romania, the word Crăciun ceased to appear in any article in the newspaper Scînteia.

The word Crăciun was considered too religious, and therefore instead of Moș Crăciun, (the Romanian name for Santa Claus), a new character was introduced in the 1950s: Moș Gerilă. Children were told that it was Moș Gerilă who brought gifts each December 25.

In the three years following the installation of the Communists in power, Christmas celebrations were transferred to the New Year, December 30, the day when King Michael of Romania abdicated in 1947, was renamed the Day of the Republic. December 25 and 26 became working days.

Decline

In the 1980s, the personality cult of "the beloved leader" would leave its imprint on the character of Moș Gerilă. Children's New Year gifts were associated less with Moș Gerilă and more with the state itself, personified by Nicolae Ceaușescu.

After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Moș Gerilă lost influence and the older character of Moș Crăciun returned.

And that was your today story. Tomorrow, we will learn about Ded Moroz.

Until tomorrow...

Be nice!

I'm so sorry that another day passed and I didn't hug you! Please forgive me!

I miss you the most!

I love you infinite!