New year's rituel

Photographer

Jan Janssen

Category

New York Photography - Cultural

Company

Jan Janssen Photography

Submission Group

Amateur

Year

2024

Country / Region:

Netherlands

In the photo series, "New year's ritual", Janssen photographs the New Year's Eve tradition of the bear dance in the Romanian cities of Asău and Dărmănești. Every year, on December 30-31, many inhabitants of Romania come together to symbolically initiate the new year. Despite the global Western commercialisation of the New Year celebration, the local communities of Romania prefer to celebrate this very ancient tradition in large numbers every year, by donning the skins of a thousand ancestors. It testifies to a community full of love, bound by tradition and the legacy of age-old legends.