ABOUT THE ROMANIAN ROYAL OINA
AND A BROKEN ANALEMMA

-text and photos Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
design Florin Alexandru Stancu-

One if my favourite buildings in Bucharest
is the Palace of the Mayoralty of the 1st District.

It was made around 1930
in the Neo-Romanian style.

Since the word Romanian automatically sends me
to the coat of arms of Romania,
which includes the reproduction of the brightest heavenly bodies
(the Sun, the Moon and Venus)
I tried, in different moments,
to catch this building under each of them.

The Sun: (9 June 2015):

The Moon Sickle (11 February 2016):

Venus (24 February 2017, on the right):

In Romania
23 April is the Day of Saint George,
the spiritual patron of the Romanian army.

On that day in 2017
I caught a beautiful dusk, followed by Jupiter in state of grace,
and I thought of the heroism of the Romanian soldiers in history
and particularly under the Royal Crown,
when they brought for their country
the state independence (1877-78) and Greater Romania (1918),
and shortened World War 2 with 6 months (after the specialists’ opinion).

But the last King of Romania, Mihai I,
was expelled by communists in 1947
and only after 45 years of exile he could come back home.

Today the Royal House of Romania coexists with the presidential institution,
but without any political power.

In exchange, King Mihai and his family have remained major moral models,
living for Romania and trying to help it after their possibilities.

One of their current deeds is to sustain two special games in their country:
rugby (the most elitist sport in the world, where Romania has by far
the strongest national team in Central and South-East Europe)
and oina, the Romanian national game,
attested for the first time in the 14th century,
similar to lapta (Russia), pesapallo (Finland), paume (France),
schlangball (Germany), cricket (UK), baseball (USA) etc.

Today the oina game is supported by two national federations
(Romania and Republic of Moldova),
and is also played in a few other neighboring countries,
or as demonstrations in foreign countries,
being included in the annual festivals of traditional games and sports.

I will insist on this game just because on May 13-14
the National Rugby Stadium had to host the 5th edition of the Oina King Cup,
right in the same district, close to the palace of the zonal mayoralty.

That’s why I thought to prepare the event in my way,
firstly going again, like in a pilgrimage,
to that Neo-Romanian palace to catch the Sun above it
on April 25 at around 19:00 (Romanian Summer Hour, so normally 18:00),
and moving to the Dambovita River around 19:30.

Until the Oina King Cup
I also tried to catch a morning with the planet Venus,
but the first two attempts were disturbed by
the light of the day (April 26) and clouds (April 27),
and, after a few other pictures,
only on April 29 I could acceptably catch the Morning Star.

After that, on May 3, as for an analemma,
I caught again the same scenery (palace and river) at the same times,
followed a little later by the crescent Moon.

(Among these, the statue of Nicolae Titulescu,
the Romanian man who was for two years the leader of the Nations League
in the 1930s).

I advanced toward the Romanian Independence and Monarchy Day, May 10,
and I caught two admirable evening approaches between the Crowned Moon and Jupiter
on May 8 and 9,
in the last image the Crown of the Moon taking the form
of the current map of Romania,
as if the sky saluted my country.

The Holiday of May 10
coincided with the Full Moon,
on May 11 I saw
the Moon dancing over street lamps
and Jupiter dancing over leafs,
and on May 12 I was again, but at about 18:00,
to see from other position the Sun over the Neo-Romanian palace,
and at about 18:30 to see the Sun over the Dambovita River.

On the pre-morning of May 13
even the Crowned Moon knocked on my window,
and then I admired a few cumulonimbus clouds
and a beautiful sunset with crepuscular rays.

May 14 was my birthday, too, and on that pre-morning
the Moon danced again over street lamps,
this time with the support of Saturn (very close under her).

Then, under spectacular clouds, I admired the final of the Oina King Cup
(with the best teams in the world, in which Constanta defeated Bucharest),
hoping that this game will be a demonstrative one
at the Summer Olympics 2020.

I didn’t stop here;
on the contrary,
I decided to return a few times, after possibilities,
to the Neo-Romanian palace and to try a pseudo-analemma
(just because I couldn’t achieve the conditions for a real analemma -
weekly pictures with the Sun during one year
from the same position at the same hour)
and to intercalate among them a few other pictures.

And the results…

Toward May 19 (19:00-19:30):