For Global Astronomy Month 2020 (164): Inertia of Inertia (10)

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For Global Astronomy Month 2020 (164): Inertia of Inertia (10)

By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe (text and photos) and Florin Alexandru Stancu (design)

Published: Friday, July 24 2020 23:29

ABOUT “HORA” THE CIRCLE DANCE
Astro-photo-essay-poem (cosmopoem) by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

“The proud Sun will see
On a holiday
Our fraternal “hora”
On the Romanian realm.”
-Vasile Alecsandri (excerpt of “Hora Unirii” - “The Circle Dance of the Union”, 1856; English translation from Romanian by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe-

On July 11, 2020, I remembered the stanza above (rhymed and rhythmic in the original version) of the “Manifesto” which preceded the Union between Wallachia (the Romanian Land) and the Principality of Moldova (West Moldova) in 1859. But that union was possible only after a great popular demonstration, 30,000 people on the Patriarchy (Mitropoly) Hill in Bucharest (the seat of the central Romanian cathedral, made in the 17th century), who danced the “Hora” (the Romanian traditional circle dance) of the Union. (It is interesting that in other times the Romanian peasants also used the name of “Hora” for the constellation Corona Borealis.)

So I climbed that extraordinary place, trying to take power from the past for the future and thinking that everything could be connected to astronomy…

AndreiDGheorgheGAM164A 600