Every two years, around the week-end of 15 August, Brussels’s Grand-Place turns into a stunning Garden of Eden.
The biannual event is already a well-established tradition since 1971, when it has first happened. The Grand-Place wears a living carpet made out of flowers which are alive for a long week-end.
The year of 2024 celebrates the event’s 23rd edition, which honours, for the first time, dahlia flowers, breaking a tradition of mainly displaying begonias, as it happened in the previous editions.
This year, the Flower Carpet’s theme is Rhizome and focuses on a remarkable piece of Street Art, which was designed by Océane Cornille, a street artist from Liège.
Some impressive figures: the carpet is a puzzle of 1680 square meters, displaying several millions of multi-coloured dahlias, put in place by around hundred volunteers who managed to finalise the huge carpet in just a few hours.
We were happy to enjoy this event since we moved to Brussels in 2000.
A short video clip introducing the Flower carpet of Brussels, 2024 edition.
Previous editions of the Flower Carpet event in Brussels
La fiecare doi ani, în week-end-ul de dinainte de 15 august, Piața Grand-Place din Bruxelles se transformă într-o uimitoare Grădină a Edenului.
Evenimentul bianual este deja o tradiție bine stabilită din 1971, când a avut loc pentru prima dată.
Grand-Place găzduiește un covor viu, meșteșugit din flori naturale care respiră aerul orașului Bruxelles pentru un week-end mai lung.
Anul 2024 sărbătorește cea de-a 23-a ediție a evenimentului, care onorează, în premieră, florile de dalie, încălcând astel tradiția anilor trecuți de a expune begoniile multicolore, mândria horticultorilor belgieni.
Anul acesta, tema covorului de flori este Rhizome, o piesă remarcabilă de Street Art, proiectată de Océane Cornille, un artist stradal din Liège.
Câteva cifre impresionante: covorul este un puzzle de 1680 de metri pătrați, afișând câteva milioane de dalii multicolore, expuse conform creatiei artistului, de către aproximativ o sută de voluntari care au reușit să finalizeze imensul covor în doar câteva ore.
Ne-am bucurat să admirăm diferitele covoare, peste ani, încă din 2000, anul când ne-am mutat la Bruxelles.
O scurta panorama video a covorului de anul acesta, publicat pe Youtube.
Before retiring at the beginning of 2024 I wanted to visit three more schools in Romania, my home country, to close the series of the “Back to School” events, which I carried out for the past 14 years as an EU official.
As a former teacher I loved taking part in these events, perhaps I wanted to enjoy for one or two hours those particular and privileged moments when a teacher speaks to pupils in front of a classroom.
Back to School Programme: Background information
The Back to School programme was adopted by the European Commission in 2006, following a successful initiative launched by European Schoolnet, a former organisation I worked for about ten years.
In 2002, European Schoolnet started to encourage key public figures – such as European Commissioners, state presidents, prime ministers, members of the European and national parliaments, writers, singers, composers etc. – to visit schools and engage in a dialogue with students of all ages, to listen to their views on what matters most to them.
As the initiative become popular, many national and European institutions adopted the exchange model and encouraged their staff to take part in the “Back to School” activity.
The European Commission adopted the initiative and encouraged its own staff to get involved while spending their holidays in their home countries.
Preparing the Back to School event
I was in touch with the hosting teachers to find out more about the age of my audience to be able to tailor my content properly and make sure my message is well understood.
Pupils in Vintileasca, Vrancea, Romania, listening to my presentation (Photo: Prof. Stana Georgescu)
I arranged with several colleagues in European institutions to ship a number of EU publications to teachers. The publications were available in Romanian and, according to the hosting teachers, they were useful as supporting materials while teaching about the EU.
A special “Thank you” goes to my colleagues in the Commission, the Commission Representation in Bucharest, Publication Office and the Council of the European Union, for providing a good selection of publications and other information materials that were shipped on time to Romania, directly to the hosting teachers. It is also worth mentioning that all participating pupils got their own copies. There were also some extra copies donated to the schools’ libraries to be consulted by other pupils who did not attend.
I prepared three Power Point presentations whose content was supposed to fit into 60-90 minutes, including interaction with pupils and their teachers.
I invited both pupils and teachers to interrupt me at any time while presenting, so that they can pose any questions and make any comments. I tried to encourage some interactivity based on questions, answers and the content on the screen.
This approach helped pupils be a bit more confident and review and consolidate their knowledge on the EU policies and the latest EU developments.
1. EU in a nutshell EU history, Europe vs. the EU, What does the EU do? EU institutions, EU policies and their impact on our own day-to-day life. (Romanian)
2. What Europe does for me? How does Europe affect our everyday lives? How does it impact our jobs, our families, our health care, our hobbies, our journeys, our security, our consumer choices, and our social rights? And how is Europe present in our towns, cities, and regions? (Romanian)
3. A 20-question quiz on EU A set of questions to help pupils consolidate knowledge they got via the two previous PPT presentations. Small presents were given to the pupils as prizes for the right answers to the questions. (Romanian)
I invited pupils to take part in a dialogue and ask me any questions they may have, either on the EU or on my professional life.
It was interesting to listen to their own concerns and ideas. I was also delighted to note that the EU is well seen from the grassroots level. Pupils were aware of the EU efforts to improve the lives of all Europeans.
Școala Gimnazială Anghel Saligny is one of Focșani’s largest primary and lower secondary schools comprising 70 teachers and around 1200 pupils from 7 to 14 years of age.
The school is famous for its educational project, which focuses on personalising education and instruction activities according to the pupils’ needs and skills while encouraging personal development. The school staff is committed to building a learning community where all pupils, teachers, parents and grandparents learn how “to learn”.
Running my presentation on EU, its history and policies.
The hosting team was led by Prof. Badașcă Loredana and included six other teachers and the school principal, Mr Lazăr Mircea. The six teachers, namely Prof. Leonte Lilana, Prof. Baciu Ionelia-Dorina, Prof. Ionescu Cristina, Prof. Turturică Nicoleta, Prof. Manolache Mirela and Prof. Zaharia Marius, contributed to the event logistics by transforming the school library into an EU Information Corner, with publications and other EU materials provided by us before the event.
Closing the event with a group picture of all participants
During my visit on 6 October 2023 I noticed that pupils from an early age are aware of the day-to-day impact of the EU’s efforts to improving the lives of Europeans.
I closed the event with a dialogue where the participating pupils showed interest in the latest EU developments. They appeared to be a motivated generation of candidates to take part in the future EU programmes, notably Erasmus+.
One of my former colleagues from the Teacher Training College, the school I graduated from, Prof. Stana Georgescu, worked and lives in Vintileasca, a beautiful commune located in the Vrancea Mountains.
Vintileasca is situated at a distance of about 65 km far from Focsani, the capital city of the Vrancea county. Some years ago, I promised my former colleague that one day I will come for a Back to School event at their school.
The event was organised on 5 October 2023, right on the day when both teachers and pupils took part in activities dedicated to the World Education Day.
Prof. Georgescu, along with her colleagues, Prof. Noapteș Cuța, Prof. Marinescu Mihaela and Prof. Țuțui Violeta booked the village’s Culture House (Căminul Cultural), a large and beautiful venue where most of the cultural and other community activities take place.
Introducing the EU, its history & policies to my audience in Vintileasca (Photo: Prof. Stana Georgescu)
While preparing for the event, the teachers were helped by the commune mayor, Mr Tudorel Vâlcociu.
The hosting teachers invited several classes of pupils and encouraged them to wear traditional folk costumes. I was delighted to see and admire authentic costumes that were transmitted from a generation to another in the families of the pupils.
My audience in VIntileasca, in their beautiful folk costumes (Photo: Prof. Stana Georgescu)
The pupils wore the costumes, not only to mark the day celebration, but also to close the event with a folklore programme of songs and dances.
What I particularly liked in Vintileasca was the dynamic of the community life, which physically is far away from Europe, but very close to its heart, preserving its values and its cultural diversity.
Pupils performed some dances from their region in Vrancea, Romania (Photo: Prof. Stana Georgescu)
I was happy to take part in an active dialogue with both pupils and teachers, who proved to know a lot about the EU and mostly how the EU decisions and policies impact our lives as Europeans.
Bordeasca Veche is a village belonging to Tătăranu, the administrative unit called “comună” in Romanian, which groups several villages.
I used to visit Școala Gimnazială Nr. 2 Bordeasca Veche, with different occasions, while attending the primary and lower school in Tătăranu, my home village.
Running the 20-question quiz, a funny activity for both pupils and teachers.
With this Back to School event, taking place on 4 October 2023, I had the chance of going back in time to those school years, between 1970 and 1974.
I was pleased to take part in the event and share some presentations with an audience of pupils 12-14 years of age. The hosting teacher was Prof. Mirela Serea, the school principal and a teacher of History.
Prof. Serea along with her colleagues Bătrînu Steluța and Toma Stan prepared a modern venue, a classroom with an interactive white board, where I just plugged in my USB stick with the content presentations.
Closing the Back to School event.
The pupils impressed me with their EU knowledge level, their computer skills, when helping us run the presentation content on the board, and with their plans for the upcoming years. At this age they know exactly on what way they wanted to go to achieve their dreams.
Orașul Bruxelles sărbătorește anul acesta 50 de ani de la crearea primului Covor de flori begonia, întrucât în 2021 evenimentul nu a putut fi organizat din cauza pandemiei.
Primul Covor de flori din Bruxelles a fost prezentat vizitatorilor orașului în Grand Place, în august 1971. De atunci, evenimentul are loc o dată la doi ani și abordează diferite teme culturale.
Datorită conceptului artistic, Covorul de flori a devenit unul dintre cele mai cunoscute evenimente florale din lume, un motiv pentru care turiști din toate colțurile lumii vizitează orașul Bruxelles la jumătatea lunii august.
Covorul de begonii din Bruxelles, 2022; Fotografie de Petru Dumitru
Ïn 2022 Covorul de flori din Bruxelles reproduce primul design din 1971. Acesta include Sfântul Arhanghel Mihail și Leul Belgian.
Covorul conține mai multe arabescuri cu motive vegetale, din frunze și tulpini, realizate la rândul lor din flori, majoritatea fiind begonii de câteva culori.
Realizarea unui Covor de flori este un proiect elaborat care durează aproximativ doi ani. Proiectul trece prin etapele tradiționale, de la planificare și proiectare până la realizarea capodoperei în sine.
Brussels celebrates the 50th anniversary of the famous Begonia Flower Carpet this year, as in 2021 the event could not be organised due to the pandemic.
The first Brussels’s Flower Carpet was on display in August 1971. Since then, the event has been taking place every two years and has been focusing on different cultural themes.
This approach makes the Brussels’s Flower Carpet one of the world’s most famous events, a pretext to welcome tourists from all the world corners.
Brussels’s Flower Carpet 2022, photo by Petru Dumitru
The 2022 Brussels’s Flower Carpet replicates the very first 1971 design, including Saint Michael the Archangel and the Belgian Lion.
The carpet features multiple arabesques made out of leaves and stems.
Making a Flower Carpet is an elaborated project which takes about two years. The project runs through the traditional stages, from planning and designing to crafting the masterpiece.
Românii își sărbătoresc Ziua Culturii Naționale pe 15 ianuarie, în fiecare an, încă din 2010. Evenimentul are loc în ziua când este sărbătorită ziua de naștere a lui Mihai Eminescu, poetul național al românilor.
Ilustratie de Ligia Macovei
Sunt sigur că nu există vreun român care să nu fie atașat de cele mai cunoscute poezii ale lui Eminescu. Eminescu îmi este cunoscut încă din copilărie. În timp ce ne pregăteam de culcare, mama ne șoptea „Somnoroase păsărele”. Poezia este o sucessiune de imagini cu păsărelele care se pregătesc de culcare și se adună la cuiburile lor pentru a se odihni împreună peste noapte.
Mama știa poezia pe de rost. Era o femeie modestă, o țărancă autentică, într-un sat sărac, undeva în partea de est a României. Ea însă cunoștea unele dintre poeziile lui Eminescu, ca majoritatea oamenilor din generația ei, care au absolvit cele șapte clase de scoală, între 1940 și 1950.
Chiar dacă este considerată o poezie ușor de înțeles, “Somnoroase păsărele” este plină de semnificații profunde. Ïn acest context doresc să dau ca exemplu câteva traduceri în engleză, unde se poate observa cu ușurință o varietate largă de metafore și imagini stilistice, plecând de la versiunea originală, în limba romänă.
De ce Eminescu este reprezentativ pentru fiecare român?
Pentru mine, Ziua Culturii Naționale Române este un moment aparte, când pot reflecta asupra propriei noastre moșteniri culturale, a limbii mele materne, precum și al locului acestora în patrimoniul cultural universal.
Anul acesta, m-am concentrat pe două puncte esențiale:
Mitul Eminescu față în față cu Eminescu, scriitorul
În ceea ce privește locul lui Eminescu în cultura română și cea universală, o serie de experți susțin că personalitatea sa de scriitor ar trebui separată de mitul creat în perioada comunistă din România. Foștii comuniști l-au transformat pe Eminescu într-un mit național și universal, după unii experti.
Eminescu în engleză
Eminescu nu este bine cunoscut în afara spațiului cultural românesc. Acesta este motivul pentru care, cu mijloace modeste, am inițiat un proiect Web pentru elevi, între 1997 și 1999. Într-un articol anterior, O lecție autentică despre Eminescu (engleză), am descris activitațile desfășurate pentru a publica pe Web un proiect numit Discovering Eminescu, în 1998, acum 23 de ani.
Au participat școli din câteva țări. Elevii au contribuit cu poezii de Eminescu, traduse în limba lor maternă. Scopul proiectului a fost să încurajam cititorii online să-l cunoască pe Eminescu. Participanții au fost invitați să identifice poezii traduse în limbile lor, să introducă textul într-un procesor de text și să-l publice pe Web. Site-ul Web al proiectului, Discovering Eminescu, este încă disponibil online, în colecția de arhive Web și pe un server din România.
1. Mitul Eminescu față în față cu Eminescu, scriitorul
Potrivit Emiliei Stere, Eminescu pare a fi cel mai “disputat personaj din cultura română”. În manualele din trecut a fost etichetat ca “poetul național”, “cea mai importantă figură din cultura română”, “poetul nepereche” și “luceafărul spiritualității universale”, dar nu a fost supus niciunei alte cercetări critice.
Stere subliniază, de asemenea, că sub conducerea lui Ceaușescu, Eminescu a fost transformat într-un mit, ușor asociat cu “poetul național”, “parțial din cauza poeziilor sale naționaliste și a articolelor politice pe care le-a publicat în ziarul « Timpul ». Ceaușescu obișnuia să-și construiască:
…o “genealogie” emblematică, care consta din personalități istorice majore, inclusiv Eminescu. “Abia la sfârșitul anilor ’80, la centenarul morții lui Eminescu, criticii au vorbit pentru prima dată despre «cazul lui Eminescu»”.
În urma acestei declarații publicate în 1998, experții au solicitat o “cercetare critică capabilă să separe poetul de mit și care să reconsidere relația dintre opera lui Eminescu și biografia sa”.
Potrivit lui Stere, acest apel a fost urmat de o revoltă mass-media în care unii critici români au afirmat că o astfel de acțiune va amenința națiunea română și identitatea sa culturală.
2. Eminescu în engleză
Celebra expresie “Traduttore traditore” se aplică și operei a lui Eminescu, tradusă în engleză. Expresia exprimă ideea că pur și simplu o traducere este întotdeauna o “trădare” a semnificației exacte a originalului.
Eminescu a fost tradus în engleză de o serie de vorbitori nativi de română și de câțiva experți vorbitori nativi de engleză. Nu sunt în măsură să judec calitatea traducerilor, dar îmi plac traducerile lui Corneliu M. Popescu (1958-1977), un traducător român care a murit pe neașteptate, la vârsta de 19 ani, în cutremurul din 1977.
Versiunile lui Popescu se apropie foarte mult de poeziile originale, deși acesta afirmă că majoritatea poemelor lui Eminescu sunt atât de bine meșteșugite, încât sunt aproape intraductibile.
Popescu explică faptul că Luceafărul (Lucifer), poemul major al lui Eminescu, nu poate fi tradus în engleză ca “Luceafărul” (Steaua de seară), ci mai degrabă ca “Lucifer”:
Ïn ceea ce priveste folosirea lui Lucifer în loc de Luceafărul, s-ar putea obiecta că Lucifer denumește diavolul, nu așa precum o face Luceafărul, o personificare a prințului luminii, simbolizat de o stea. Nu este corect. Ïn mitologia engleză, Lucifer ocupă un rol aproape identic cu cel ocupat de Luceafăr în limba română, anume acela al prințului luminii, simbolizat de către o stea. A traduce Luceafărul prin simpla denumire de “Evening-star” ar însemna a-l lipsi de orice fel de personalitate.
Ilustrație de Ligia Macovei
Popescu explică, de asemenea, o serie de alegeri făcute cu privire la mai multe cuvinte specifice românești, păstrându-le în original, printre cuvintele englezești. Cuvintele sunt doina, toaca, cobza și candela.
Cuvintele doina, toaca, cobza și candela sunt date așa cum apar în original. Am considerat ca un substituent englez le-ar fi lipsit de întreaga lor semnificație și culoare.
Aș încheia spunând că, în timp ce recitesc poeziile lui Eminescu, chiar și la această vârstă, descopăr noi semnificații și simboluri. Acest lucru se explică prin faptul că, seducătoare din punct de vedere lingvistic și cu accente naturale de nostalgie, poezia lui Eminescu este construită cu un limbaj simplu, care este transformat într-un puternic instrument lingvistic și metaforic.
Romanians celebrate their National Culture Day on January 15. Introduced in 2010, the event honours the birth of the Romanian national poet, Mihai Eminescu.
I believe that there is no Romanian who does not resonate with Eminescu’s most popular poems. I first heard about him in my earlier years, as a child, in my home country. While putting us to bed to sleep, my mother used to recite us “Drowsy birds”. This short poem is about the moment when little birds gather at their nest to hide together for the night.
My mother knew the poem by heart. She was a humble woman, living in a poor village, somewhere in the Eastern part of Romania. She was familiar with some of Eminescu’s poems as most people in her generation, who used to complete seven years of primary education in the 1940’s.
Even if it is considered an easy-to-understand poem, the Drowsy birds poem is full of deep meanings. One can easily notice the beautiful variety of meanings behind simple words, in a compilation of a number of English translations of the poem.
Why Eminescu matters to every Romanian
To me the Romanian National Culture Day is a moment to reflect on our own national cultural heritage and language and on their place in the context of the worldwide cultural heritage.
This year my reflection focused on two major points:
Eminescu’s myth versus Eminescu, the writer
Regarding Eminescu’s place in the Romanian and universal cultures, a number of experts argue that his personality as a writer should be separated from the myth created during the communist era in Romania. The former communists transformed Eminescu into a national and universal myth, according to a number of experts.
Eminescu in English
Eminescu is not well known outside the Romanian cultural context. This is the reason of why, with modest means, I initiated a Web-based project for young people, between 1997 and 1999. In a previous article, A genuine lesson about Eminescu, I described the work I carried out to complete a special classroom project called “Discovering Eminescu”, 23 years ago, in 1998.
There were involved a number of worldwide classes that contributed with poems translated into their native language. The project purpose was to raise awareness about Eminescu, to gather translated works in several languages and to put them on the Web. The participants were invited to identify poems translated into their languages, type the text into a word processor and publish the work. The project website, “Discovering Eminescu”, is still available on the Web archive collection and on a server in Romania.
Illustration by Ligia Macovei
1. Eminescu’s myth versus Eminescu, the writer
According to Emilia Stere, Eminescu seems to be the most “disputed character in the Romanian culture”. In the past textbooks he was labelled as “the national poet,” “the most important figure in Romanian culture,” “the unmatched poet” and “the star of universal spirituality”, but he was never subject to any further critical research.
Stere also points out that under the rule of Ceauşescu, Eminescu was transformed into a myth, easily associated with the “national poet,” “partly because of his nationalist poems and of the political articles he published in the “Timpul” newspaper. Ceauşescu used to build an emblematic “genealogy” for himself, which consisted of major historical figures, including Eminescu. “It was not until the end of the 1980s, on the centenary of Eminescu’s death that critics spoke for the first time about “the case of Eminescu.”
Following this statement published in 1998, experts called for a “critical research capable of separating the poet from the myth, and, which would reconsider the relationship between Eminescu’s work and his biography.”
According to Stere this call was followed by a massive media outrage where a number of Romanian critics found that such an action will threaten Romanian nation and its cultural identity.
2. Eminescu in English
The famous idiom “Traduttore traditore” also applies to Eminescu’s existing work translated into English. The idiom simply says that a translation is always a betrayal of the accurate meaning of the original.
Eminescu was translated into English by a number of Romanian native speakers and by few English-speaking experts. I am not in the position to judge the quality of the translations, but I tend to favour the translation work of Corneliu M. Popescu (1958-1977), a Romanian translator who suddenly died at the age of 19, in the earthquake of 1977.
Popescu’s versions go very close to the original poems, although he says that most of Eminescu’s poems are very well crafted and are almost untranslatable.
Popescu explains that Eminescu’s major poem, “Luceafărul” cannot be “The Evening Star” but “Lucifer”, “a reference not to the demonic religious connotation but rather to Eminescu’s cosmic interest”.
Illustration by Ligia Macovei
He goes further and explains:
With regard to the use of “Lucifer” in place of “Luceafărul”, it could be objected that Lucifer denotes the devil and not, like “Lucifer”, a personification of the prince of light, symbolised by a star. This is incorrect. In English mythology,” Lucifer” holds a place almost identical to that which “Luceafărul” holds in the Romanian one: namely that of the prince of the light, visibly symbolised by a star. To translate “Luceafărul” by the simple designation of “evening-star” would be to deprive it of all personality.”
Popescu also explains a number of choices he made about several specific Romanian words, preserving them in original, among the English words. The words are doina, toaca, cobza and candela.
The words “doina” (melancholy Romanian folk song), “toaca” (bell board suspended narrow board rhythmically, rapidly hit with small hammer(s) by monks or nuns to call the congregations to the office), “cobza” (ancient string instrument used as accompaniment instrument when singing romances and love songs), and “candela” (votive light; perpetually burning dim light in remembrance of beloved persons) are given as they appear in the original.
I would conclude by saying that while re-reading Eminescu’s poems, even at this age I discover new meanings. That is explained by the fact that, linguistically seductive and with natural nostalgia accents, Eminescu’s poetry is built on simple language, which is creatively turned into a powerful linguistic instrument featuring beautiful unique metaphors.
Travelling stories 