The wall bench and the winter gatherings

Narration text

Along the east and south walls you can see a long wooden bench covered with woven rugs. It is called a lavița. On long winter evenings, neighbours and relatives gathered here for the șezătoare, the working get-together: the women spun, the men tinkered with something, and everyone told stories.

As a child, Ion sat to one side, listening closely to proverbs, sayings, riddles and above all tales, which he would later turn into The Goat and Her Three Kids, The Purse with Two Coins or Harap-⁠Alb. He had a phenomenal memory. A contemporary, N. A. Bogdan, recalled that Creangă "knew thousands upon thousands of folk verses, each more beautiful and funnier than the last."

In a way, then, this bench was Creangă's first school of literature. His style, full of country speech, humour and rhythm, was born from listening on these evenings. Close your eyes for a moment and imagine the room full, the fire in the stove and an old man beginning: "Well now, they say there once was..."