The bed, the cradle and the rail of holiday clothes

Narration text

Also on the left side of the room you can see the plank bed and the cradle. The museum's curators point out that the cradle was an absolute necessity: the family of Ștefan a Petrei and Smaranda had eight children, so there was almost always a nursing baby in the house. Ion, whom everyone called Nică, was the eldest of the boys.

Now look up at the rail, the wooden pole above the bed. That is where the holiday clothes hung, the folk costume of Neamț that people proudly wore to the village dance, on Sundays and at feasts. The same textiles went into the dowry chests of girls of marrying age, along with pillows, blankets and rugs.

All of them were woven at home, on the loom, by the mother and daughters. In a single room people slept, cooked, worked and received guests. To us it looks cramped, but for the child Creangă this was the whole world.