National Day of Culture at the National Library of the Republic of Moldova

CENL News

31st January 2024

The National Library of the Republic of Moldova organized a series of events to celebrate the National Day of Culture on January 15-17, 2024. The Republic of Moldova celebrates the National Day of Culture every year on January 15, as a tribute to the birthday of the great poet, Mihai Eminescu.

In this context, there was organized an exhibition with the title „Mihai Eminescu. I passed through the world as Hyperion, or the Evening Star…”, which valorizes the work of Eminescu, especially of one of his the most representative creations – the poem „Hyperion” (“Luceafarul”/„Evening Star”), which, undoubtedly, is the absolute, testamentary expression of the poetic and philosophical thinking of Eminescu. The exhibition includes around 200 documents and periodicals, rare and bibliophile editions, documents for intrested people regarding the past, but also about the present of Eminescu books: documents dated from 1842 – 1855, with the seal of the grammar school from town Cernauti (now Ucraine), where Mihai Eminescu studied; „Lepturariul romanesc” (vol. I-VI, Vienna, 1862-1865) – the first anthology of Romanian literary texts; „Poems” (1884); „Poems” by Mihai Eminescu, the fourth edition (1932); “Regal de poezie” collection, with foreword by academician Mihai Cimpoi; the poem “Luceafarul” published in different periods of time and translated into several languages, and others.

At the inauguration of the event, Mrs. Ana Bantos, Doctor in philology, highlighted the importance of Eminescu’s creation and work, but also the importance of reflecting on the continuity of the Romanian culture. “Various periods have passed, but Eminescu remains. It is the value we related to, especially during the period of the national renaissance; we have found ourselves in the Eminescu universe and we were leaded by him in our movement. And we find ourselves even today, when our society is going through some convulsions; convulsions which also contaminated the society in which Eminescu lived”, Ana Bantos added. The General director of the National Library of the Republic of Moldova, Elena Pintilei, emphasized the importance of promoting the work of the poet, and also the role of Eminescu as a librarian. The event was rounded up with a recital of Eminescu poetry by the pupils of the second grade, “Prometeu-Prim” High School, teacher Angela Balacci.

An event awaited each year by the people from cultural area is the launch of the National Calendar, an encyclopedic annual cultural edition. The National Calendar, 2024 edition (currently it’s the 32nd edition), brings together a series of reference names in the field of science, culture and art, representative personalities from the Republic of Moldova and from the entire Romanian space (especially from Moldova and Romania as a whole), as well as from the universal culture and civilization.

The current edition of the Calendar consistently contributes to the reconstruction of the national historical and scientific truth through systematic research and updating of consulted informational resources. The members of the editorial board were: academician Andrei ESANU; literary historian, writer Iurie Colesnic; Elena PINTILEI; Doctor in philology Iulian FILIP; Doctor in history Ion XENOFONTOV, Doctor in history Maxim Melinti, and Elena BALINSCHI, head of the Bibliographic research section of the National Library of the Republic of Moldova, together with the team of authors: Maria S. CIOBANU, Elena HARCONITA and Ana STRUTA, coordinated by Veronica BORS and edited by Elena VARZARI, Doctor in philology. The 355 pages of the book includes the description of more than 1000 memorable dates, divided by month; there is information about more than 600 national and international anniversaries, commemorative, professional events and holidays that will be celebrated in the year of 2024. The covers of the volume have the images from the Grand National Assembly of the Republic of Moldova from August 27, 1989, as a tribute to this event. Each month begins with a presentation of a work by Iurie Canasin, sculptor and graphic artist, Doctor in philosophy.

The invitees to the launching of the Calendar on January 16, 2024 (academician Andrei ESANU, the chief of the editorial board; Vasile SOIMARU, Doctor in economics, Member of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova; Anatol PETRENCU, historian, Doctor in history; Vitalie CIOBANU, writer, essayist, literary critic; Nina JOSU, writer, editor of the weekly newspaper “Literatura si arta”; Leontina VATAMANU, editor, screenwriter) emphasized the importance and necessity of the continuity of the Calendar, being a complex work in which a multitude of information can be found, a work very necessary for historians and researchers, but also for people from cultural area.

As part of the series of events dedicated to the celebration of the Day of Culture in Moldova, several exhibitions were presented to the public with the aim of rediscovering the new publications from the collections of the National Library of Moldova, including: the exhibition “Sacred Engraving in Documentary Cultural Heritage”, which highlights the ornamental decoration of old books, and consists of frontispieces, vignettes, dropped capitals, miniatures, ligatures, ornamental borders, and coats of arms; the “Top oldest bibliophile editions” exhibition, which proposes the documents with the oldest autographs, historical writings, the oldest maps, musical notes, photographs, postcards, but also the oldest Eminescu poems; the exhibition “Eminesciana in the creation of native artists”, which reflects the Eminescu work in graphics and illustrations of Bessarabian artists, printed in Chisinau between 1954-2023.