Well, with everyone around here doing an Easter post, I'm gonna be special and not do one. See, thing is that here in Ro, Easter isn't for another week, due to stupid calendar differences, so the whole big mess hasn't started yet and people still seem to be somewhat calm.
As it happens, this is a much nicer week because it's Palm Sunday tomorrow (whatever that means) and there are all sorts of fairs in honor of it. See, most people are kinda busy on actual Easter, so sellers wouldn't have much luck. But Palm Sunday is just a great time to go around and do some shopping or at least admiring of traditional products, especially if the weather is nice like today.
So, knowing what a tremendously lazy person I am and that if I stayed inside for just a second longer, I would never get out at all, I got my leather jacket on and headed for the fair, which was kinda cool because it's pretty far, so it was a good walk. Well, a good bus ride in any case.
Something that always strikes me when I go to such fairs is how much our world has changed. People there come and sell some homegrown products, like honey and other Romanian goodies, but the big draw usually seems to be painted wooden eggs (which are kinda nice, though kinda useless) and traditional pots and bowls and things like that. Oh, and clothes. Which are really beautiful.
But also really expensive, which I get. I'm pretty sure they're made manually, so a lot of work goes into them and besides, they don't get many sells and I don't know how much of that is due to the high price and how much that it's just not fashionable. Which is a shame, really. They're prettier than all the shit H&M sells, but also more expensive and besides...you don't wanna look like some fucking peasant, do you? So you wear the brand that doesn't really say anything about you and you move on.
There's also lots of painted vases and jugs, but again, why spend a bit extra on those, when you can buy them at the general store or at IKEA? Sure, these are handmade and you'd be supporting an individual producer instead of a big bad company. But you don't really care about that, do you?
Then there's paintings, which are also pretty nice, but again, what are you gonna do with them?
It's sad because they don't look like they sell too much at these fairs, though I imagine they do, otherwise they wouldn't come, would they?
Something that seems really worrying is the high price, because these are good products, really. Clothes, rugs, pans, cakes - they're all actually made by someone not in a factory. This is how the world used to go, someone would make something and then sell it and so on. But not anymore.
And the trouble is all these creators will eventually disappear, simply because it's not profitable to be a creator anymore, not when the product you're making is sold en masse much cheaper. I mean, take for example the little white jug in the above photo. It's 90 lei, which although not much is a pretty hefty sum here. A similar jug at IKEA is 10/20 lei. So, there's a pretty big price difference there. same with clothes. These are like 200 lei for a shirt, whereas you can get a shirt for a fourth of that at the mall. Big differences.
There seems to be a storm coming above our colorful little past...
Sure, they're all ugly and bland and not special. But hey, it's cheaper and you get to hang out at the mall. Win-win.
Oddly, the people who do spend that kinda money on a bag (they had authentic leather bags also, but I didn't get a good pic)or a shirt wouldn't buy from these people. Why? Well, because brand. These don't have a brand and they don't adhere to the traditional bag look.They're not what their friends are wearing, so why should they?
Just stick to the norm, that should do you.
But anyway, who am I to judge? I only went away with some natural honey (duuh). So, what are you up to?