Welcome to Hanul Lolelor
​
From the mist of times, dating back pre-Christian ages, brought here around the 12th century by Saxon settlers, the “Lole” custom persevered in times of distress and peace – ultimately finding its way back to us. The “Lole” give us hope and strength in our confrontation with the never-ending winter; they help us overcome it, subsequently enabling us to notice the joy, light and triumph of spring. Their cheerfulness, playfulness and wittiness awaken us from a numb winter’s frost, no matter the weather outside, and remind us all to hope; that hard times will eventually pass. The noise, humour, songs and funny masks, even the terrifying ones, are all symbols which create a manifestation held truly dear by the locals. This long-standing tradition serves as a means to brighten up the cultural landscape as well as our little town’s image.
Despite inconsistency and symbolic changes, the “Lole” were always the protagonists that gave people hope, the noisy defenders against all that is evil and dark. Since the first time this custom was documented in history around the 1600s, it was faced with many periods full of tension and at times was even banned. Nonetheless, their spirit conquered time’s adversities, despite people’s belief that once the Saxons had moved back to Germany, they would take their tradition away with them. In the year 2006, Bogdan Pătru, a fourth-grade elementary teacher at the german Georg Daniel Teutsch school in Agnita, taught his pupils Saxon traditions as part of a school project. He found that neither one of them had ever heard of “The Lole run”. Talking to them about this medieval custom, one of the children reminded him that her grandparents still owned one of these costumes and brought it with her the next day in school. This event awoke such pleasant memories for the teacher that he then decided to bring this long-forgotten tradition back to life. With the help of the children’s parents, they made more costumes and organized a new “lole run”. Succeeding in reviving the custom for a day, they ran around the city and between each-others houses, where their parents welcomed them with open arms.
The whole town was excited and touched by the lole’s return. Hanul Lolelor is fittingly located in the former house of Bogdan Pătru, where he resided between 2006-2007, where the lole rush was sowed, reborn and resurrected. Since 2006, the rush became a tradition again, taking place every year. Bogdan Pătru followed one of his dreams and dared to hope that the Lole would once again conquer time and run among the streets of Agnita. The lole’s costume has since then been worn by hundreds of locals and Saxons despite their different ethnicity, with the sole purpose of joining in on an ideal of goodness and hope which conquered everything here in Agnita. All of us, be it members or spectators, desire to keep this custom as clean and as authentic as possible, in the memory of those Saxons who are far away from Agnita, but are still “lole” deep down in their souls.
“Lole” are fierce protagonists who always had the gut to face evil. Hanul Lolelor is a place born out of desire to beat the Covid-19 pandemic which affected all of us and for which our patience is running out. Hanul Lolelor, naturally, has been created in the town of “lole”, where joy and happiness are most at home. Just like the welcoming “lole” with their doughnuts, we are welcoming you, dear guest, to Hanul Lolelor, with cheer, drinks and delicious dishes! Hirräiii!
