The parade in which Cosmin plays has ancient roots and is a tourist charm in Romania, especially for young people looking to reconnect with national traditions.
Performing in a dress made of genuine bear fur and weighing 40 kilograms (88 pounds) is physically demanding, but Cosmin misses dancing for anything.
“The skin I wear was my grandfather’s,” the 17-year-old says proudly, rocking the head of the aArray animal.
The northeastern city of Comanesti hosts a colorful and noisy display between Christmas and New Year to scare away evil spirits.
Centuries-old culture takes hold in the country, but is celebrated with the greatest fervor in the region that includes Comanesti, which has become the center of dancers dressed in bearskin.
Preparations begin in autumn and the city council selects artists, mostly young people, whose age begins from 8 years and rarely exceeds 30.
Maximum expressive acts win prizes, while bearskin costumes highlight the maximum fearsome characteristics of the animal, adding paws, claws and mouth.
Small sausages and “mici” kebabs are on the menu of spectators and dancers, and the panels list the names of the participants’ hometowns.
Romania is home to more than a portion of Europe’s population of grizzly bears, an animal believed to include strength and bravery, but now because it is threatened by deforestation.
The dance, which has pre-Christian roots, has a magnet for tourists and a vital source of income in recent years.
Anthropologist Valer Simion Cosma believes Romania has experienced a “renaissance” since 2007 and Romania’s accession to the European Union.
As many citizens leave the country of 19 million for more customers abroad, the younger generation has seized on the price of the occasion as part of an “identity search,” he said.
Cosma noted that the nearly six million Romanians living need to maintain local customs with their families when they return home.
This breaks with the recent trend that “Romania’s cultural interest abroad” and folklore “are considered outdated and confined to older generations,” the researcher added.
The renewed enthusiasm for the bear dance, encouraged through television coverage, has breathed new life into the dress production industry and attracted thousands of tourists.
“The price of folklore is no longer in the meaning it once gave it, but in its role as a spectacle and its economic impact,” Cosma said.