Peter Hurley, an Irishman who fell in love with Romania’s villages and has been exploring the common ground of the Irish and Romanian cultures, will address young people in Vaslui at the opening of the local Orthodox Youth Meeting on Saturday, August 24, 2019.
Peter Hurley says he fell in love with Romania forever in 1994 when he first visited the country. He learnt to speak Romanian perfectly, he wears Romanian traditional costumes quite naturally and in 25 years of living in Romania, he came to the conclusion that Romanians have extraordinary positive energy despite the many difficulties they have been facing.
Peter has also persuaded his relatives from Ireland that Romania is the best choice for living one’s life, so, upon his advice, one of his sisters, a nutritionist from Dublin, spent a year and a half in the Danube Delta as a volunteer. She enjoyed her stay so much that later she returned to Romania together with her husband, this time as a tourist.
After having worked in advertising for 15 years, Peter Hurley decided to set up an intercultural association focusing on traditions, and he started to promote Romania, a country that became his second motherland. So, in 2010 Peter Hurley managed to set up the first intercultural festival in Romania called “The Long Road to the Merry Cemetery”.
He used all his savings to organize the festival, which made quite an impression, especially through the symphony concert given on a meadow in Săpânţa by 120 artists from Ireland, Scotland, Spain and Romania.
In an interview with Viitorul Romaniei three years ago, Peter referred to the Romanian village saying that ‘The Romanian village leans on three legs. The first is the spiritual one: the church and the school. The second is administrative: the town hall. And the third, which is missing, and that is why there is instability in this system, is the real economy of the village.’
Over 1000 young Christians from Vaslui County and Bessarabia are expected to join the second edition of the local Meeting of Orthodox Youth this Saturday.
As reported by the press office of the Diocese of Husi, the official theme of the meeting will be ‘Tradition and modernity, history and present time for the contemporary young man. The Romanian village’.
The events will kick off on Saturday morning at 6.45 a.m. with the Divine Liturgy celebrated by His Grace Bishop Ignatie of Husi at the Dormition of the Theotokos Church in Vaslui.
An official opening ceremony will take place at 10.00 a.m. at the Vaslui Summer Theatre.
The event will include Peter Hurley’s lecture, workshops, a March of the Youth across the streets of Vaslui, as well as a folk music concert.
The event is organized by the Orthodox Diocese of Husi and the local Association of Orthodox Youth in cooperation with the Vaslui City Council and the Vaslui County School Inspectorate.
Photo: Ziarişti online
