Initially, adornments had mainly a symbolic magic function, being worn by the ancient communities members as lucky charms, to provide people health, good luck and prosperity. These conceptions changed in time and thus, adornments preserved only their aesthetic function.

The Romanian peasant took over, processed and always improved the models offered to him and thus he succeded to create, by means of his ornamental objects, a world of infinite and multicoloured diversity. From the simple thing to the complex one, from rudimentary elements to the refined ones the approach of a wide range of materials and processing techniques becomes obvious.

The same as in the case of the folk costumes, the differentiation and classification of adornments can be made according to that part of the body they are destined to: head adornments, as well as adornments for the neck, the chest, the belt, for the arms and even for the feet and legs (spurs, bells, polychrome tassels on the dancers'costumes). There are, undoubtedly, other criteria of classification: adornments specific to one's age, sex or to certain ethnic groups, or adornments marking the social differences (the head coin ornament in Banat and the precious necklace in Maramures), adornments for daily wear, for holidays or for special ceremonies (the bride parure in Oas, the bride necklace in Bihor, the "wheel" hat in Bistrita-Nasaud and the wedding scarf in Bukovina).

As part of the patrimony belonging to the Romanian Peasant's Museum, peasant adornments form a collection of wide diversity, as it gathers not only pieces existing almost in all regions of this country (such as necklaces made of several rows of gold or silver coins, different in size and arrangement), but also certain adornments having a limited use, as the ones in Padureni, Hunedoara.

From the flower picked up in the garden to adorn one girl's hair to objects made of precious metals, from the mere punching and hanging of some pebbles, shells, a.s.o., to engraving, fretting, filigree, the Romanian peasant's preferences and imagination developed through centuries, from generation to generation. The adornment piece is not just another object used as an accessory to the already existing ones, but a real componemnt of the folk costume, organically integrated into it and expressing a certain feature of the soul - on the one hand, the wish to reveal one's belonging to a certain social or ethnic community, to a precise geographic area or age groups and, on the other, the tendency towards marking one's self-identity in relation with the other members of the community.

Oltenian adornments, the XIXth century	Transylvanian adornments, the XIXth century	Coin and coral necklace, Transylvania (Maramures), the XIXth century
Necklace, Transylvania (Hunedoara), the XXth century	Saxon - type belt, Transylvania (Brasov), the XVIIIth century
Necklace, Moldavia (Suceava), begining of the XXth century	Coin necklace, Moldavia (Suceava), end of the XIXth century	Necklace, Transylvania (Hunedoara), begining of the XXth century

Last update: 2003, March 25
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