I met the popular craftsman Vasile Ciocârlan, from Ştefan cel Mare village at the Christmas Fair, held at Piatra Neamț, in December 2014. Looking at the exposure of the products made for valorification, you realize that he is carrying on the craft masks. Being born and raised in the village, where the traditions, customs and rituals, especially traditional holidays are better preserved and more intensely felt, Vasile Ciocârlan made a pastime occupation of manufacturing a variety of masks – having an pronounced ironic sense, ingenuity and craftsmanship, thus expressing his own critique popular characters.

He knows how to make anthropomorphic masks (old man, old woman, gypsy brazier, lady, jew), as well as Zoomorphic masks (goat, ram and bear). Masks are handmade, in the artisan workshop, from different materials: leather and fur of animals, fabrics of linen or woolen, a carved wood, tree shell. In their composition are also used pieces of metal in the form of plates or circles, thick colored rope, bird feathers, tow of hemp, horsehair or pork, cardboard, colored beads, buttons, pieces of glass, kidney beans, animal horns and shards of mirror.Like a good connoisseur of customs and traditions from Neamt County craftsman Vasile Ciocârlan manages through the masks created to complete the specific atmosphere of winter holidays in the villages of Moldova. He is a member of the Association of Folk Craftsmen of Moldova and an employee of the Centre of Culture Carmen Saeculare from Piatra Neamț. In this quality is present with his masks and products (known to make like no other), with his wife, at numerous festivals and folk-themed events or traditions.