Teatrul folcloric – fenomen etnosocial de afirmarea culturii tradiţionale de tip rural

The present paper discusses the emergence and evolution of the popular theater performances as ethno-social phenomena for the affirmation of the traditional culture, preserved and promoted in the contemporary world. We find that in the antiquity the practice of folk customs with the implication of ritual masking was motivated by the need of individuals to be transported and disguised with the help of masks in order to induce, on the one hand, the spiritual connection with the divine creatures, with the ancestors of the kin, with the totemic characters of the locality, and on the other hand, pursued the apotropaic prospect of obtaining, by hiding in mythical characters, the real or magical protection against the evil actions of demons, deities or supernatural malignant forces that, in the vision of the people, persecute and counteract human existence. The actor wearing the mask during the primitive era was marked by its sacred value, through which transcendence was made in time and profane space. With the passing of the years, substantial changes occur in the collective mentality of the people, clauses that motivated the gradual evolution of magical transfiguration into the playful one, attested in family and calendar habits, resulting in the desacralisation of the ritual mask