Update, 29 June 2026 — The celebration took place. On Sunday, 28 June, Mănoilești hosted the sixth edition of the “Folk Costume Celebration”, the Ungheni Culture Department reports. Despite the heat, the village park drew artistic ensembles, folk craftspeople and many participants in traditional costume, who came from several localities of the district.
In Mănoilești, ensembles from several villages of the Ungheni district came in traditional costume to the sixth edition of the celebration, on 28 June. Photo: Ungheni Culture Department.
In the commune of Mănoilești, in the Ungheni district, preparations for a celebration began a few weeks ahead. The volunteers, together with the village House of Culture and the library, are working on the “Folk Costume Celebration” — an event devoted to traditional dress and scheduled for the end of June. It is not a first: the locality has held earlier editions with costume parades, craft exhibitions and folklore shows.
The timing is not accidental. At the end of June, the whole of the Republic of Moldova marks the National Day of Folk Costume — an occasion established by a Parliament Decision of 19 November 2015, which declared the last Sunday of June a day of traditional dress. In 2026 that Sunday is 28 June. It is against this national backdrop that Mănoilești prepares its own celebration.
Who keeps the celebration on its feet
Behind the event lies volunteer work. The preparations are coordinated by the Mănoilești House of Culture, led by Zinaida Parfene, together with the Public Library and the young people of the local youth centre — an effort across generations, bringing together both elders who know how a costume is worn and children only now learning it. That, in fact, is the point of such a village celebration: not the show itself, but the craft — the sewing, the embroidery, the proper wearing of the blouse — being passed on.
A district tradition, not just a village one
Mănoilești is not alone. In past years, the Ungheni district’s Culture and Tourism Department took folk costume beyond a single locality — in one year, the celebration gathered, in the form of a “heptagon”, seven localities of the district. The Mănoilești celebration thus fits into a wider custom by which the Ungheni district marks, year after year, its day of traditional dress.
Folk costume is not just Sunday clothing. In Ungheni it has also become a source of income: a local workshop making traditional costumes was supported with €25,000 through a European programme, as an example of the link between tradition, identity and a small business. For a village, a costume celebration is, in its own way, a showcase too — of the craftspeople, the ensemble, the community.
Update, 22 June 2026. The programme has been made public. The Folk Costume Celebration in Mănoilești takes place on Sunday, 28 June, from 16.00, in the village park, announce the Ungheni District Council, the Culture Department and the Mănoilești town hall. The day brings together a folk-costume exhibition, creative workshops and an artistic show, with special guests the singer Stela Botez, Petronela Popa and the “Șoimanii” ethno-folklore ensemble. The organizers ask those who come to wear at least one element of folk costume.
The preparations, the organizers and the recurring nature of the event come from the communications of the volunteer group and the Mănoilești House of Culture. The 2026 programme — date, time, place and guests — was confirmed on 22 June 2026 through the official poster of the Ungheni District Council, the Culture Department and the Mănoilești town hall. The legal basis and the date of the National Day of Folk Costume come from the materials of the Ministry of Culture (Parliament Decision No. 194 of 19 November 2015). The example of the workshop supported with European funds comes from a UNDP/EU4Moldova story. The holding of the sixth edition, on 28 June 2026, and the photograph from the event come from the Ungheni Culture Department’s post, published the same day.