Sunday is the day to see Negrilești as it wants to be seen. The village, a few kilometres from the hill known as Cornul Malului, the horn of the bank, lies in the northern part of Bistrița-Năsăud county, and on a Sunday morning the lanes fill with people in their best clothes walking to the church, the older women in headscarves and dark skirts, the men in waistcoats, the children scrubbed and unhappy. After the service, groups gather outside, the bells keep ringing for a while, and the village eats late.
Traditional costume in this region has its own logic. Women's blouses, called ii, are white linen embroidered at the sleeves and neck with geometric patterns, and every region has its own motifs and colours; the Romanian blouse became an emblem of national identity in the twentieth century and has a way of turning up on fashion catwalks. Men wear a sheepskin vest, a wide leather belt and a black hat. In some villages you will still see the costume on feast days, at weddings and at the Sunday hora, the village dance, and young people have started wearing pieces again as a point of pride.
Weddings in the countryside are a big affair, with a band of fiddle, accordion and drums, three days of eating, and a long procession through the village. If you hear music drifting from a field or a yard in summer, it is likely a wedding or a christening, and it is quite acceptable to wave and walk on rather than stop. The same goes for funerals, which are held at home and followed by a meal.
The road to Cornul Malului is a narrow and winding country lane with tight bends and patched asphalt. Take care at Sunday church times, when pedestrians crowd the road and cars park along the verges. Negrilești has barely fifteen hundred people and no reliable fuel, so the bigger towns, such as Năsăud or Bistrița, are where to fill the tank. A village shop sells water, bread and snacks, and often a few simple pastries on Sunday.
A summer Sunday in the early afternoon, when the village slows to a nap, is a good moment to pass quietly through.