Gorj shingle vuva

vuva (vâjâietoarea)

Source term: vuva / vâjâitoare

vuva, vâjâietoarea: Romanian, “the whizzer,” from ași vâjâi, to whizz or whistle through the air.

For the children of Gorj, in the Oltenian foothills of the Southern Carpathians, the vuva was a special pleasure. They took a piece of roof shingle thirty or forty centimetres long, drove a nail through one end, tied on a thread and swung it round by hand until it roared like a storm, the noise that gave it its name. It belonged to a whole homemade childhood: the hoarcă, a walnut spun on a nail that rumbled as its string wound and unwound; paper darts tipped with a pin, dangerous enough to take an eye; and elder popguns that fired plugs of tow with a crack.

Un fel de vâjâitoare, imitând furtuna.

A kind of whizzer, imitating the storm.

Alexandru Doru Șerban, Cultura țărănească gorjeană (2007), quoted in Adevărul, 25 November 2016

Particulars

Object

A piece of roof shingle 30–40 cm long, pierced at one end with a nail and tied to a thread.

Function

Children’s sound toy, whirled by hand; its noise imitated a storm.