No squeaking pigs should be heard across the muddy glens across Romania come this Christmas, the first since the country joined the European Union in January 2007. At least that is what Brussels bureaucrats have requested from a land where tradition demands pigs be slaughter in every rural backyard on the eve of winter holidays. Still, the heirs of a pig farmer famous for his dramatic appearance in a traditionalist novel of long ago promise to stick to their tradition and slaughter the pigs as they've done it for centuries. For such dare, Hungarian farmers were applied heavy EU fines after their European accession in 2004.
Lica Samadau was a pig breeder that appeared in a famous Romanian novel as a harsh man who ruled over a village with an iron hand. That is, until law enforcers of a century ago began hunting him down for his wrongdoings. He eventually had to choose between prison and death - and opted to smash his head against a tree.
His heirs are still living in the village of Mocirla (Romanian word for 'mud'), and they are still breeding pigs. But this year was the first the villagers there were not allowed to chose a pig herder, who was usually picked from among the poor on January 1 of every year and given some food and money to take care of the livestock for the next 12 months.
This time around, as Romania joined the EU, authorities banned the practice. Pigs are no longer to be seen in the meadows and forests near the pond on the village outskirts. These are the European rules. And this is how pig breeder Lica Samadau was killed once again.
Mocirla, the village of literary resonance
Mocirla is a village close to the Western Romania city of Arad. This is where Lica Samadau left with his stock to make a fortune. It is not easy to get there as the roads are muddy, slicing the deserted surroundings under floc
