Titu Maiorescu University celebrates
Mihai Eminescu Day and National Culture Day
Starting January 15th, Titu Maiorescu University celebrates Mihai Eminescu, the National Poet, „the greatest poet that the Romanian land has ever produced and will ever produce,” as memorably stated by G. Călinescu. On the same occasion, the University celebrates National Culture Day, symbolically established by law on Eminescu's birthday, starting in 2010, at the initiative of academician Eugen Simion. By celebrating Eminescu, we also celebrate national culture, to which the „Morning Star of Romanian poetry” gave its highest expression, opening its doors wide to universality.
As an elite institution of education and research, science and culture, Titu Maiorescu University promotes in the academic environment and, outside the walls, in the space of society, the authentic values of the spirit, the cultural benchmarks and models that have built the Romanian identity, culture, and civilization. Mihai Eminescu, the greatest Romanian poet of all time, the last great romantic of European poetry, one of the greatest poets of universal literature, remains the highest benchmark of Romanian literature, culture, and spirituality, an intangible moral model, who placed above all else, beyond any political circumstances, ethical principles and values, national ideals, and the aspirations of Romanians. „Mihai Eminescu A Dell’”Assoluto„/”Eminescu or About the Absolute" is the title of a famous book about the great Poet, written by the Italian author Rosa del Conte (1907-2011).
Eminescu is the poetic genius who elevated Romanian poetry to the status of universal poetry, to a height reached by few literatures and few poets. He is the one who gave the Romanian language its most precious literary form, discovering its stylistic and aesthetic virtues and fabulous potential. As a journalist, he fought tirelessly, sacrificing himself, for the rights of oppressed Romanians, for the emancipation of his compatriots, for the history, for the present and future of the country undergoing modernization, for the ideal of the Union of all Romanians. „What I Wish You, Sweet Romania,” a poem written at just 17 years of age, remains a testament to a fervent love, filtered through the inspiration of genius, unextinguished by the adverse winds of history, ardent in the light of the future the poet visionarily glimpsed.
For our University, which is under the spiritual patronage of the founder of modern Romanian culture and civilization, Titu Maiorescu – the great critic who discovered, promoted, and supported Eminescu, both aesthetically and existentially – and for the entire Romanian world, the words of the great critic and literary mentor remain etched for eternity in the granite of memory: „This was Eminescu, this is his work. As far as can be humanly foreseen, Romanian poetic literature will begin the 20th century under the auspices of his genius, and the form of the national language, which found its most beautiful realization to date in the poet Eminescu, will be the starting point for the entire future development of the raiment of Romanian thought.”
Beyond the specific events celebrating Mihai Eminescu Day, Titu Maiorescu University remains faithful to the belief that the best way to honor the Great Poet is to read his poetry, prose writings, press articles, and his works published during his lifetime and posthumously, which are all available today in their entirety through the editing Mihai Eminescu's Notebooks in the monumental edition prepared by the Romanian Academy, at the initiative and under the care of the same late academician Eugen Simion, Doctor Honoris Causa of Titu Maiorescu University (2017). Reading Eminescu's work not only on the Poet's Day, but all the days cultures and civilizations that have always stood and will always stand under the Sign of his Genius. This is the message that Titu Maiorescu University promotes to its students and the entire Maiorescu community under the providential embrace: Titu Maiorescu – Mihai Eminescu.
The Communication and Public Relations Office of Titu Maiorescu University in Bucharest
15.01.2024