Winners of the RRI contest “Alba Iulia -The City of the Union”

Dear friends, RRI invited you to participate in a new prize winning contest, entitled "Alba Iulia – the City of the Union" devoted to the celebration of 100 years since the territories with a predominantly Romanian population united in a nation state. We invited you to follow RRI’s broadcasts, our site www.rri.ro and our Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn profiles and give correct answers, in writing, to the contest questions. The contest ended on June 30, 2018, mailing date (June 30, at midnight, Romania’s time, for the online participants).

The contest proved quite popular with our listeners, receiving 268 correct and complete answers. Thank you. Thank you for participating and we invite you back in the upcoming editions. As you know, the two Grand Prizes consist in two trips with accommodation and full-board, between September 10-18, sponsored by the Transilvania Hotel in Alba Iulia and the “Casa Motului” guesthouse in Arieseni, Alba County. As usual, the winners will have to cover the costs of the foreign travel expenses to and from Romania, and, if necessary, the cost of a Romanian visa. We will also offer prizes consisting in objects, particularly cultural promotion products. The contest is organised jointly with the Alba County Council, the City Hall of Alba Iulia, the Alba Iulia Branch of the Fine Artists Union, the Alba Iulia Orthodox Archbishopric, the Apulum SA Porcelain Factory in Alba Iulia and Romfilatelia S.A. Also, the special prizes for the contest were offered by Radio Romania Iasi, the Moldavia and Bukovina Orthodox Archbishopric and Buzau County Council.

Before telling you who the winners are, let’s take a look at the questions once again and find out what the correct answers are:

Q: What does Romania celebrate on December 1 and what is the significance of this celebration?

A: December 1 is the National Day of Romania. On December 1, 1918 all provinces inhabited mostly by Romanians unified in a nation state.  

Q: What is the city which hosted the Grand National Assembly of December 1, 1918?

A: Alba Iulia.

Q: In what part of Romania is Alba Iulia located?

A: Central Romania.

And now let’s see who the winners are:

Of the 30 honourable mentions awarded, 11 went to English Service listeners and Internet users as follows:

 Arthur H. Nyirongo, of Malawi, Bill Hvozda,of the US, Gita Chakrabarty and Sourodeep Sarkar, both from India, Catherine Agboola, of Nigeria, Mofizur Rahman,of Bangladesh, Joseph Beaudry, of Canada and Grant Skinner, Paul Martin, David Harrington and James Birkett, all 4 from the UK, who wrote to the English service.

Of the 20 3rd prizes awarded, 7 went to the following listeners and Internet users:

Saleem Akhtar Chadhar and Mehar Abdul Sattar Salfi, both from Pakistan, Henk Poortvliet, of the netherlands, S.B. Sharma and Anand Mohan Bain, both from India, Alan Holder and Alastair Pamphilion, both from the UK.

Iar Alan Holder, from the UK, has written: ” This contest is noteworthy in that it is a reminder of what has to be the most important date in Romania’s recent history.  It has encouraged me to examine some old maps of your region from around the beginning of the 20^th century, to see where the different provinces are located and how Romania’s borders have changed post 1918. (…) Without doubt, my knowledge of Romania would be sadly lacking if I did not “discover” RRI back in the early 1970s.”

Of the 10  2nd prizes, two went to  Carrie Hooper, of the US and Hans Verner Lollike, of Denmark, both listeners to the English programmes.

Carrie Hooper, from the US, has written: ”In a world plagued by division and conflict, stations like Radio Romania build bridges of cultural understanding. Learning to respect and appreciate other cultures is the best way to fight terrorism. People do not fear what they understand. Thank you for your tireless work to present your beautiful and unique country to the rest of the world.”

Hans Verner Lollike, of Denmark, has said: ” We see now a Europe, which is very much the Europe created after WW-I. For the Romanian Nation it was a great opportunity to create a Romanian Country. Not all the boarders are exactly the same, great majority of Romanians living in the Republic of Moldova, but I think now-a-days Romania was created at the Grand National Assembly of Alba Julia held on Dec 1^st, 1918. That is why this day is worth while celebrating. The future is not in moving any boarders anywhere by power or pressure ( …) but with open boarders and equal rights for all nationalities in each geographic country. I congratulate Romania and the Romanian People on this significant day – and for your contribution to a peaceful Europe.”

10 1st prizes were awarded, of which two went to Mitul Kansal and Jaydeep Chakrabarty, both from India, who listened to the RRI English.

14 special prizes went to the following listeners and Internet users: Maura Garrihy, of Ireland, Vitali Efimenko, of Belarus, who wrote to the Ukrainian Service, Adrian Silviu Mironescu, of Romanua, Anna Nahapetian, of Russia, Miodrag Ristić, of Serbia, Juan Carlos Buscaglia, of Argentina, Josef Arias, of Costa Rica, Yang Tiedong, of China, Giovanni Sergi, of Italy, Reinhard Schumann, of Sweden, who wrote to the German Service, Bernard Launay and Pascal Jamin, both from France, Ashik Eqbal Tokon, Bangladesh, and Radhakrishna Pillai. N, from India.

Maura Garrihy, of Ireland, has written the following: ”Hello Bucharest! Lovely to find RRI on the internet and have the chance to win your great competition! I am 28 years old and live in the middle of Ireland. I am very interested in knowing more about your country after making Romanian friends here in Ireland. This is how I found your website and became interested in your contest.  (…) You asked about what prompted me to enter. Well, above all I have never visited Romania before! All the Romanians I have met here in Ireland are such nice gentle people with big hearts. Winning this competition would be an amazing way to visit Romania in September, such a beautiful time of the year. If I was lucky enough to win, I would go with my husband (we are due to marry this July!) It’s great to see that RRI is helping inform people around the world about Romania and bring them to your beautiful country. I have already learned a lot about Romania from your contest, thank you!

And now, the winner of the grand prize: his name is Jonas Sell, from Dortmund, Germany. He won a trip with for two with accommodation and full-board, between September 10-18, in Arieseni and Alba Iulia. Congratulations!

Jonas Sell sent us the following message: “The Contest was on occasion to learn more about Alba Iulia and what happened on December 1st, 1918, information that I could not have gotten otherwise in Germany”.

We thank all our listeners who participated in the contest. The prizes will be sent to the wonner by mail, in the upcoming monts. Please confirm their receival by amail. Thank you again! We are looking forward to your participation in our next contests.