poate, în contextul acesta, "clăcaşii" ar putea fi numiţi simplu "villagers", dat fiind că ideea de lucru colectiv, în folosul întregii comunităţi, este explicată în celelalte propoziţii.

Villagers would go to work (in the fields) singing and shouting with joy.

O chestie similară în Irlanda, dar nicăieri nici urmă de cuvântul căutat :(

Life in the Olden Days

In olden days threshing was backbreaking work, which started early in the mornings and continued until the end of the day with neighbours and friends all gathering to help out. The machine, and all the activity about it, had a special attraction for children. Its moving belts, the noise from inside and the way it put out straw and oats, was as intriguing back then as the latest computer game is today.

The harvest time created a sense of urgency, especially before the arrival of the harvesting machinery. Everybody in the community was called out to help, men and women, young and old, master, workpeople, and neighbours.

http://www.shannonheritage.com/SpecialEvents/TraditionalHarv...

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Note added at 2 hrs (2009-01-21 10:02:44 GMT)
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Pentru Finlanda, o chestie similară.

Talkoot (from Finnish: talkoo, almost always used in plural, talkoot) is a group of people gathering to work together, for instance, to build or repair something. The word is borrowed into Finland-Swedish as talko (ett talko, talkot, flera talkon alternatively en talko, talkon, flera talkor[1]), but unknown to most Swedes. It is the cultural equivalent of common work in a village community, although adopted to the conditions of Finland, where traditionally many families lived in isolated farms, often miles away from the nearest village.

A talkoot is per definition voluntary, and the work is unpaid. The voluntary nature might be imaginary, due to social pressure, especially in small communities; and one's honor and reputation may be severely damaged if one doesn't show up — or proves to be a poor worker.

The task of the talkoot may be something that is a common concern, i.e. for the good of the group, or it may be to help someone with a task that exceeds his or her own capacity. For instance, elderly neighbors or relatives can need help if their house or garden is damaged by storm, or siblings can agree to arrange a party for a parent's special birthday as a talkoot. One of the most common urban forms is to help friends move. The institution bears considerable similarity to barn raising but is more general in application.

Typically, club houses, landings, churches and parish halls can be repaired through a talkoot, or environmental tasks for the neighborhood are undertaken. The parents of a pre-school may gather to improve the playground, or the tenants of a tenement house may arrange a talkoot to put their garden in order for the summer or winter. The talkoo institution works less well in greater towns and in larger clubs, where only the very most solidarity-minded may show up.

Someone who can't contribute with the actual work may contribute food for the talkoot party, or act as a baby-sitter. When a talkoot is for the benefit of an individual, he or she is the host of the talkoot party, obliged to offer food and drinks according to capacity, sauna after the work is also often expected. Parsimoniousness here may result in a person being persecuted for the rest of his or her life. In "talkoot" undertaken for a club or other joint venture, participants often expect to be fed in similar manner by the club.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talkoot

Din nou, de vreme ce nu apare nici un echivalent în articolul scris în limba engleză, tind să cred că pur și simplu nu există, probabil pentru că nu a existat o realitate echivalentă și deci nici necesitatea cuvântului. Cea mai apropiată chestie în engleză este ”barn raising” din câte îmi dau seama, dar ăsta chiar nu merge nicicum aici.

A Barn raising is an event during which a community comes together to assemble a barn for one or more of its households, particularly in 18th- and 19th-century rural North America. In the past, a barn was often the first, largest, and most costly structure built by a family who settled in a new area. Barns were essential structures for storage of hay and keeping of horses and cattle, which in those days were an inseparable part of farming. The tradition of "barn raising" continues, more or less unchanged, in some Amish and Old Order Mennonite communities, particularly in Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and some rural parts of Canada. The practice continues outside of these religious communities, albeit less frequently than in the 19th century, in the U.S. states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barn_raising


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Note added at 2 hrs (2009-01-21 10:20:58 GMT)
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The term 'bee' has been used in the USA with the meaning of 'gathering', either for work, pleasure or competition, since the mid 18th century. The first such usage was the name 'spinning-bee'

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/spelling-bee.html

Tot articolul e foarte interesant, cu etimologie și o groază de exemple (husking bee, quilting bee etc) și deci m-am gândit că trebuie să existe și ceva în genul ”reaping/harvesting bee”. Am găsit însă un singur exemplu:

When harvest time comes, a reaping bee (long khaek in Thai) will be formed and the group will rotate to help one another until the harvest season ends.

http://www.thaiwaysmagazine.com/thai_article/2102_rice_and_t...

Dar cred că poți utiliza chestia asta, iar când va veni vreme ”șezătoarei”, vei putea spune ”spinning-bee” sau ce o fi.

Toată dimineața mi-am bătut capul... și eu văd următoarele soluții posibile:

1. lași netradus - sunt o groază de exemple pe net, cu texte despre tradiții românești în care apare pur și simplu așa. E și cazul lui ”talkoot” pentru Finlanda, care apare ca atare. Personal, nu prea sunt în favoarea soluției ăsteia, că după aia unde tragi linia între ce traduci și ce nu, textul tău e precis plin de chestii cu puternic specific local.
2. poți folosi ”bee” ca mai sus. Probabil că se înțelege despre ce e vorba.
3 poți parafraza cu ceva în genul ”People headed for a (voluntary/community) work gathering started off cheering and singing ”

Spor la treabă și mult succes!

Cei doi termeni cred că se confundă uneori, de unde și mai multe dificultăți de traducere...

Şezătoarea este o tovărăşie şi o petrecere, faţă de clacă, despre care în lumea satului se ştie că este o întîlnire de ajutor. Cei ce vin la clacă ajută gazda la o anumită muncă. Este o activitate în comun, gratuită, făcută în folosul stăpînului clăcii, care îi "omeneşte" pe cei ce îl ajută cu bucate şi băutură. La clacă nu se dansează, însă deseori se cîntă. Clăcaşii se adună fie în folosul notabilităţilor (preot, primar), fie pentru neamuri, bătrîni ori văduve. Oamenii sînt chemaţi la tors ori scărmănat, la curăţat porumb, la arat, prăşit ori seceriş şi chiar la clacă pentru casă, cînd vreun gospodar îşi ridică o locuinţă. Mai este şi claca întregului sat, prin care oamenii sînt chemaţi să dea o mînă de ajutor la treburi necesare comunităţii. Ambele sînt obiceiuri de muncă, pe care oamenii satului încă le mai respectă.
http://www.evenimentul.ro/articol/ezatorile.html

The Romanian word claca, (spelled Klaka using German phonetics) means "compulsory service," and referred to the unpaid labor required of the serfs under the feudal system. After the emancipation of the peasantry from this seigniorial obligation, people continued the habit of working in groups, and indeed took pleasure in it. In Das Brauchtum von Bayrischen, deutsch-böhmischen Buchenländern (Essen: by the author, 1989), pp 69-78, Sigfried Mirwald describes the various activities for which Klakas were organized and the social activities which accompanied them.
http://www.bukovinasociety.org/Welisch-13-4.html

Bathurst Courier, August 16, 1839
Archibald McNee, an industrious and wealthy farmer of this place had a reaping bee on Friday last which was truly a grand rural spectacle. There were 60 in attendance—lads and lasses—and in about 7 hours work a field of near 16 acres of wheat was in that short space of time cut down and bound. Competition was great but the mead of praise is due to the females alone who certainly outvied the men in both reaping and binding. This speaks a great deal for the esteem in which Mr. McNee is held by his countrymen—but it looks clannish.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~onlanark/NewspaperClipping...

Sau reaping-bee, asta pentru clacă, cât despre ”clăcași”... săteni, participanți la clacă...