The solution below needs no extra special attention. Just declare that
type in your mapping file as such:

<property name="status" column="STATUS"
    type="db.hibernate.EnumUserType"/>


/**
 * 
 */
package db.hibernate;

import java.io.Serializable;
import java.lang.reflect.Field;
import java.sql.PreparedStatement;
import java.sql.ResultSet;
import java.sql.SQLException;
import java.sql.Types;

import org.hibernate.HibernateException;
import org.hibernate.usertype.UserType;

/**
 * <code>EnumUserType</code>
 * 
 * Created: Aug 18, 2005 5:58:31 PM
 */
public class EnumUserType implements UserType
{

    private static final int[] SQL_TYPES = { Types.VARCHAR };

    public EnumUserType()
    {
        super();
    }

    public int[] sqlTypes()
    {
        return SQL_TYPES;
    }

   public Class returnedClass()
    {
        return Enum.class;
    }

   public boolean equals(Object obj1, Object obj2) throws
HibernateException
    {
        if (obj1 == obj2)
            return true;
        if (obj1 == null || obj2 == null)
            return false;
        return ((Enum) obj1).equals(((Enum) obj2));
    }

   public int hashCode(Object object) throws HibernateException
    {
        return ((Enum) object).hashCode();
    }

   private String getRepresentation(Object object)
    {
        return object.getClass().getName() + " " + ((Enum) object).name();
    }

   private Object getObject(String representation) throws
HibernateException
    {
        try
        {
            String[] parts = representation.split(" ");
            Class c = Class.forName(parts[0]);
            Field field = c.getField(parts[1]);
            return field.get(null);
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            throw new HibernateException(e);
        }
    }

   public Object nullSafeGet(ResultSet resultSet, String[] names,
Object owner)
            throws HibernateException, SQLException
    {
        if (resultSet.wasNull())
            return null;
        String value = resultSet.getString(names[0]);
        return getObject(value);
    }

   public void nullSafeSet(PreparedStatement statement, Object value,
int index)
            throws HibernateException, SQLException
    {
        if (value == null)
            statement.setNull(index, Types.VARCHAR);
        else
        {
            String representation = getRepresentation(value);
            statement.setString(index, representation);
        }
    }

   public Object deepCopy(Object value) throws HibernateException
    {
        return value;
    }

   public boolean isMutable()
    {
        return false;
    }

   public Serializable disassemble(Object object) throws HibernateException
    {
        return getRepresentation(object);
    }

   public Object assemble(Serializable serializable, Object owner)
            throws HibernateException
    {
        return getObject((String) serializable);
    }

   public Object replace(Object original, Object target, Object owner)
            throws HibernateException
    {
        return original;
    }

}