According to Romanian tradition,
\nDragobete is a ‘living human being, half man half angel’, a young man, handsome
\nand immortal. He freely roams the world but people cannot see him because of
\ntheir sinfulness and lawlessness, ethnologist Simeon Florea Marian explains.
\nThis folk character is known all over the country. In Maramures, northern
\nRomania, he is also known as Early Spring or Dragomir, a character with a
\ndouble nature, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic. Outside the Carpathian arch, he
\nhas an ancient Thracian representation, which can also be found in other
\ncultures, as a man standing on ram’s legs. There are several dates for the
\nobservation of this holiday, but February 24 is the most common.<\/p>\n
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\n
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Every year on this holiday, young
\npeople from Romanian villages wearing their Sunday’s best go out picking magic herbs,
\nwhich they must keep all throughout the year as the common belief was that
\nthese herbs would help them find their future wives. Groups of young peasants,
\nboys and girls would take oaths on this occasion pledging to be loyal to one
\nanother, forming some sorts of brotherhoods.
\n<\/p>\n
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\n
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In response to the similar
\nmedia-hyped Western holiday, St. Valentine’s, village museums all over the country
\nare celebrating the traditional Dragobete, promoting and explaining this custom
\nto all those willing to learn more about it. The Dimitrie Gusti Village Museum
\nin Bucharest has this year welcomed visitors with a special programme meant to
\nillustrate this holiday and its significance. Here is more on this traditional
\nholiday from actor Alexandru Nicolae Mihai.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
On February 24 we celebrate here, at the
\nVillage Museum, Dragobete, a traditional love holiday in Romania. This holiday
\nis associated with a process of conciliation when boys and girls went together
\nto pick the first flowers of spring. The gesture had a special significance
\nbeing some sort of a vegetal sacrifice, which was supposed to guarantee the
\npurity and sacredness of the period to come. According to another tradition,
\nthe holiday marked the beginning of the mating period for birds and it was
\nbelieved that if a bird was unable to find its mate until this time, it was
\ndoomed to stay single for the rest of the year. Worth noting is the given
\ntimeline, a year and not the entire life, which means that it may get another
\nshot next year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Narcisa Mihai tells us the story of
\nthe Dragobete spell: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
There are lots of customs related to Dragobete. Prior to this
\ncelebration, young girls had to make sure that when they went picking snowdrops
\nand violas, the boys they liked would like them back. So they had to cast some
\nspecial love spells on Tuesdays and Thursdays. For this, they needed salt,
\nhoney and ‘fairy water’. Now salt and honey are things we all have at home, but
\nwhere are we to find this ‘fairy water’? This is water obtained by melting the
\nlast snow in the forests, hills and around villages. It was treasured just like
\nholy water and kept especially for these spells. In a bowl over fire, girls
\nwould put honey and salt, and when they started crackling this fairy water
\nwould be added. Then, the girl on which the spell was performed had to stand in
\nfront of an icon, undressed, and this mixture would be sprinkled all over her
\nwhile the one casting the spell would say some magic words. The girl was
\nsupposed to be naked so that love would be long-lasting, rather than shallow.
\nIf she kept her clothes on, the water would be sprinkled on the clothes and love
\nwould be short-lived.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
After performing a Dragobete spell
\nfor us, Narcisa Mihai added: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
This spell, together with the magic
\nwater, was believed to make sure that on the day of Dragobete young girls would
\nmeet their beloved. If they did not get the boy they liked, there was no
\nproblem, they would try the spell the following year as well. But most of the
\ntime, at the Dragobete parties, the young men and women who would pair up to
\npick flowers would end up marrying by autumn. Young wives did not have a quiet
\nnight either, because love may disappear just as quickly as it emerges. So
\nevery year they had to make sure that on Dragobete they respected separate
\ncustoms, created specifically for married women, to make sure that their love
\nwould be long lasting. They say that on the day of Dragobete, husbands must not
\nupset their wives, otherwise they would be unlucky the entire year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Women were also supposed to touch a
\nnice gentleman, other than their husband, and this was believed to help them
\nhave a good year. For newlyweds to find out how their relationship would
\nprogress, 2 nuts with their names written on them would be placed over the
\nembers, and if they sizzled quietly, they were destined to have a peaceful
\nmarriage. If the nuts crackled and bounced over the embers, they were supposed
\nto have a troubled, love-hate relationship. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The Dragobete event also included a
\nperformance by a traditional music ensemble, Fluiera\u0219ii de la Dobrote\u0219ti, who
\nplayed love and longing tunes from their native region.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An outlook of a holiday that has been gaining momentum in Romania<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":135668,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42520],"tags":[43079,43188,43189,31636],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-135667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inside-romania","tag-dimitrie-gusti-village-museum","tag-celebration-of-love","tag-customs-and-traditions","tag-dragobete"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n