> last Spring I visited and fell in love with Romania. > I currently live in Montana and am studying everything > I can about Romania. My romanste is very elemantary. > Ce Este Dragobeste? Hi Jimmie, Please read below a pretty good story on Dragobete -- the Romanian version of Valentine's Day :) ---------------------------- Vali "Noble blood is an accident of fortune; noble actions are the chief mark of greatness." (Carlo Goldoni)
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." (Jimi Hendrix) Friday, February 23, 2007 <http://hippoculturo.blogspot.com/2007/02/dragobete-romanian-tradition-for-l overs.html> Dragobete �C The Romanian Tradition for Lovers In Romania, the traditional holiday for lovers is Dragobete, which is celebrated on February 24. It is named after a character from Romanian folklore who was supposed to be the son of Baba Dochia. He is, by opposition to the latter, a positive character. He is the patron of pure love and good will and he is identified with Cupid, the Roman god of love and with his Greek counterpart, Eros. Dragobete was a holiday for teenagers. If the weather allowed it, girls and boys used to take short trips to the woods to pick up snowdrops and other early spring plants. If it was windy or cold, the girls gathered at someone’s house and they invited boys there. They spent the day telling jokes and courting each other, "doing the Dragobete" (from the Slavic word that meant "beloved"), as they used to call it. Part of his name is the word drag ("dear"), which can also be found in the word dragoste ("love"). Beetwen Valentine’s Day and Dragobete In recent years, Romania has also started celebrating <http://hippoculturo. blogspot.com/2007/02/valentine-day.html> Valentine's Day, despite already having Dragobete as a traditional holiday. This has drawn backlash from many groups, particularly nationalist organizations like Noua Dreaptǎ, who condemn <http://hippoculturo.blogspot.com/2007/02/valentine-day.html> Valentine's Day for being superficial, commercialist and imported Western kitsch. So, Dragobete is another pagan holiday with the same purpose as <http://hippoculturo.blogspot.com/2007/02/valentine-day.html> Valentine's Day. <http://hippoculturo.blogspot.com/2007/02/valentine-day.html> Valentine’s Day (in its Western culture acceptation) has not been celebrated in Romania until very recently. It has become a popular holiday for about six, seven years as a result of the influences of the American popular culture. It is celebrated by people in their late teens or twenties, belonging to urban milieus, and it is usually perceived as an occasion to party, to give and receive presents and to enjoy the favors of the person one likes. Celebrating <http://hippoculturo.blogspot.com/2007/02/valentine-day.html> Valentine’s Day is seen as a privilege of the moneyed people who can play the "westerners" in a genuine way. The Myth In Romanian mythology, Baba Dochia, or The Old Dokia, is a name originating from the Byzantine calendar which celebrates the Martyr Evdokia on 1 March. The Romanian Dokia personifies mankind's impatience in waiting for the return of spring. Baba Dochia has a son, called Dragomir or Dragobete, who is married. Dochia ill-treats her daughter-in-law by sending her to pick up berries in the forest at the end of February. God appears to the girl as an old man and helps her in her task. When Dochia sees the berries, she thinks that spring has come back and leaves for the mountains with her son and her goats. She is dressed with twelve lambskins, but it rains on the mountain and the skins get soaked and heavy. Dochia has to get rid of the skins and when frost comes she perishes from the cold with her goats. Her son freezes to death with a piece of ice in his mouth as he was playing the flute. Dochia is sometimes depicted as a proud woman who teases the month of March, who in return gets its revenge by taking some days from February. In other sources, Dochia was the daughter of Decebalus, King of the Dacians. When the Roman Emperor Trajan was conquering part of the Dacian territory, Dochia seeks refuge in the Carpathian Mountains in order to avoid marrying him. She disguises herself as a shepherd but she takes off her lambskin garments and freezes to death with her herd. She is transformed into a stream and her animals into flowers. Festivities Dragobete is known as "the day when the birds are getting engaged". This day is supposed to protect one from fever which produces shivers and illness. If the weather allows it, girls and boys are supposed to pick snowdrops or other early spring plants for someone they are courting. Dragobete is also known as being the day of lovers for Romanians. Dragobete also meant a day of brotherhood and sisterhood; many young people in rural communities chose this day to become sworn brothers or sisters. Around this day, the birds begin to arrange their nests and mate. During the day, considered locally the first day of spring, the boys and girls pick up spring flowers and sing together. The unmelted snow still present in many villages used to be collected and the water obtained used as a magic potion by young girls during the year. If a girl did not meet with any boy or man that day, she felt miserable as she was convinced that she would not find a boyfriend or lover along the year. This is why young people preferred to arrange small parties and to create a warm, loving atmosphere during the day. Teenage girls in rural communities had "love contests" that day. Those who were courted by many boys were suspected to have cast a spell onto them, in order to deprive their mates of the joy of finding a lover. Days that are set aside for Baba Dochia are March 1 (for snow), March 2 (for summer), and March 3 (for harvest). The tradition is well kept especially in the villages of Oltenia. However, a good place to witness it is the Village Museum of Bucharest, where bands of villagers from various regions celebrate Dragobete by playing instruments, dancing and singing. Posted by Daniel Hary Prasetyo at <http://hippoculturo.blogspot.com/2007/02/dragobete-romanian-tradition-for-l overs.html> 10:08 AM [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
