This document discusses several traditional agrarian rituals still practiced in old Romanian villages. Some of the key rituals mentioned include: 1) Drăgaica, celebrated from June 12-24th, which involves girls wearing flower crowns and skirts marching to and from fields to ensure a bountiful harvest in a celebration of the goddess Ceres. 2) Sânziene celebrated on June 24th, connected to the cult of harvest and involving the harvesting of plants that end their biological cycle like clover and wheat. 3) Paparuda, an old spring ritual where children and young people dance from house to house while wearing flower coronets to invoke rain, with the hostesses giving them coins,

1. Agrarian Rituals in the old Romanian village
Maria PRISACARIU and Iuliana Mioara DINU
MIEADR GROUP 8105
1
University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest,
Romania
59 Mărăști Blvd, District 1, 011464, Bucharest, Romania
Keywords: rural regions, folklore, touristic attractions, local culture, unique traits
INTRODUCTION
The Romanian Civilization is an authentic rural civilization. Romanian village is the matrix of nation birth, the warehouse of our values and
the creator of the Romanian Culture. The world of Romanian Village is a mythical, spiritual world with a lot of ancestral customs, traditions
and rituals. But, knowing that agriculture is the essence of the Romanian village, we understand why a lot of these traditions are about
agriculture.
CONCLUSIONS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Coordinating teacher: Mihai Daniel Frumușelu
(bibliography)
REFERENCES
Here are some of the most wide spread agrarian traditions:
Drăgaica is a traditional holiday which is celebrated yearly from 12 to 24th of June, with agrarian rituals that send to the Ceres fecundity goddess.
It's a celebration dedicated to the start of the harvesting, a moment of joy and celebration for the grains’ riches. The Dragaicas or Sanziene
(Midsummer) are a kind of vestals reminding the rituals of agrarian protection and fecundity of Ceres goddess. Girls wearing traditional Romanian suits,
their heads covered with Dragaica flower tiaras, girdled with belt of the same flowers round their waists, march cheerful and playful to the field with the
richest crops. From there, holding ears of wheat in their hands, they return to the village where the real festivity began.
The Sânziene (Midsummer) holiday of June 24 on the very day of celebrating Saint John The Baptist’s Birth, the man who had the mission to
announce to the world Messiah’s coming, is connected to the cult of harvest, vegetation and fecundity.
On Dragaica or Sanziene day, starts the harvesting of the plants which end their biological cycle: sanziana or drăgaica, chicory, sweet clover, 'Saint John's'
grass, rye and wheat.
STUDENTS’ SCIENTIFIC SYMPOSIUM
USAMV MIEADR 2015
The Paparuda („Rain Caller”) is an old ritual celebrated by the peasants in
Spring on a date that varies from place to place. This tradition survived to the present
day in a lot of Romanian villages.
Paparuda, this old magical dance invoking the rain is performed by children and
young people who knit coronets and then dance, going from house to house.
The hostess throws water and milk after them and give them a coin or wheat, corn,
flour or bean.
„Separating the barren sheep”, also called „Gathering the sheep) is an old tradition,
spread in all the villages of Maramureş. At the beginning of May, the sheep are
grouped into herds and then sent to sheepholds in the mountains during the summer.
There, the milking sheep are separated from the non- milking ones. Then, the milk is
measured in order to establish the quantity of dairy products to be given to every
sheep owner. That’s why the tradition is sometimes called „Milking of the Measure”
or „Measuring of the Milk”.
„Udătoriul” is an old agrarian ritual, which celebrate the most hardworking man of the village. The
selection is strict: he, together with other hardworking peasants, is observed for a long time by a jury of old
men before being elected.
The countryside is the heart and soul of Romania where the villager created an
unique and different culture. That s why a famous Romanian writer and
philosopher, Lucian Blaga said that „Eternity was born in the village”
http://www.romanianmonasteries.org/
http://romaniatourism.com/
http://www.uncover-romania.com/
http://www.agriculturaromaneasca.ro/