'Dragobete, the traditional lovers’ day in Romania, is celebrated on
February 24, ten days after the Western European and American
counterpart Valentine’s Day. The Dragobete traditional story goes that,
clothed with holiday suits, young men and women meet in front of the
church and go searching the woods and meadows for spring flowers. They
sit around fire on the hills of the village and talk. At noon, the girls
run to the village, each followed by one boy who had fallen for them.
If the boy is fast and reaches the girl of his choice and if she likes
him, she kisses him in front of everyone. This tradition triggered the
expression “Dragobete kisses the girls!” (Dragobetele saruta fetele).
The kiss show the two lovers’ engagement, Dragobete being an
opportunity to show the love in front of the community.
There are a number of Dragobete customs in rural areas, many of which
are not kept by modern Romanians anymore. On this day, no animals are
sacrificed because it would ruin the point of mating. In the old days,
single women used to gather the last remnants of snow, called “the
fairies’ snow”, and the water resulted from the melted snow was used
throughout the year for various beauty treatments and love spells.
The tradition goes that men should not hurt women, nor argue with
them, otherwise they will not do well the whole year. Youngsters believe
that on this day they should be joyous and respect the holiday, so that
they can be in love the whole year.'
sursa : romania-insider.com
Vlad Condurache, vlad@romania-insider.com
Corina Saceanu, corina@romania-insider.com
