Sânzienele or Drăgaica are celebrated by Romanians every year on June 24. This is the largest and most spectacular pagan holiday of the year, which coincides with the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist.
According to Sânziene, tradition says that “time becomes good, permissive, grows and embraces the thought of man, carrying him over the fields and meadows full of flowers, scented with the smell of Heaven”.
The event is accompanied by a number of interesting folk beliefs and traditions related to love, health, well-being and fertility. Drăgaica is the Slavic name of the Sânziene holiday and is found in Muntenia and Oltenia.
The holiday is a very special one and lasts one night and one day, and the night of Sânziene (June 23-24) is a magical one, it is the night of summer fires, because “it is summer in heaven and summer on earth, it is summer in souls and bodies, it is the season of love and full life ”.
Then the gates of heaven open and the world beyond comes into contact with the earthly world. For this, practices are made to commemorate the dead called Moşii de Sânziene, when the graves are uprooted, flowers are placed, candles are lit and alms are given at the cemetery.
The Sânziana flower (Gallium verum or Gallium mollugo – after the yellow or white color), beautifully fragrant, which blooms near the summer solstice, during the cereal harvest, has many uses in medicine and cosmetics, for which popular mythology has given it certain properties. mystical, being used in the magical practices performed on the night before the day of the Holy Prophet John the Baptist.
In order to have the expected efficiency, it must be harvested according to a certain ritual, namely: the flowers at the dawn of the day of the Holy Prophet John the Baptist, while the stem and seeds, in autumn.
If properly harvested, their properties are miraculous: they strengthen weak and lymphatic children, if placed in their bath water; cures colds; put in brandy heals wounds; dew falling on flowers on the night of St. John the Baptist is a safe cure for eye and skin diseases.
Sanzi flowers are golden-yellow wildflowers with small, pollen-filled inflorescences, with a strong smell of hay and honey.
At the slightest touch, a fine golden rain shakes from them, because tradition says that they are the flowers of the summer solstice, loving the sun, and their life is short, only two or three weeks, as long as the star of the day. is in full force.
In the popular tradition, Sânzienele are also unreal, fantastic creatures, called Saints, Beautiful, bright air creatures, white, beautiful, beneficent.
This name of theirs is often the reason why they are confused with Ieles, Masters or Windmills, which are usually evil fairies.
The opinions of the specialists, but also of the peasants, are extremely mixed when it comes to Sânziene.
It is a certainty that they are different from Iele, because they generally have good qualities: light gusts of wind during the day, the night turns into fairies with yellow hair and white steamy dresses, dancing under the moonlight (the star of the born on this day) through the gardens, moving from one place to another, singing from above, with unheard of harmonious voices.
Because they are from another world and they are so beautiful, “he who sees them does not believe them and he who hears them does not answer them.”
It is known that they take the voice of the cuckoo, because starting from June 24, the cuckoo becomes silent, goes to the mountains and turns into a hawk, taking revenge on all the other songbirds.
“Then the woman will know the man’s thoughts, when she will know the day when the cuckoo leaves”, it is also traditionally said about this day.
From wheat ears and seven other different plants such as: wormwood, verbena, basil, St. John’s wort, fern, shock, chicory, willow and necessarily Sânziană flowers, young girls weave wreaths (the sign of the circle).
Worn on the head by a virgin, she represents the agrarian goddess in the dance called The Girl’s Game, which is performed ritually by young girls at this floral celebration, with a country character.
Until the following year, the wreaths are hung on the front door of the house, on the windows, on the pillars of the gates, on the boundary stones and on the crosses of the tombs, with the meaning of defending people, animals and the harvest from the evil, evil forces. – hail, flood, storm, etc.
These crowns also have the role of guessing the future, cursed.
They are thrown on the house or barn and depending on how they remain on the roof, hung from the chimney of the house or fall down, next year will be good or bad, young people will marry the man they love or not, the harvest will be good or bad, the inhabitants of the house healthy or sick, will have luck or bad luck, etc.
In the popular belief, the Sânziană flower has innumerable magical properties:
if a young girl puts her under the pillow the night before the Sânziens, she will surely dream of cursing; for the married woman, the recipe is no longer valid, instead it is recommended to wrap the respective flowers around the middle so as not to have middle pains at harvest;
if they put the flower in question in their hair or in their breasts, both girls and women become more attractive and loving;
if they roll at dawn through the dew fallen on Sânziene, or wash in running water, they become more beautiful.
At the same time, the Sânziană flower is an agrarian caledaristic landmark. If it blooms before St. John the Prophet the Baptist, it means that the vegetation of the plants is too advanced. After Sânzâiana blooms, mowing begins.
–
