winter holidays and customs in the traditional village from oltenia

Abstract

Celebrated yearly on the 6th of January, the Epiphany Day, or the Baptism of Christ, is one of the most important Christian holidays. In Oltenia, the holiday of the Epiphany gathers numerous magical customs and practices for the cleaning of the body from the evil spirits, practices of prophylaxis, divination and, moreover, ritual acts meant to attract wealth for the newly started year. Even if some of the customs and traditions of these places have disappeared, many of the Epiphany related customs have been preserved along the time, in a form closed to the traditional one. So is, for example, walking through the village priest baptism, the Christian rite of holiness the water, the baptism of believers, throwing the cross in the Danube.