St. Andrew’s Day, celebrated in Romania

The Romanian celebrations and customs of late November and early December coincide with the season of the Thracian’s Bacchanalia and the Roman’s Saturnalia, in the calendar. It was at the time of those celebrations, that the founding fathers of the Christian Church established the Day of Apostle Andrew. He was the one who has spread the belief in Jesus in the Danube and Black Sea areas in the early decades of the first millennium of the Christian era.

The Christian celebration gained ground in the believers’ minds, so the night of November 29/30 has become a time of ritual and magic practices, with St. Andrew’s Day being also known in Romania as ‘The Winter Andrew’ or ‘The Wolf’s Celebration’.

St. Andrew is the patron of the wolves, being the one who protects the people attacked by these animals. St. Andrew is also celebrated in order that the wolves should stay away from households or from travelers. The salt is charmed and buried under the door of the stable. It will be taken out on St. George and given to the cattle, as a protection against the wolves and other evil things.

Magic practices of purification and protection of people, cattle, houses and all family precincts are performed in many villages of Bukovina and Moldavia on St. Andrew’s Day. The women’s main weapon against evil spirits is garlic, which they put at every door, window, and chimney.
St. Andrew’s Eve is one of the most important nights in the folk calendar, being known as the ‘vampires’ night’. They are going out and fight or dance at the crossroads or near abandoned houses.

A great party called ‘guarding the garlic’ is held on this night. The young people from the village gather in a house whose windows and doors are grazed with garlic and party until morning, when the garlic is taken out in the yard and they dance around it. The pieces of garlic are then given to the participants and they will be put at the icons, being used as a mean of protection against illness or spells.

In order to protect themselves against the vampires, the people graze the doors with garlic, thus forming crosses and turn the pottery with the face to the ground. The vampire can’t enter the house so he appears at the window and tries to attract people, calling them and asking them if they ate garlic. The people must not answer, otherwise becoming dumb.

Nine cups of water are put in a vase and placed under an icon. If the next day the water is lesser, that person will be unlucky.

The animals talk on this night, but people shouldn’t listen to them, or they will die.

St. Andrew’s Day is the time when young girls’ fate can be foretold. The girls can find their destined one. In order to do this, they must go to a fountain with a candle and look inside. In the water they will see the face of their future husband. Another way to find him is by placing 41 grains of wheat or basil under the pillow and if they dream the wheat or basil is stolen from them, they will get married soon.

Future crops can also be foretold on this day: the old ‘readers in stars’ observe the sky and predict a rich or a poor year, a rainy or a dry year.

In southern Romania, in Oltenia, people grow wheat grains in a clay jar and have ways to tell their future from it.

Nothing is lent on this day, so that the products of the field should not be stolen. The women are not allowed to wash or to comb their hair. AGERPRES