Caloian

CALOIAN is a Romanian rain ceremony that resembles the Paparuda ritual in some respects. They are found mainly in the southern Romanian Wallachia. The origin of this ritual is believed to be set before the Christianization, though it was once linked to the period of the Orthodox Easter.

The ritual is performed at the beginning of spring as a fertility ritual, or at any other time in great drought or heavy rainfall. Young girls pose to her some Dolls of Clay, which are predominantly male figures. Depending on the purpose of the ritual they called "Father of the sun " or " mother of the rain ." The doll is dressed, put on a wooden board or in a coffin made ​​of tree bark and decorated by the traditional funeral ceremony with flowers.

A train with children then leads through the fields to watercourses and wells around until the burial place of CALOIAN. After three days of CALOIAN is dug up again, returned to the village and it will continue to pray until he is finally exposed on a raft on a river or lake, or thrown into a well.

At the end of this ceremony bake the young girls who have organized the ceremony, a special cake called ghismán or ghizman (probably of Gethsemane, as the ritual was associated with the Easter season ), which was shared with the other children.