Tradition and Contemporaneity in the Dragaica

Abstract

Dragaica (Midsummer’s Day) is a custom specific to the summer period and integrated into the group of customs and songs that anticipate or accompany picking the harvest; it is celebrated on the 24th of June, on the eve of the summer solstice, and it both means the protective agrarian divinity of the eared cornfields, cattle and married women, being the equivalent of Sânziana1 (St. John’s Day), and the ritual which refers to the prosperity and protection of grain crops. Nowadays, the custom has disappeared, but sporadically it is still performed in the areas of Buzau and Teleorman. The custom is also known by the Slav peoples: Polish people, Ukrainian people and Bulgarian people.