Once upon a time, the Sun, embodying a handsome young man, got down from the sky to dance a “hora” in a village. A dragon lay in wait for him, kidnapped him from among the people and threw him into a jail. The world got sad… the birds wouldn’t fly and the children wouldn’t laugh. No one dared to challenge the bad dragon. But one day a brave young man decided to go and save the Sun. Lots of people saw him off and shared their strength with him. So they helped him defeat the dragon and save the Sun. His journey lasted for three seasons: summer, autumn and winter. He found the dragon’s castle and they started to fight. They fought for days and finally the dragon was killed.
Powerless and wounded, the young man set the Sun free. The Sun rose in the sky cheering up all the people and filling them with joy. The nature revived, the people got happy, but the young man couldn’t live to see spring coming. The warm blood from his wounds dropped on the snow. While the snow was melting white flowers, called snowdrops, messengers of the spring, were appearing out of the snow. Even his last drop of blood dripped out in the immaculate snow. And he died. Since then the young people have been knitting two little tassels: a white one and a red one. At the beginning of March, they offer this amulet to the girls they love… red means love for everything that is beautiful. It reminds us of the color of the brave young man’s blood. White symbolizes the pureness and health of the snowdrops, the first flowers that appear in spring.
In Moldavia, the eastern part of , all persons can receive a little March amulet. That is the first celebration of spring in Romania.
The Paparuda “Rain Caller” is the ritual celebrated in spring on a date that varies from place to place. An old magical dance invoking rain, this customs survived to the present day in many villages of Romania. The children knit coronets, adorning them with ribbons. Then they dance, going from house to house. The hostess throws water and milk after them. The children and the young people have to receive a coin or wheat, corn, flour or beans.
Summer traditions
“Caloianul” is a figure used in Romanian village, rite rainmaker. He looks like a man and it is adorned with flowers. On summer time, children and women from the dryness regions gather and model this “Caloian”. They invoke the rain and its advantages through the procession they will take part. Everybody gather then at the border of the village. They also can invite the priest of the village and together they adorn a young tree. They use fresh fruit, candies and pretzels. After that all group simulate the funeral of the “Caloian”. First they walk this one on the dry fields. In the end they bury the “Caloian” throwing it into a river. The waters of the river must carry it far away, bringing thus rains. All the procession times, the children and women cry and mourn. The priest tells prayers for the invoker of the rain.
In other Romanian regions dancing and singing accompany this ritual. For several times the invoked rain is appearing even at day or two after this ritual. On popular belief it is said that only the “Caloian” has unfastened the rains.
“Drãgaica” is a very ancient agrarian custom, connected with the harvest and still survives sporadically in certain villages in the south of Romania. The learned prince Dimitrie Cantemir described it for the first time in his famous work “Descriptio Moldaviae”, written about 1715.
The “Drãgaicas” are little girls of 11 to 12 years old, adorned with ears of corn. One of them is dressed as a bride and another one is dressed as a boy named “Drãganu”. Sometimes “Drãganu” is a boy. He holds the banner of the “Drãgaicas”: a pole with a rag-doll with outstretched arms made of ears of corn or of a bunch of ears and with wormwood and garlic at its top.
The “Drãgaicas” sing and dance in a circle without holding hands. At intervals they whirl round and yell and the “Drãgan”, the boy, whistles on an ordinary whistle. Wishing to amplify the performance, the little girls have added to the original ritual dance other dances borrowed from the grown up dancer. A flute-player or a piper who accompany them plays the music.
Nevertheless these feasts have a common trait: gather people who enjoy themselves singing and dancing.
THE family of a woman missing in Croatia may sell their home in order to put up a six-figure reward for information on her whereabouts.Britt Lapthorne, 21, was last seen in a nightclub in the Croatian coastal resort of Dubrovnik on September 17.The RMIT student’s brother Darren arrived in Dubrovnik on the weekend, and her father Dale plans to fly there on Friday.The family, who says it is living its “worst nightmare” believes the hunt for Britt has been hampered by incompetence by Croatian authorities.As well as creating a Facebook search page, Dale Lapthorne said posting a reward may be the only way to get people to provide information on Britt’s whereabouts..”I’m prepared to post a very large reward. I don’t have the money, but I’m prepared to sell my house if I have to for our daughter,” Mr Lapthorne said.”I’ve been told it needs to be in the six figures, and I’m not talking Australian dollars, I’m talking Euros. We won’t get people to talk otherwise.”
POLICE in far north Queensland are searching for an elderly male believed taken by a crocodile near Cooktown early this morning.The 63-year-old man was camped with his wife on the Endeavour River bank near Cooktown, the Courier-Mail reports.About 8.30am (AEST) he went to the river to check crab pots.When he had not returned to their camp by 10am, his wife went looking for him.Queensland Parks and Wildlife rangers said the woman found the crab pot rope snapped on the bank, large croc slide marks and a new video recorder, believed to be owned by the pair.”No sign of the man has been found and police strongly suspect a crocodile attack,” a spokesman says.A State Emergency Service boat and rangers will join a police search on the low tide this afternoon.Cooktown is a frontier town 340km north of .The Endeavour River is known for its large population of estuarine crocodiles.
FOUR in five travellers say the introduction of mobile phones on planes would drive them crazy, a survey has found.Travel website asked 1490 people over four weeks whether mobile phone usage should be allowed on aircraft.More than 80 per cent of respondents answered no, saying that having to listen to fellow passengers talk on their mobile phone for hours would be hugely irritating.Only 11 per cent said using mobiles on for business and phoning family and friends would be a good idea.Seven per cent did not care either way.But it’s global marketing manager Paul Fisher said people might have to get used to the idea.Emirates this year became the first airline to introduce in-flight mobile phone services on a Boeing aircraft. And Qantas is evaluating new technology that will allow customers to use the internet and email, and send and receive text messages from mobile phones or laptops.
Australia : A DRIVE along the Great Ocean Road is Victoria’s favourite tourism experience, a new survey has shown.The Victoria 101 survey, conducted by the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV), has listed the state’s 101 top tourism experiences, with the scenic drive found to be the state’s top activity.The Great Ocean Road stretches from Torquay through to Allansford, near Warrnambool, in the south-west of the state. It includes places such as the Twelve Apostles, Lorne, Bells Beach and Apollo Bay.Other tourism experiences to fare well in the survey were the Audax Alpine Classic cycling event in Bright, the Ford Discovery Centre automobile museum, and Wilsons Promontory.
Mole National Park is the largest and most popular national park in and has an impressive list of African wildlife to see, including elephants and antilopes. Unlike in many places in Africa, you can also go on a walking safari here. The nearby mosque of Larabanga dates back to the 1400s and is the oldest in Ghana.
Interestingly, is in fact one of the most enjoyable cities in Southeast Asia and arguably in the World. Famous for having a clean and green environment, the country is rumored to be “blandly efficient and safe, a boringly tasteless, disciplinarian and unadventurous place where citizens are robbed of their cherished freedom to spit on the street and chew gum” – this is utter nonsense!
QANTAS says its on-time performance is returning to normal after recent dismal performances, but the improvement cannot come soon enough for front-line staff bearing the brunt of customer anger.Qantas traffic figures took a hit in June and July as the airline’s on-time performance slumped and cancellations soared. The airline blamed the delays on industrial action with engineers, but union leaders note that the dispute ended in mid-July and say more recent problems are due to other factors such as problems with a new computer system. Incoming chief executive Alan Joyce admitted last week that business passengers had deferred travel because of reliability issues but said that that market was now returning as on-time performance improved.