"Babele 1st - 9th of March" How is your day?

As we present in the previous article, begining of March has more Romanian traditions and we try to share them with you on Tinutul Padurenilor website.

Another important tradition of Romanian people at the beginning of spring is called "babele"- Old ladies. This celebration takes place from 1st of March until 9th of March, a period of time when girls and females choose a day to be their "baba", old lady. If the day will be nice and sunny, you will be good all year long. If the day is cold, the year will not be so good for you. Ethnographers say that the old lady myth is one of the most important in the Romanian tradition.

But let's see which is the legend behind this tradition. The legend is about an old and ugly lady, named Dochia, who had a son named Dragobete. His destiny was to fall in love with a beautiful girl. His mother, not liking that girl, had sent her to wash a bundle of black wool in the river until it turned white. Of course, it had been impossible, even more being winter and very cold, her fingers got frozen. Then St. Peter appeared and gave her a red flower, which had as purpose to miraculously make the wool white. It was a miracle from God for the girl's pure soul. When she went home, Dochia decided to go to the mountain with her flock of sheeps. The days were warmer and the old lady, having 9 sheepskin coats she decided to get rid of them. Getting close to the mountain peak, the weather got very cold and snow. At the peak of the mountain Baba Dochia remained frozen there as a stone, even nowadays people can see her statue in the Ceahlau Mountains.

Let's hope that our "baba" will be nice and sunny. Hopefully, the following months will be full of joy, health and happiness. To all our female readers we hope you'll have an amazing spring, full of beautiful and nice things.

English version by Norana Adina

Ținutul Pădurenilor - România

Photo: Horatiu Toma