RITUAL FIRES OVER THE YEAR IN THE POPULAR CALENDAR
RITUAL FIRES OVER THE YEAR IN THE POPULAR CALENDAR

Summary/Abstract: With a great symbolic meaning, fire represents the element that generates light and heat having a magical function and a purifying role in terms of Romanian culture and the beliefs of the village people’s life. As in Greek mythology, fire belongs to the gods, to the unseen powers, reminiscent of the Fire in the hearth (the sacred place, symbol of the house), the Purifying Fire (found in various rituals of the holidays over the year), the Fires of Great Thursday, the Fire/the flames of the outlaws’ treasures, the Fires of the Day of Leaving the Cheese at the beginning of the Great Lent, which are part of a ritual of banishing evils, the Fire of Sâmedru, or the Fires of Christmas Eve. Fire has been preserved in the rites of passage through its extinction and rekindling at different times in the life of a person, whether we are talking about the concept as cosmic science, when we refer to the sacred power, the lightning, the struggle between good and evil, but also as a mythical creature, for example,,,The Flyer”. Also, fire is like a force, or evil spirit, or a mythical character that is to be found in all the crucial moments from Birth, as the first threshold until Death the last threshold of a person.

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