The Local Feast of Dragobete
The Local Feast of Dragobete

Summary/Abstract: The paper aims to highlight the importance and the impact of the local feast of Dragobete (February 24th) on the mentality of urban and rural people, in relation to the Valentine's Day (February 14 th) import feast. Starting from the past-present binaries, emphasizing on the local feasts, it is assumed that Dragobete represents a moment of conciliation between the masculine and feminine authority. Certain levels are aimed: Dragobete-feast; Dragobete-character; the similarities and differences between the local feast and the feast coming in the Romanian cultural space, on the Western channel. On the one hand, Dragobete, this ancient feast, received as inheritance from the ancestors, preaches the pure, innocent love, and gives balance. The impressive number of the regional names attests the spread of the holiday in all the ethnographic areas of Romania. On the other hand, Dragobete-character, sometimes correlated with Baba Dochia, sometimes with the plant called Năvalnic (Phyllitis scolopendrium, fam. Polypodiaceae), should not be confused with the Zburătorul, with the creature called ”evil hour”/ ”splice”, which torments the premarital status girls, the widows and produces disequilibrium.The paper, highlighting various aspects: the comparative-analytical perspective, the interdisciplinary perspective, the critical angles of approach (ethnological, linguistic, mythological, religious), the sliding towards legends, the isotopes (superhuman, phytomorphic, dendromorphic, zoomorphic), the synchronic analysis, reveals the respect which the Romanians regardless of the region of our country (Banat, Bucovina, Crişana, Dobrogea, Maramureş, Moldova, Wallachia, Oltenia, Transylvania), allocates even today to this celebration transmitted over time from generation to generation, from our ancestors.

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