Sărbătoarea Sânzienelor, la Maieru
Midsummer Day in Maieru

Summary/Abstract: Midsummer Day, as it is known in the popular name, a holiday which, as a matter of fact, coincides with the Birth of Saint John the Baptist, celebrated every year on June 24, is completed, like other holidays during the year, with a lot of customs or traditions that until now have disappeared or are on the way to extinction. Maieru village (the childhood village of the great novelist Liviu Rebreanu) in Bistrița-Năsăud county is one of the only village in Romania, if not probably the only one, that still preserves many of the traditions related to it, the most important being that of jumping over fire, this taking place both the evening before Midsummer Day (June 23) and the evening of Midsummer Day (June 24). The present study presents this very old tradition, the custom of jumping over the fire, being preceded by the preparations that are made: the gathering of the midsummer flowers by girls or women, before sunrise, on the dew, the weaving of the wreaths/crowns from the bedstraw and flowers, jumping over the fire after the boys or men have gathered wood for it and lit it in the two evenings in a row, then the sad songs, the shouts and the party songs, the throwing of the wreaths on the roofs of the houses, but also the many beliefs, superstitions and meanings specific to it.

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