Consacrarea comunitară a casei: haidaț la dripeliște! și cea religioasă, feștania
Community and religious consecration of the house

Summary/Abstract: In the villages of Valea Barcăului – Sălaj, at the end of the construction of houses, the young people of the village were called to level the earthen floor. They did it by dancing barefoot, to the music of musicians paid by the host. The moment was one of great joy for the young people and of great utility for the owners of the house. The dance of the young people in the new house consecrated a kind of community legitimization of the house, the sign that the construction was finished and that the future inhabitants could prepare to move into the new house. The meeting of young people and the dance in pairs was called „dripeliște” (from the verb „a dripili”, which means to tread lightly). The present material bears witness to the antiquity, relevance and importance of this custom directly related to the construction of houses. The moment of „dripeliște” is seen in a broader context, that of marking the completion of construction with ritual foundations (placing the bouquet of flowers on the top of the roof) and religious (festival, the blessing of the house with holy water, by the village priest). We believe that „the beating of the house”, as the „dripeliște” are called in other areas, is yet another proof of the cleverness with which the peasant in the traditional village knew how to balance the work- fun ratio.

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