Credinţe şi obiceiuri ale românilor din zona Rupea, la Rusalii şi Sânziene
The Whitsuntide and the Midsummer Day – two important celebrations of the summer

Summary/Abstract: Together with the other ethnographical areas of Brasov County – Barsa County and Fagaras County – Rupea area has a few ethnographical characteristics. The Romanian, German and Magyar cohabitation determined the appearance of several cultural interferences, very obvious nowadays in the manner of development of certain customs. All these interferences were revealed in the researches on the two summer celebrations the Whitsuntide (Rusaliile) and the Midsummer Day (Sanzienele) are the most important celebrations of the summer when energies accumulate, vitality is at its maximal level and the time is right for rituals of purification and the protection against the released spirits. Before Christianity the Whitsuntide was a celebration dedicated to the blooming of the roses which became (after Christ) the Christian celebration which commemorates the Descent of the Holly Spirit. It is a celebration dedicated to the cult of the ancient, to fertility and life. The Midsummer Day is the day when the sky opens, the time is right for predictions about the people’s chance, marriage, the spirits are released and they “spread” either beneficent things, or they punish those who disobey the rules. All these beliefs and customs used to be part of n unwritten code which meant equilibrium and unity for the members of the traditional community. They are nowadays practiced partially, less and less and only where the elders live who keep taking into account “What God had created”. Now they are the only “keepers” of the formerly customs who can reveal parts of the image of the old times village.

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