Sanziana - Galium verum

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SAIJIKI for ROMANIA

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Sânziană, Sanziana

***** Location: Romania
***** Season: Summer
***** Category: Plant

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Explanation

Lady's Bedstraw, Yellow Bedstraw
Galium verum

Sânziană is the Romanian name for gentle fairies who play an important part in local folklore, also used to designate the Galium verum or Cruciata laevipes flowers. Under the plural form Sânziene, the word designates an annual festival in the fairies' honor. Etymologically, the name stands for sân (common abbreviation of sfânt - "saint", "holy") and zână (a word used for fairies in general). Another likely etymology is that the word comes from the Latin Sancta Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt and moon, also celebrated in Roman Dacia (ancient Romania). Diana was known to be the virgin goddess and looked after virgins and women. She was one of the three maiden goddesses, Diana, Minerva and Vesta, who swore never to marry.



People in the western Carpathian Mountains and other parts of Romania celebrate the Sânziene holiday annually, on June 24. This is similar to the Swedish Midsummer holiday, and is believed to be a pagan celebration of the summer solstice in June. According to the official position of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the customs actually relate to the celebration of Saint John the Baptist's Nativity, which also happens on June 24.

Sânziene rituals
The folk practices of Sânziene imply that the most beautiful maidens in the village dress in white and spend all day searching for and picking Galium verum. They are instructed to remain alone and unseen, especially by any males. Using the flowers they picked during the day, the girls create wreaths as floral crowns which they wear upon returning to the village at nightfall. They are then supposed to have turned into sânziene fairies, and dance in circle around a bonfire, into which all remains of the previous harvest are thrown. People are prevented from speaking to the girls during this ceremony, as it is presumed that the sânziene spirits possessing them might otherwise be angered or distracted.

In some regions, the girls may keep the wreaths until the following year's Sânziene. This, they believe, ensures a fertility for their family's land. In addition, if they place the wreath under their pillow the night right after Sânziene, it is possible that they would have a premonition of the man they are to marry (ursitul, "the fated one"). Another folk belief is that during the Sânziene night, the heavens open up, making it an adequate time for making wishes and for praying, as God is more likely to listen.

In some areas of the Carpathians, the villagers then light a big wheel of hay from the ceremonial bonfire and push it down a hill. This has been interpreted as a symbol for the setting sun (from the solstice to come and until the midwinter solstice, the days will be getting shorter).
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Worldwide use


. Summer Solstice (geshi　夏至) .
summer equinox

geshi byakuya 夏至白夜（げしびゃくや）
white night of the summer solstice



. Golowan Festival .
Midsummer celebrations in Cornwall

Midsummer’s Day is the church feast of St John The Baptist


sei Yohanne sai 聖ヨハネ祭 (せいよはねさい)
Feast of Saint John
senja sei Yohanne sai 洗者聖ヨハネ祭（せんじゃせいよはねさい）
Feast of Saint John the Baptist
kigo for mid-summer


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Things found on the way


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HAIKU

Sânziene night -
the lonely girl prefers
to dream eyes opened

- Shared by Cristina-Monica Moldoveanu -
Joys of Japan, 2012



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Related words

***** . PLANTS IN SUMMER - SAIJIKI


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