Celebrating December the way Romanians did in the old days, with a Romanian legend inherited from time’s haze, with love for the living and a nod to the dead, spirits united on the threshold of a year ahead.
Celebrating December, a Name with a Story
As Romanian language is part of the Romance languages, originating in Latin, December’s Romanian name, Decembrie derives from Latin decem, the tenth month in the Roman calendar.
But in Romanian folklore Decembrie, December, is also known as Undrea, reminiscing of Saint Andrew (Sfântul Andrei) celebrated on the last day of November.
Read my poem about the Night of Saint Andrew – if you dare.
And December was also known as Neios, and now we enter the land of legends. Neios, from nea, or snow in Romanian.
The Night of Saint Andrew, not only a Legend
Through folktales and not only, the Night of Saint Andrew remains one of the most terrifying eventide of the year – and not only in Romania.
The folk belief unleashes all demonic entities tonight, culminating with the undead. But the roots of the undead, strigoii, are found in the Slavonic culture from where they crossed Danube and reached Romania.
Perhaps the fact that Saint Andrew’s night lies at the threshold between two seasons, facing the frigid winter, allowed for the acceptance of the belief in wandering spirits during this “Night of the Undead” when living people can become pricolici.
But it would have been more, for there are many and old the traditions involving the telling of future, the finding of a beloved, the blessing of fruits and crops, foretelling of weather… that can and should be observed only during this night, of Saint Andrew.
When in the forbidden dark, outside, the pricolici will show themselves as a wolf or a dog and will attack those who will answer their call and leave the sanctuary of their homes during this fateful night.
The Night of Saint Andrew is also the night when witches’ powers increase tenfold. The night when the spirits of the dead leave their graves, and the undead can be spotted fighting one another in those places who belong to none, such as crossroads or the border of villages.
So remember the garlic on the Night of Saint Andrew, and eat some too, but if anyone call you from the dark, or asks a question, do not, under any circumstances, answer it.
December and a Romanian Legend as Old as Time
Long ago, in ancient times (during the Roman occupation of Dacia most probably and I’ll tell you later why this is important) there lived a beautiful girl whose name was Aurelia Eftepir.
Story says that right before the wedding some evil witches put a spell on the groom who turned into a young tree with a white trunk, and unbeknown to the young bride. How Aurelia Eftepir waited for her beloved to come and marry her, foe she knew his heart was true. She waited for days, she waited till her tears ran out, till her cheeks dried and then turned pale, she waited for years dressed as a bride. And she waited even some more, until her locks became white as snow.
Then, the good fairies, touched by her suffering, made her immortal so she will still have a chance to true happiness. And they gave her wings too.
Folk say they spotted her, a youthful-looking maiden who never smiles, yet she is as White as Snow, who lives above the clouds, alone in a monastery as majestic as a palace, from which she descends every winter to earth to look for her beloved through the birch forests.
And since she lost her beloved before he could marry her, folk say that young lads who go from this world before getting married go to her, finding peace and quiet in her courtyard, where there’s also an ice church.
Thus, on the last night of November, on the Night of Saint Andrew, Noaptea de Sânandrei, they all start a ball that lasts from the first day of Winter (December 1st), until the beginning of Spring, on Dragobete Day, and during the dance snowflakes fall from her wings.
Why the Legend of December is Rooted in Roman Dacia
The time would have been one of great expansions for the Roman Empire especially eastward, over the great waters ruled by wise God Danubius. So eager was Emperor Trajan to continue his offensive on Sarmizegetusa, the Capital of Dacia, that during the winter of 101 – 102 the Roman troops remained in the nearby mountains. Waiting for the Spring thawing to attack again. But Dacians under King Decebalus had other plans… They tried to attack elsewhere, and far into Moesia, in order to pull the Roman troops away from their precious Sarmizegetusa.
The Dacians were fierce, and proud still, and sure of their battle skills of their weapons, of their reputedly magical falx. Only a decade back the Romans paid them, Dacians, annual gifts.
But the Gods had other plans. A battle was lost, then another, fatal, at Adamclisi, and the elders still whisper, rolling their eyes and crossing themselves, that the aftermath saw only two men standing: Decebalus and Trajan. Alas, the Dacians lost – the battle, the war, their lands. Even forced to:
“have friends and enemies the friends and enemies of the Roman Empire”
Dio Cassius, Roman historian and Senator
Life, as the Dacian people knew it, changed forever. King Decebalus’ fate was sealed and with so many Dacian men lost to battle, the elderly the women and the children were left to see to the villages. To make peace with the incoming Roman legions.
One such historical primary source is a Latin inscription in stone discovered at Tropaeum Traiani or Trajanic Trophy built in 109AD to commemorate Emperor’s Trajan victory over Dacians at Adamclisi.
D(is) M(anibus) // Scoris Mucapo/ri vicsit(!) anno/s LX Aurelius fi/lius vicsit(!) an/nis XXXI Sabina / filia vicsit(!) anni/s XXX / Aur(elia) Ettepir(?) u/csor(!) et Vale(n)s / et Sabinianus fi(lii) / superstantes // posuerunt
Source
This Latin inscription is found underneath the relief of a funeral banquet, above which are a horseman and a woman standing. The inscription is dedicated to Scoris (Dacian name), age LX (60 years old), son of Mucapor (Dacian name), his children are son Aurelius, age XXXI, daughter Sabina, age XXX, son Valens, son Sabinianus (all his children have Roman names), and wife Aurelia Ettepir / Eftepir (who might have been a freed woman with a Roman first name)… Aurelia Eftepir.
While Aurelia Eftepir is the Geto-Dacian name for Winter’s Snow Queen.
I like to imagine that Aurelia Eftepir was heartbroken by the death of her husband, and lived on, with her pain as a companion. And that maybe, just maybe, she is the the Eftepir woman on which the legend was based. She wasn’t young, nor was she left waiting at the altar, but she, too, loved her husband for which this funeral stone was carved and engraved. And perhaps that her heart froze in her chest, after his death.
For it is after the night of Saint Andrew, on December 1st, when Winter begins and lasts until the day when Spring begins, on Dragobete Day (24 February).
The Night of Saint Andrew, noaptea de Sânandrei, marks the debut of the grand ball in Eftepir’s glass palace where the Snow Queen herself dances with the angels, and the souls of those departed too young… and as they dance and twirl, snowflakes fall from her wings, and from the wings of angels, and land on earth. A reminder of their joyous celebrations. While the ball lasts as late as Dragobete Day…
Naughty Dragobete (celebrated on February 24th) makes the birds twitter and it is them who announce Snow Queen Eftepir that winter is over… While Summer begins on the day of Saint Constantine and Helen, and Autumn Cross Day.
Of course, the funeral stone is a great proof for how Latin language and Roman culture changed Dacia and Dacian people – who adopted the language (and the names), alongside their own.
Surprise: you can also enjoy The King’s Grapes, a short story out now on The Academy of the Heart and Mind Literary Journal!
More to Celebrate this December in Romania
We have a few celebrations left to as since ancient Dacian times, and observed at the end of November and beginning of December. Their purpose was to celebrate the renewal of the New Dacian Year.
6 December: First Snow and Saint Nicholas, a Legend
Sacrificing the pig on Ignat Day, 20 December
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day: The Oldest Christmas Story and the Christmas Star
The Oldest Christmas Carol, Jesus Refulsit Omnium
Thank you for your support this passing year. It is for you, my blogger friends and readers, that I write.
Wishing you and yours a Blessed Festive Season!
Merry Christmas and a VERY Happy New Year!
