Epiphany Day was celebrated on Tuesday, January 6 and, together with Saint John’s Day marked on January 7, it ends the winter holiday season and the celebrations dedicated to Jesus Christ birth.
The Orthodox Church performs the Great Blessing of Waters on Epiphany Day, with the priest going near water where he throws a cross. Several men are jumping in the cold water to bring the cross back and the one who makes it first and brings it ashore receive the priest’s blessing and is considered to be lucky all year long. In the old times’ Romania, the man who found the cross first and brought it ashore used to receive gifts from the country’s ruler and was honored by the rest of the people.
One peculiar thing happened on Epiphany day this year in Buzau where the cross thrown in the Buzau River by the Buzau and Vrancea Archbishop, His Holiness Ciprian, was recovered by the same young man who has got it out in the past six years. The 26-year-old man said the water has been colder in 2015 than in any other years.
The day marking Jesus’ baptism in Romania also comprises, besides Blessing of Waters ritual, several folk customs. In some regions people go caroling, other people still practice incantations or make predictions about the new year. If men are competing to swim and fetch the cross that the priest throws into the cold water, women used to put basil under their sleeping pillows in order to dream about their chosen man.
As for January 7 celebrating Saint John’s Day, almost 2 million persons in Romania, mostly men, are celebrating their name day.