Night of the Sânziene, June 23rd- 24th

My friend Sarah last year wrote one of her enchanting blog posts about tonight, the night of the Sânziene.  


It puts me in mind of one of my very favourite poems, Bishop Corbet's wonderful lament for Catholic England. In Catholic England magic and fairies existed, as they still do in Romania which never had a Reformation to remove what the old churches subsumed of paganism, pre-Christian magic and a close connection with the earth. 

Witness those rings and roundelays 

Of theirs, which yet remain, 

Were footed in Queen Mary’s days 

On many a grassy plain; 

But since of late, Elizabeth, 

          And later, James came in, 

They never danced on any heath  

As when the time hath been. 

Sarah, who left Romania years ago, knows a hundred times more than I about this country and makes me ashamed. But like me (and very unlike some foreign bloggers) she loves Romania with a passion. 

More here about the Night of the Sanziene.