Also called Romanian Valentine's Day, Cap de Primăvară, Logodnicul Păsărilor
Dragobete is a Romanian folk holiday for lovers, usually kept on 24 February, when the birds were said to pair off and spring to begin. Young people gathered the first spring flowers for their sweethearts, girls saved 'fairy snow' for beauty charms, and a kiss after a playful chase could seal a year's engagement.
Tonight's moon is read when the page loads.
Take care: Wild snowdrops are protected in many countries; pick only from your own garden or buy them. Snowdrop bulbs and leaves are toxic, so never eat them. Use only clean snow, away from roads, for any face rinse.
Boys and girls went to the woods to pick flowers and sing. On the way back a boy might chase a girl he liked; if she let herself be caught and kissed, the two were considered engaged for the coming year.
In many tellings Dragobete is the son of Baba Dochia, the old woman of the March cold. He married against her will, and her stubborn climb up the mountain in her sheepskins, shedding them as the weather turned, explains the changeable 'old woman's days' of early March. Versions vary widely.
Not every region kept 24 February. Some villages marked Dragobete on 23 or 28 February or on 25 March, matching local signs of spring. Keeping it is also said to ward off fevers for the year.
Dragobete is a figure of Romanian folk belief, called the Fiancé of the Birds and Spring's Head, celebrated around 24 February, when birds were thought to choose their mates. On this day young people picked snowdrops and other first flowers for those they courted and went singing to the woods if the weather allowed. Girls gathered the last snow, known as fairy snow, and melted it for washes and love potions through the year. Those who joined in were said to stay free of fever.
Writers sometimes claim a Dacian origin, but that is not well documented, and the stories of Dragobete as Baba Dochia's son exist in many versions. Interest in the day faded in the 20th century and then revived from the 2000s, partly as a home-grown alternative to the imported Valentine's Day. Romanian folklorists note that it has since become fairly commercial, with concerts and gift promotions.
On midsummer night, unmarried young women weave flower wreaths, often with a candle, and set them on a river. How the wreath floats tells of love and marriage in the year ahead.
A small cloth pouch of dried rose petals and sweet herbs, carried or kept by the bed to open yourself to love. It is the gentle modern descendant of a very old and much harsher line of Greek and Egyptian love magic.
On the night before St Valentine's Day, five bay leaves are pinned to the pillow so you will dream of your sweetheart. It was recorded in a 1755 London magazine, along with an egg-and-salt charm and a paper-in-clay lottery for valentines.
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