School 10 from Cluj-Napoca

The Epiphany
The Epiphany was marked in the Christian Calendar by the celebration of God’s Christening. It was also the first holiday in the New Year in which the believes, rites, gestures had a premonition about the human fate, about “the Earth’s fate”.
The agrarian rites are strongly bonded with the family ones and believes say that ones actions during the Epiphany could have some influence on that person’s activity during the following year. Even the sex of the first one to enter a house that particular day (and it was preferred to be a male) could affect “the better or the worse of the destiny”, the family’s destiny or the one of a new borne.
The customs of this day were also close related with the ancient traditions of the shepherds and peasants that lived in the Carpato-Danubiano area during the old times. People used to keep the ashes from the fireplace and spread them in their gardens to spread away the pests.
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Drawings and text ©2000 School 10, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.