Sanziene - the midsummer celebration

Sânziane is the Romanian word for gentle fairies who play a significant part in romanian tradition.

The name Sânziene refers to an annual event in honour of the fairies. The name derives from the Latin Sancta Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt and moon who was also venerated in Roman Dacia (ancient Romania).Diana was regarded as the virgin goddess, and she noticed after virgins and women. She was one of the three virgin deities, Diana, Minerva, and Vesta, who declared never to marry.

According to Sânziene folklore, the most attractive maidens in the hamlet dress in white and spend the entire day searching for and plucking flowers. The girls braid flowery crowns from the flowers they collected during the day, which they wear when they return to the village at night. They meet their loves there and dance around a bonfire.

The crowns are tossed over the houses, and it is thought that if the crown falls, someone will die in that house; if the crown remains on the roof of the house, the owners will have a bountiful crop and fortune. Jumping over the flames after the campfire has died down is done to cleanse the individual and also to bring health, like with other bonfire festivities.

Another popular myth is that on Sânziene Eve night, the sky open up, making it the most powerful night for magic spells, particularly love charms. It is also stated that the plants picked during this night would have immense supernatural powers.

However, being a guy and walking at night on Sanziene Eve night is not a good thing because when the fairies dance in the air, blessing the crops and giving health on humans, they do not appreciate males seeing them, and whosoever does will be wounded, or the fairies will remove their hearing/speech or make them insane. 

In Romanian folk song, the fairy Sânziene, "the fairy of the summer solstice," appears as the "sister of the Sun."