On Epiphany Day, the residents of Mehedinti county 'guarded' the fountains, throwing a party with food, drink and music.
"The Eve of the Epiphany is very important, when believers completely observe the fasting, even the black one, until they receive the Great Agheasma [holy water], the body and soul cleansing, because it precedes the moment of the spiritual birth of Jesus", museographer Florentina Pleniceanu from the Museum of the Iron Gates Region in Drobeta-Turnu Severin told AGERPRES.
According to her, "in many villages, the priest is received with a lighted candle by the oldest man of the house, the unmarried girls stand close to receive basil from the bunch that the priest has, believing the miraculous power of showing while dreaming the face of the one who would become their husbands', Agerpres informs.
The museographer Chirila Enescu, from the same Mehedinti museum, tells for AGERPRES that long ago it was customary for children, usually boys, to play Iordanit (blessing with the holy water) tradition, in the south of the county, with a caus (bowl-shaped vessel or large spoon) in which they soaked bunches of basil to sprinkle the space where they were received and those who received them in their homes, where they interpreted what they knew from the church chants.
People still believe, here, that water and the cross mean the way to salvation, and soaking the cross in water helps to purify and cleanse it of the devils that dwell in the depths.
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