Why Women In Transylvania Get Sprinkled With Water On Easter

Palko Karasz writes about an Easter tradition in Transylvania, central Romania, when girls are watered like flowers by the village’s men. They get the water from a well and, with the splashing, they are wishing upon the women to be healthy, beautiful and to find love.

The men wearing traditional costumes walk around the village singing songs and playing traditional instruments. They stop at almost every house, where they are greeted by women dressed in folkloric costumes with Easter-specific food and drinks. Then the men recite a poem and ask for the woman’s permission to be “sprinkled”.

Besides describing the ritual, Karasz goes deeper into the meaning of it. What we find out, maybe not at all surprisingly, is that people are struggling to hold on to an identity in a world that they feel they have less and less control over. In a village where most people either commute to a nearby town, or emigrate to Western Europe to find work, rites like the sprinkling is what gives them a sense of community and security about who they are.

And on top of all that, the pictures are quite a sensation.