The Blue Planet Project: Water- Old Romanian Religious And Mythological Symbol

Long before it became a research subject for men of science or a source of inspiration for painters, musicians or poets and writers, water had been a religious and mythological symbol. People have always benefited from it, but it was also transfigured into myths and legends.
In the orthodox religion, water is the symbol of being purified from sins, and also of death and Ressurection. During the baptism ceremony, while being three times sunk into holy water and through prayers, the newly-born child gets forgiveness for his ancestors’ sins and it is spiritually re-born through Jesus Christ.
Water has the same purifying power during other moments of the religious ritual, being known as ,,holy water” (in Romanian ,,agheasma mare” and ,,agheasma mica”). The word ,,agheasma” comes from Greek and means ,,being hallowed”. The main part of the ritual is the prayer for getting water hallowed. During the ceremony, the priest sinks three fingers of his right hand into water (symbolyzing the Holy Cross) and pronounces some sacred words.
Then, using a bunch of basil, the believers are sprinkled with holy water, just as things and places in the house, in order to get purified and to be shared divine faith. This is the way to remake the bundle between human and divine. A special moment in the orthodox rituals is hallowing water on Epiphany Eve and Day, which sends us back to the time when John the Baptizer baptised Jesus Christ in the Jordan river.
Water hallowed this way is used in different ways: to baptize believers, to bless their houses, to be sprinkled over the things and people that have to be exorcised, purified or blessed. The water hallowed on Epiphany has curative powers, mentioned in the special prayer pronounced then.
Believers take a sip of it in the morning, before eating anything, on Lent days or on holidays, in fact, wherever they want to get rid of some heart pressure or they need to have their body cured. If it gets too old, it will be thrown away in clean places where it can’t be defiled.
The above mentioned ideas are just some of the significances water has as related to different stages of the orthodox rituals. A comparative study of the symbol of water in different religious cults would be of great interest. There are a lot of changes in the world, generations succeed one another as time passes, but these symbols will not perish. They will last as long as there are people living on this planet.
Beyond being a religious symbol, water has become an element of spirituality, as it is present, both as a motive and as an element, in the customs and traditions that people obey and celebrate from birth till death.
As for us, the Romanians, our customs and traditions, deeply rooted in our conscience, define us and, at the same time, differenciate us from other peoples.
Water is a magical element in the Romanian fairy-tales which one can find having two forms: living water and dead water. Through water, the fairy-tale heroes experience the miracle of death and ressurection. As such, faith is prolonged into myth.
At drought time, Romanian peasants invoke beneficial rain through a special ritual which might have its origin in an antique faith in a mighty goddess of waters. The participants to the ritual dress up a nine or ten-year-old girl in clothes made of leaves, branches and weeds. Dressed that way, the ,,nymph” walks through the village, followed by a group of children who sing, dance and invoke beneficial rain, while pronouncing ritual words, meant to make the sky open its gates and send the rain down on Earth. Villagers stand by the gates of their houses in order to welcome the procession and pour water over the head of the girl dressed in leaves and branches. This very old ritual is called ,,Paparuda”.
There are other customs which make people use water in a symbolic way.
For instance, the day after Easter Day, young men, dressed in their finest clothes, join together in small groups and wander all over the village roads, get into the houses where there are young girls and women and sprinkle water over their heads. Before doing that, they respectfully ask for permission to get in and, usually, they recite a short poem in which the hostess is compared to a flower which has to be watered in order not to fade.
Another popular belief says that, if a girl wants to find out who her husband will be, she has to look, at midnight, into a fountain and, like in a bright projection, the face of the man predestined to her will be reflected in the water( which functions like a mirror).
Fountains usually symbolize life, creation and continuity. A fine legend says that an artist, called Manole, was asked to build a matchless monastery. But what he and his men built during the day, crumbled at nightime. Manole had a terrible dream: he was told he would have to sacrifice a human being if he wanted to finish his monastery. The first human being to come was Ana, Manole’s wife. He had to wall her in. Consequently, he was able to finish the building. The prince who had ordered the monastery to be built asked him if he could build another one, equally beautiful. With the vanity typical to any gifted artist aspiring to perfection, Manole answered he could. His vanity lost him, as the prince ordered the scaffolding to be removed, so Manole and his men remained on the roof. They made themselves wings and tried to fly down, but, obviously, they crashed and died. On the place where Manole fell down, there arose a fountain, symbol of life and of the perpetuation of creative spirit.
Romanian popular mediaeval culture has a series of mythological themes related to water and the beings that populate it. For instance ,,stima apelor”, some kind of local nymph that lives in every water, either a pond, a river or a lake. She would be a beautiful white silky-skinned woman, slim and good-looking. She should wear a popular costume. When she gets into the water she turns into a being half-woman, half-fish. When she gets angry, she arises the waters and floods the land. The man who is bewitched by her, leaves everything and everybody and throws himself into the water. He will be devoured by this nymph (we can easily identify ressemblances with the mermaids in the Greek mythology).
The popular traditions also refer to water spirits populating the depth of water, where there would be a rich underwater life, quite similar to terrestrial life, with people, animals and plants. Those underwater people can’t speak, are not unkind and never harm others.
Water has a special significance in exorcising. For doing proper exorcism, water should be taken from special places: clean untouched water for a beneficial effect and foul nasty smelling water for doing harm.
For instance, for curing headaches, one should take some small pieces of burning coal, put them into holy water and pronounce the magic words suitable to the situation. The spell is said to be effective when the ,,patient”, after drinking the water in small sips, will start yawning and being sleepy.
The possible interpretations and significance which popular mentality confers to water are almost uncountable. In the present essay, we have approached to only some of them.
The importance of water in the Romanians’ lives is also obvious at the language level. There are a lot of phrases and phraseological constructions containing the word ,,apa" (=water). Here are some of them:

a fi o apa si-un pamant = to be alike
apa de ploaie =nonsense
a bate apa in piua = to draw water in a sieve
a intra la apa = to shrink (proper sense)
= to get into hot water (figurative sense)
a baga (pe cineva la apa) = to trick somebody into trouble
a nu avea nici dupa ce bea apa = to be starving, to be as poor as a church-mouse
ca pe apa = fluently, by heart
a lasa (pe cineva) in apele lui = to leave somebody alone/in peace, not to trouble somebody
a nu fi in apele lui = to be in a bad mood
a-i veni cuiva apa la moara = to find it convenient
a-i lua cuiva apa de la moara = to cut the ground from somebody’s
feeta-i lasa (cuiva) gura apa = to make one’s mouth water