For the king, see: king golopov

Caloian is a rain ritual in Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

, similar in some ways with Paparuda

Paparuda

Paparuda is a Romanian and Bulgarian rain ritual, probably of pagan origin, performed in the spring and in times of severe drought.A girl, wearing a skirt made of fresh green knitted vines and small branches, sings and dances through the streets of the village, stopping at every house, where the...

. It is mostly found in Wallachia

Wallachia

Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...

 (Southern part of Romania). The origin of this ritual, as many other local popular beliefs and practices, precedes the spreading of Christianity, although it was in time associated with the period of the Orthodox Easter.

The ritual is celebrated in early spring as a fertilization ritual, or whenever around the year during the time of severe drought or excessive rain. Young girls make one to several clay dolls, resembling male figures, most important being either "Father of the Sun" or the "Mother of the Rain", depending on the purpose of the ritual. This doll is dressed in common clothes, placed on a wooden board or in an improvised tree-bark coffin, ornamented with flowers and so pursuits a mock-up of the traditional burial ritual, officiated by children. The suite marches through crop fields, around water courses and wells until the "caloian" gets to be buried. After three days, the "caloian" is unearthed, returned to the village and mourned again until it is finally set loose to float on the water of a river, lake or thrown into a well. This ceremony being ended, the young girls who had attained the ceremony were baking a special cake called "ghismán" or "ghizman"(from Ghetsemane, as this ritual was often related to the Easter period) which was shared with the rest of the children.