„Drăgaica” Fair

„DRĂGAICA” FAIR Drăgaica fair takes place annually between 12th – 24th June, in the southern area of Buzău, and is known as the oldest fair in the Muntenia area (since the time of Dimitrie Cantemir). It is a celebration dedicated to the beginning of the harvest, an occasion of celebration and joy for the abundance of the harvest, being a fair, a bazaar, a large carnival attested from the 15th century, with a very important role in the wool trade. The event enjoys a wide participation, thousands of people coming from Buzău county, neighboring counties and even from the country. The genesis of Drăgaica Fair can be found, historically recorded, in the area of Mount Penteleu, a distant echo of Nedeia Penteleu and which for centuries has facilitated the meeting and connections of merchants coming from Țara Bărsei, Moldova and Bărăganului Plain. The name of the fair was given by the period of the year in which it takes place (12th – 24th June), during the summer solstice (21st June), when people expressed their joy for the victory of light over darkness. Drăgaica-Sânziana, the pre-Christian agrarian goddess, was the protector of wheat fields and married women. On Drăgăica day (24th June), unmarried girls went to the fields and decorated their heads and hair with drăgăicuță (a plant with golden-yellow flowers, beautifully smelling, also called sănziana), then they came to the village and started the party after the service from the church. In the second half of the 18th century, the Drăgaica fair was brought down from Mount Penteleu to Băncești, a village belonging to Simileasca commune, at the edge of Buzău, the main urban settlement of the Carpathian Bend region, geographically located on the corner of the commercial road between Muntenia and Moldova with the one between Transylvania (Braşov) with the Danube ports Brăila and Galati. Also, it is located at the contact of the Subcarpathians of Curvature with Bărăganu Plain. On 26th August 1778, ruler Alexandru Vodă Ipsilanti issued the first document certifying the existence of the Drăgaica Fair, near the city of Buzău. After visiting Valea Teancului (near Verneşti) and the Diocese estate, on 4th June 1864, Mihail Kogălniceanu, the first minister of the United Principalities, approved the relocation of the Drăgaica fair to the edge of the city of Buzău, „on the free estate of the city in the part towards the post office from the barrier of Ploeşti road, where places of shops were marked.” On 23rd June 1868, Prince Carol of Romania visited Drăgaica fair, an opportunity for the Maltese painter Amadeus Preziosi, who was in the royal suite, to immortalize Drăgaica fair in the works „Buzău Fair” and „Return from the Drăgaica Fair”. During the period when the fair was not held, military maneuvers of the units in the area took place on these lands.