Watching the Căluș Ritual Dance in Oltenia: Romania's Most Intense Living Tradition

(toc)

In southern Romania, each Whitsuntide a group of men dances until they enter a trance in order to heal the sick – it is possible to witness it today in unaltered village squares, unchanged even over the centuries.

The Cluny is not a folk show, it's a show for tourists! This is quite a contrast. The events taking place in the villages of Oltenia and Mountain a few days after Pentecost are a ritual recognised by UNESCO, which, in the belief of the villagers, has a protective and curative effect. The Clarinda – dancers – have been busy preparing for the week, and one of the rules is that they do not have sexual relations or date any girls outside the ritual. When they actually do perform, you're aware of the seriousness of it right away.

On a Sunday afternoon with a strong aroma of grilled mice that was accompanied by a lot of dust being stirred up from a dirt road on the side, I first encountered a Cluny troupe near the town of Caracal, in the County of Old. Nobody announced anything. Nine or so men came together at the outskirts of a yard, with ribbons and small bells on their costumes, and an older, silent man leading them – the Taf. As the music began, after only a few seconds, I couldn't follow with my eyes the footwork, which was performed in harmony by the two violinists and the small accordion. Fast, accurate, agile and active. One dancer's bells were out of tune with the other, but his neighbour saw that and fixed it, without breaking the rhythm of the dancers. It was a very short time that gave me the information I wanted of this seriousness.

The ritual is performed in the organisation of the troupe, house to house in a village and courtyards if requested by family members. When a person is ill, typically a relative, the Clarinda dance is performed over the person, particularly if they are ill due to “malevolent fairy spirits” (a local concept of illness) as is believed to have occurred in the case of the woman with the three daughters. If she lies on a blanket in her garden, everyone will jump over her—and the men will be moving in a compact group—when they see her daughter, who is sobbing softly, two feet away from you, and it's like a fairy tale. This is not easy sightseeing! It's real. It's for this reason that it is worthwhile going.

Don't assume that anybody can tell in English what is happening. Bring a Romanian phrase book and/or a Romanian friend. The villagers are not ill-disposed, they gave me some food I didn't even ask for, but the ritual isn't suspended for the foreigner to get up to speed. You don't busy yourself the heck out of taking photos of the healing moments without knowing the room all that well, you see.

It's relatively inexpensive altogether to go on this excursion. The rates of the guesthouse in Caracal are around 150-180 lei per night. Food is so cheap it's worth the price of admission and should be eaten. Long story short, this won't be around for long, and you will have to drive down roads your GPS considers being “optional.”

The Cluny ritual has continued, the Ottoman regime and communism notwithstanding, and despite all the young people moving to the big cities of Bucharest or the West. In 2025, its viewing is akin to being at the precipice of something that may not endure for future generations. It's for this reason, as well as others, that it's better to go now, before it's too late, before it is truly dead.