Calusarii - Romanian Traditional Dance

In honor of Rusalii, which was yesterday, here is some video of the Calusarii, the Calus dancers.

About
Calus is a protection, healing, and fertility ritual. Iele (They), Mandrele (Beauties) are female demons and were supposed to punish people around Rusalii (Pentecost) who did not respect the interdiction to work on special days honoring the Iele (They). Calusarii are invested with supernatural powers to protect the populace.
--seachain-aroon.com

The Song

I wanted to show this song first because, for me, it's the most pleasurable part of this post. I couldn't find a video that contained both the dance AND a good quality sound. The second half of the song is like a rocket launching - no wonder it scares the rusalii! The first half of the song, so folksy yet mysterious, stimulates some corner of my soul that no other genre can touch. It's that quality which makes this one of my favorite pieces of music.

The Dance

Fiddle Player

More Information:
The căluşari (/kə.lu'ʃarʲ/) is the Romanian word for participants in a traditional folk dance, the căluş, nowadays mainly found in Southern Romania. The dance closely resembles the English Morris dance, in choreography, the meaning of the ritualistic sword dance, and the costumes, and it is believed it was borrowed from Dacia to western Europe (Spain, later England) via the Celts or the Goths[1] but it is more likely that it was borrowed from the Dacian auxiliary units stationed in Britain.
--wikipedia.com

Căluş is a protection, healing, and fertility ritual, carried out at the Orthodox Pentecost Rusalii, seven weeks after the Orthodox Easter. It marks the passage from spring to summer, from this world to the ‘world beyond’, and from the living to the dead ancestors. Căluş is deeply rooted in Romania 's ancient cultural strata. Căluş pertains to a large and well-known category of men 's corps customs, which include dances with swords or sticks used as props. Dance is one of the most important components of this ritual; it is through dance that the ritual acts are accomplished.
--mainweb.hgo.se