The Gate of Sânziene: Summer Solstice and the Romanian Myth of the Fairy Realm
By Doina Ruști
As the summer solstice approaches, I find myself thinking of the celebration of Sânziene—and inevitably, of Mircea Eliade, who was fascinated by its symbolism.
In Romania, June 24th is known as the day of the Sânziene—named both for fairies and for the golden wildflowers that bear their name. The celebration marks the summer solstice and evokes subtle connections with Roman mythology. The very word Sânziană is believed to derive from Sanctae Dianae, suggesting a link to the goddess Diana. Among all Romance-language cultures, Diana has long been associated with mystery and twilight. Her adoption into medieval beliefs often came through the writings of Latin-literate monks.
Eliade argued that in Romanian culture, Diana’s role was different—perhaps a mask for an older, indigenous Thracian goddess. He writes:
“It is likely that the name Diana replaced a local name for a native Dacian or Thracian goddess. [...] The name became zână in Romanian. Also derived from the same root is the word zânatec—meaning dazed, mentally scattered, or mad—literally, taken or bewitched by Diana or by the fairies.”
These fairies, however, are not the benign creatures of children's stories. Known variously as the Holy Ones, the Protectresses, the Iele, or the Rusalii, they are feared as much as they are revered. They appear as beautiful young women dressed in white, often bare-chested, invisible by day, and winged as they fly through the night. They sing and dance, and wherever they’ve danced, the grass turns red as fire. To see them—or to break a taboo—is to risk madness or incurable illness, which only the ritual of the călușari can heal.
Like other midsummer traditions, the celebration of Sânziene involves rituals of descent—the fading of the sun and the invocation of the moon. In village rites, young men light torches and spin them from east to west, chanting:
“Go away, sun, come, moon—
Sânziene, be gentle soon.”
Across European mythologies, the summer solstice is considered a threshold—a gateway to the descending path of darkness. In Pythagorean symbolism, the winter solstice is the gate of the gods, while the summer solstice is the gate of humans—a passage into mortality. Romanian folklore holds that on the night of Sânziene, the sky opens and reveals the mysteries of the universe to those who are prepared.
Sânziene protect love, encourage weddings, and thus become symbols of universal harmony.
Eliade’s novel The Forbidden Forest (Noaptea de Sânziene) is steeped in this mythology. Its protagonist, Ștefan Viziru, has a vision of his own death on a Midsummer Night in the Băneasa forest—drawn there by a mysterious longing. Initiated in childhood through a secret room called Sambô, he has the rare privilege of discovering the solstitial gate. His fate includes the experience of stepping outside of time.
This symbolism echoes throughout Eliade’s fiction. In The Three Graces, Dr. Aurelian Tătaru dies on the night of Sânziene, terrified by his own creation—a miraculous rejuvenation of an elderly woman. In General’s Uniform, the character Ieronim steps outside reality on Saint John’s Day (the Christian version of the midsummer solstice). In Dayan, the titular character rises from his hospital bed and walks into paradise, through a garden revealed only on Sânziene night:
“Even in the heart of the Capital, what has always been still remains: the Night of Sânziene.”
In all these cases, the escape from historical time is imagined as a descent—a passage through death’s gate, under the moon’s dominion and the rule of Diana.
Doina Ruști –
A Dictionary of Symbols in the Work of Mircea Eliade (Dicționar de simboluri din opera lui Mircea Eliade, 1997)
[1] Istoria credințelor și ideilor religioase,ed. cit., III, p. 246
[2] ib.
