Perperuna

Dodola (also spelled Doda, Dudulya and Didilya, pronounced: doh-doh-la, doo-doo-lya, or dee-dee-lya) also known under the names Paparuda, Perperuna or Preperuša is a pagan tradition found in the Balkans. 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 hosts sprinkle water on her. She is accompanied by the people of the village who dance and shout on the music. The custom has attributed a specific type of dance and a specific melody.

According to some interpretations, Dodola is a Slavic goddess of rain, and the wife of the supreme god Perun (who is the god of thunder). Slavs believed that when Dodola milks her heavenly cows, the clouds, it rains on earth. Each spring Dodola is said to fly over woods and fields, and spread vernal greenery, decorating the trees with blossoms.

The custom is known by two names, mostly spelled Dodola (dodole, dudula, dudulica, dodolă) and Perperuna (peperuda, peperuna, perperuna, prporuša, preporuša, paparudă, pirpirună). Both names are used by the South Slavs and Romanians.

The name Perperuna is identified as a feminine personification of the great god Perun. Sorin Paliga suggested that it was a divinity from the local Thracian substratum. The name of Dodola is possibly cognate with the Lithuanian word for thunder: dundulis.

D. Decev compared the word "dodola" (also dudula, dudulica, etc.) with Thracian anthroponyms (personal names) and toponyms (place names), such as Doidalsos, Doidalses, Dydalsos, Dudis, Doudoupes, etc. Paliga argued that based on this, the custom most likely originated from the Thracians.

South Slavs used to organise the Dodole (or Perperuna) festival in times of drought, where they worshipped the goddess and prayed to her for rain. In the ritual, young women sing specific songs to Dodola, accompanying it by a dance, while covered in leaves and small branches. In Croatia and Serbia today, Dodole is often performed by folklore groups.

In folklore of Turopolje on the holidays of St. Juraj called Jurjevo five most beautiful maidens are picked to portray Dodola goddesses in leaf-dresses and sing for the village till the end of the holiday.

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