RUSALIES – People’s custom and ritual games are performed at the time of the non-baptized days of Christmas to Epiphany. The longest was held in southern Macedonia, from Gevgelsko to Thessaloniki. According to the belief, in these 12 days, they also called dangers days, but Riston days, the demons are active, and the people performed various magical actions for protection, including rosal rites and games. The most famous Rosalian dances are: “Karadzova”, “Zlata”, “Petrovska”, “Todoror Bureau”, “Kavadar Avassi”, “Captain Avassi”, etc. The Rosalian companies first went to church, where they took a communion and blessing from the priest. Three dances were played before the church, after which they started on the twelve-day journey. Twelve days played and sang and collected gifts that they donated for charity – building a church, school, tap, bridge, etc. It was believed that they chase demons and diseases, so they were pleased to be admired in every village and every home, especially where there was painful. After the twelve days he went to church. It was believed that if they do not do it, they will crush. If two associated rosalies met, it regularly came to fights, sometimes with death consequences, and the victims were buried at the place of death. This is confirmed by the many toponyms of Rosalian cemetery. Lit.: Kuzman Sapkarev, rosalies, ancient and claimed interesting Bilgar Orders = Ai Wednesday and Djuj Macedonia, Plovdiv 1884; Ljubica and Danica Jankovic, People’s Iure, ⅳ, Belgrade, 1948, 132; Vera Klichkova, Rosalian customs in Gevgelija, “Macedonian folklore”, ⅱ, 3-4, Skopje, 1969, 377 M. Keith.
Original article in Macedonian language Cyrillic alphabet
Кириличен напис РУСАЛИИ