Perperuna and Dodola are considered very similar pagan customs with common origin, with main difference being in the most common gender of the central character (possibly related to social hierarchy of the specific ethnic or regional group), lyric verses, sometimes religious content, and presence or absence of a chorus. They essentially belong to rituals related to
fertility, but over time differentiated to a specific form connected with water and vegetation. They represent a group of rituals with a human collective going on a procession around houses and fields of a village, but with a central live character which differentiates them from other similar collective rituals in the same region and period (
Krstonoše,
Poklade,
Kolade,
German,
Ladarice, those during
Jurjevo and
Ivandan and so on). In the valley of
Skopje in
North Macedonia the Dodola were held on Thursday which was Perun's day. In
Hungary the ritual was usually held on
St. George's Day. The core of the song always mentions a type of rain and list of regional crops. The first written mentions and descriptions of the pagan custom are from the 18th century by
Dimitrie Cantemir in
Descriptio Moldaviae (1714/1771,
Papaluga), then in a Greek law book from
Bucharest (1765, it invoked 62nd Cannon to stop the custom of
Paparuda), and by the Bulgarian
hieromonk Spiridon Gabrovski who also noted to be related to Perun (1792,
Peperud). South Slavs and non-Slavic peoples alike used to organise the Perperuna/Dodola ritual in times of spring and especially summer
droughts, where they worshipped the god/goddess and prayed to him/her for rain (and fertility, later also asked for other field and house blessings). The central character of the ceremony of Perperuna was usually a young boy, while of Dodola usually a young girl, both aged between 10 and 15 years. Purity was important, and sometimes they were orphans. Initially, they were naked, but by the 19th and 20th centuries, the wore a skirt and dress made of fresh green knitted vines, leaves and flowers of
Sambucus nigra,
Sambucus ebulus,
Clematis flammula,
Clematis vitalba,
fern, small branches of
Tilia,
Oak and other deciduous shrubs and vines. The greenery initially covered all the body, so that the central figure was almost unrecognizable, but like the necessity of direct skin contact with greenery, it also decreased and became very simple in the modern period. They whirled and were followed by a small procession of children who walked and danced with them around the same village and fields, sometimes carrying oak or
beech branches. They sang the ritual prayer and stopped at every house yard together, where the hosts would sprinkle water on chosen boy/girl, who would shake and thus sprinkle everyone and everything around it (example of "analogical magic"). The hosts also gifted treats (bread, eggs, cheese, sausages etc., in a later period also money) to the children, who shared and consumed them. Sometimes, even hosts would drink wine, seemingly as a sacrifice in Perun's honor. The chosen boy/girl was called by one of the name variants of the ritual itself, however in
Istria was also known as
Prporuš and in
Dalmatia-
Boka Kotorska as
Prpac/Prpats and both regions his companions as
Prporuše, Depending on region, instead of village boys and girls the pagan ritual by then was mostly done by migrating
Romani people from other villages and for whom it became a professional performance motivated by gifts, sometimes followed by financially poor members from other ethnic groups. Due to
Anti-Romani sentiment, the association with Romani also caused repulsion, shame and ignorance among last generations of members of ethnic groups who originally performed it. Eventually it led to a dichotomy of identification with own traditional heritage, Christianity and stereotypes about Romani witchcraft. In the present days, older generations of Albanians demonstrate the common practice of rainmaking rituals in their life, but newer generations generally see them as something applied in the past, a tradition that their parents have gone through. Nevertheless, elders still accompany
processions of boys and girls, who perform the rainmaking rite dressed with their best
traditional clothing except for the main boy or girl, who is dressed entirely in fresh branches, leaves and herbs. Public exhibitions of the ritual are usually performed during Albanian festivals, often for the local audience, but also in the
Gjirokastër National Folk Festival, one of the most important events of Albanian culture.
Perperuna songs Ioan Slavici reported in 1881 that the custom of
Paparuga was already "very disbanded" in Romania. Stjepan Žiža in 1889/95 reported that the once common ritual almost vanished in Southwestern and Central-Eastern Istria, Croatia.
Ivan Milčetić recorded in 1896 that the custom of
Prporuša also almost vanished from the North Adriatic island of
Krk, although almost recently it was well known in all Western parts of Croatia, while in other parts as
Dodola. Croatian linguist Josip Ribarić recorded in 1916 that it was still alive in Southwestern Istria and
Ćićarija (and related it to the 16th century migration from Dalmatia of speakers of
Southwestern Istrian dialect). The Dodola rituals in Macedonia were actively held until the 1960s. In Bulgaria the chorus was also "Oj Ljule". The oldest record in Serbia was by
Vuk Karadžić (1841), where was widespread all over the country and held at least until 1950/70s.
August Šenoa in his writing about the travel to
Okić Castle near
Samobor, Croatia mentioned that saw two dodole. To them is related the custom of Lade/Ladarice from other parts of Croatia, having chorus "
Oj Lado, oj!" and similar verses "
Molimo se višnjem Bogu/Da popuhne tihi vjetar, Da udari rodna kiša/Da porosi naša polja, I travicu mekušicu/Da nam stada Lado, Ugoje se naša stada". == See also ==