Rompres says that in the Romanian folk tradition, Dochia is an Agrarian divinity in the seniority age, that symbolically dies and is reborn, and it is similar to the goddess Dyane from the Latin Pantheon and with Hera and Artemis from the Greek Pantheon. She took her name from Saint Evdokia from the Christian calendar who is celebrated on the same day. Saint Evdokia was a very beautiful rich woman who changed her bacchanalian pagan lifestyle after she embraced the Christian faith. She died as an ordinary woman and was reborn as a light of the world, following the right faith , so in the end she died as a Martyr. That is why the church places her next to the Saints, being passed on in the calendar on the 1st of March. And as her feast day coincided with the celebration day of the New Agrarian year, the people gave the Agrarian divinity the name of the Saint. But the Romanians don’t call her Saint, as in the Christian calendar, but “Baba” (Old Woman), a woman that brings the ugly days of the beginning of the March and that argues with the shepherds and ignores the power of the God Mars.

 

The meaning of Baba Dochia’s death from the religious point of view:

 

Dochia’s death on March 9th, on Macinicilor’s day, means also her rebirth, the rebirth of the baby Dochia that continues to live her divine century of 365 days. The days of Dochia, “Babele”(Old Women)(1-9 March) represents a cycle of 9 or 12 days, that matches with the days when Dochia climbed the mountain with her flock of sheep, dedicated to the seasonal death and rebirth of the Agrarian goddess and to the calendar time around the spring equinox. The magic customs and practices of renewing the time are concentrated on the first day of the cycle. 1st March is also called Dochia, Marta Martisor, and the last day, 9th March is known as Mosi, 40 Saints.

 

Practices:

 

Without knowing too well their significance, many of the customs of the Old Women’s Days are still in practice: Martisorul, the preparation of the Mucenici, the lightning of the ritual fires, pomenirile etc.There is often a custom of distributing one of the 9 or 12 days to a person(usually to a woman) from a collectivity, being considered that the weather on that Old woman’s Day will reflect the way the soul of that beloved person will be during that year.

 

From the meteorological point of view:

 

After the terrifying days of the Babe (Old Women’s) there are another 9 milder days called the Mosilor (Old Men’s) days.The entire cycle of days has a meteorological meaning: The 1st of March characterizes spring, the 2nd of March summer and so on.