FIRE IN RITUAL PRACTICES FROM BANAT

Abstract

The general origin of fire divinities lies in the need of the primitive man to keep the fire alive, and in later periods to avoid the difficult re-firing of another fire. The fire considered as divine spirit, was sacred in all religions, in the form of absolute veneration and has many coincidences in the Romanian mythology area of Banat, being mythologized as a purifying ghost in the image of the living fire, as an internal fire taking the form of the Flying, and as a celestial deity through St. Elijah. Even today in some areas of Banat can be discovered some elements of the ancient ritual practices dedicated to pious energy, especially on the occasion of the mythological-folkloric feast Alimori, but also on the Great Thursday before Easter, by the Martyrs, Saint George, when are made fires for the purpose of cleaning and purification of animals or of the St. Dumitru the trees to produce fruit. On these holidays the domesticated fire is lit, sacred, source of good, venerated by the Masonic fraternity and treated as a living being, better suited to be considered light, in order to distinguish himself from the fire of Geehenna having an evil action.