Thread: Romanian bear dancers...At the end of the year, boys and men in eastern Romania put on heavy bear costumes, often made of real fur, and dance through the streets of towns and villages...

They dance to the rhythm of drums. In the end a ritual scene is performed in which the bear collapses because a demon is inside him. The "Gypsy" comes with a knife and bleeds the bear, lets the demon out and the bear gets resurrected

https://t.co/QMEHD8wdmC via @YouTube

In some versions of the tradition, the bear, the Gypsy and the drummers also go from house to house in the village, singing and dancing to ward off evil and bring good luck...

Officially "It’s thought that the tradition of dancing bears originated many centuries ago among the Roma who would visit villages just before New Year with real bears on leashes to dance and chase away bad spirits from the outgoing

I can see why people would think that this ritual could have Roma origin...Roma's with their dancing bears were until recently a common scene in Eastern Europe...

Thread: Snake = Sun's heat. Dragon = Old Snake = destructive Sun's heat of the late summer early autumn, which causes drought...

In Mesopotamia

https://t.co/MLyf5rhw9F

In Bactria

https://t.co/0OMFUIZLYI

In Europe

https://t.co/IUNbywqfYm
https://t.co/TsN8My80HJ

But not in China...Chinese dragon is a rain deity that fosters harmony...Why? Because of Chinese climate...

Dragons appeared in China for the first time during Neolithic...