A ceremonial "wheat cross" from Romania. It was made on the last day of the wheat harvest to carry the "wheat wreath" from the fields to the village. Pic from this great paper about crosses from the Alba county in Romania, "Crucea in patrimoniul spiritual al judetului Alba" (In Romanian)...
The wheat wreath was the most important part of the Romanian end of harvest ceremonies. It was made from the last sheaf of wheat...
It was normally then used to "crown" the "most beautiful unmarried girl" that participated in the harvest, who then carried it back to the village on her head...Love these pics of the reenactment of this ceremony by Vasile Sarb
The same Wheat wreath ceremony was performed by the Slavs. Wheat wreath, worn by the "corn maidens" and made from the last sheaf of wheat, was the first batch of grain to be threshed on the threshing floor. This grain was then set aside for next year's sowing and was the fist grain to be sawn. I talked about this in my post "Wheat wreath"...
BTW, a lot of Slavs once lived in Romania, which is attested by huge number of Slavic toponyms and hydronyms and by the amount of Slavic words still present in Romanian language...
Romanians, like many other Europeans, believed that the last sheaf of wheat, from which the wreath was made, contained the "spirit of grain"...This spirit was preserved in a "Corn dolly" made from the last sheaf instead or together with the wreath. I talked about this in my post "Corn dolly"...
Who corn dolly represents can be seen from the fact that in Gaelic, the word Cailleach means both an old woman and the last sheaf of wheat and the corn dolly made from it. Corn dolly which represents Mother Earth, the life (grain) giving mother...
I talked about this in my post "The old woman of the mill dust"...
And in Slovenia we find this: Men bringing an old woman in a grain basket into the mill, where she gets transformed through milling into a young girl. An old story about the rebirth (sowing/sprouting) of the Mother Earth (Mother of grain) over winter? I talked about this in my post "Bablji mlin"...
What is very interesting about the "wheat wreath" was placed on the head of the most beautiful unmarried (fertile!!!) girl which participated in harvesting, who then carried it to the village "while everyone else sang wedding songs and performed various wedding rituals"...
This seems to be directly linking female fertility and land fertility, again something found also in Slavic and Gaelic folklore (remnants of old religions)...
In Ireland "grain sheafs appear at weddings and dance with a bride"...
More about walking sheaves of wheat in European folklore can be found in my post "Walking sheafs of wheat"...
In Russia, in the past, after the last sheaf of grain was cut, women harvesters would lie down on the ground and roll around the field "to return the strength to the earth".
The Wheat wreath was in Romania always made by women standing in a circle, and originally was made "the way you would plait women's hair"...
BTW, this link between female fertility and land, and especially grain field fertility is ancient, and can be traced back to Neolithic Fertile Crescent, from where it spread to Europe...
As I said, all over Europe, The last sheaf of grain represents the living "sprit of grain"...But in Eastern Slavic countries, it also represents The Ancestors...This is Diduch (Grandfather) Christmas sheaf from Ukraine... I talked about this in my post "Diduch"...
And interestingly, the girl carrying the wheat wreath, is sprinkled with water all along her journey from the field to the village...Why? Slavs believed that thirsty ancestors can cause droughts which destroys wheat...I talked about this in my post "White feast"...
