Baba Dochia

In Romanian folklore, Baba Dochia (The Old Dokia) symbolizes the transition from winter to spring. Folk traditions portray her as an elderly woman who defiantly challenges March's lingering winter by prematurely taking her animals to pasture. Her name likely derives from the Byzantine calendar's commemoration of Saint Eudokia of Heliopolis, celebrated on March 1. Baba Dochia embodies humanity's eagerness for winter's end and spring's arrival.

According to legend, Baba Dochia has a son named Dragobete who is married. Dochia mistreats her daughter-in-law, sending her on an impossible task to gather berries in the late-winter forest. A divine figure, appearing as an elderly man, aids the young woman in completing this seemingly impossible errand. When Dochia sees the berries, she mistakenly believes spring has arrived and ventures into the mountains with her son and goats, wearing twelve lambskin layers for protection.

In the mountains, rain soaks her heavy garments, forcing her to discard them one by one. When frost suddenly returns, Dochia and her goats perish from exposure. Her son, playing his flute, meets a similar fate with ice forming in his mouth as he freezes to death—a poignant reminder of winter's unpredictable power during the seasonal transition.