On New Year’s Day in Romania children practise a custom known as sorcova (derived from the word for 40). They tap their elders lightly with a small branch or stick decorated with artificial flowers (also called a sorcova); the forty light touches correspond to the forty words of the poem they recite while doing so.
The Merry sorcova
Long may you live,
Long may you flourish,
Like apple trees,
Like pear trees,
In midsummer,
Like the rich autumn
Overflowing with abundance,
Hard as steel
Fast as an arrow,
For many years to come!
Happy New Year!
In Transylvania a similar custom is carried out by children who go door-to-door with a colourful handkerchief on a stick wishing householders well in the following verse:
As many lumps of coal in the hearth,
Just as many suitors to the lass;
As many stones in the river,
Just as many wheat stacks in the field;
As many chips from the cutter,
Just as many children around the hearth!