- Source: Ursitoare
The three Ursitoare, in Romanian mythology, are supposed to appear three nights after a child's birth to determine the course of its life. They are most similar to the Roman Parcae, the Latin equivalent of the Greek Fates or Moirai.
The Fates appearing to baptize children has been part of Romanian tradition for hundreds of years. In recent years there has been a "physical materialization" too of this tradition through the show presented during the name party.
Names
Their most common names are ursitori and ursitoare, but variations appear locally, like ursători, ursoaie, ursońi, urzoaie. Similarly, in the Oltenia region, they are dialectally known as ursătóri(le), ursitóri(le), ursătoáre(le). The great variety in their names, according to Rolf Wilhelm Brednich, attests the "ancient popularity" of the belief.
Role
The Ursitoari come at night to the newborn's cradle, three nights after their birth, and weave their fate. They equal three beings, but are variably described as three girls, three virgins, three sisters, three women, or three apparitions.
In Moldova, the ursitoare are good fairies clad in white and equal three: the ursitoarea, who holds a spindle and a loom; the soarta, who weaves the thread, and the moartea, who cuts the thread.
Parallels
= Among Slavic peoples
=Scholarship indicates that similar beings (a trio of women that allot men's fates) also exist in South Slavic folklore, among the Serbians, Macedonians, Slovenes, Croatians, Bulgarians and Montenegrinians.
In Bulgaria (also among Bulgarians in Moldova), there is the belief in орисници ("orisnitsi"), three women that come at night to bless the newborn child and decree their fate. They are sometimes described as elderly women wearing black, or three women of differing ages.
See also
Fates
Deities and fairies of fate in Slavic mythology
Ursitory
References
= Notes
== Bibliography
=Further reading
Cuisenier, Jean (1985). "Sur un conte, du mythe et un rituel: Les Ursitoare de Roumanie". In Herman Parret; Hans-George Ruprecht (eds.). Exigences et perspectives de la sémiotique: Recueil d'hommages pour A.J. Greimas [Aims and Prospects of Semiotics. Essays in honor of A.J. Greimas] (in French). John Benjamins. pp. 905–926. doi:10.1075/z.23.77cui.
Hulubaş, Adina. "Ipostaze ale divinităţilor destinului în credinţe arhaice şi în literatura populară" [Hypostases of the Destiny Gods in Secular Beliefs and Folk Literature)]. In: Anuarul Muzeului Etnografic al Moldovei [The Yearly Review of the Ethnographic Museum of Moldavia] 12/2012, pp. 173-188.