Editing Dodola and Perperuna (section)

{{Short description|Rainmaking rituals in Southeast Europe}}
[[File:"Watering of Dodola" by Uroš Predić, published in magazine "Orao" in 1892.jpg|right|thumb|The sprinkling of ''Dodola'' with water by [[Uroš Predić]] (1892).]]

'''Dodola''' (also spelled ''Dodole'', ''Dodoli'', ''Dudola'', ''Dudula'' etc.) and '''Perperuna''' (also spelled ''Peperuda'', ''Preperuda'', ''Preperuša'', ''Prporuša'', ''Papaluga'' etc.) are [[Rainmaking (ritual)|rainmaking]] [[Paganism|pagan]] customs widespread among different peoples in [[Southeast Europe]] until the 20th century, found in [[Albania]], [[Bulgaria]], [[Croatia]], [[Greece]], [[Hungary]], [[Kosovo]], [[Moldova]], [[Montenegro]], [[North Macedonia]], [[Romania]], and [[Serbia]]. It is still practiced in remote [[Albanians|Albanian]] ethnographic regions, but only in rare events, when the summer is dry and without atmospheric precipitation.{{sfn|Qafleshi|2011|pp=51–52}}{{sfn|Ministria|2014|p=66}}

The ceremonial ritual is an analogical-imitative [[incantation|magic rite]] that consists of singing and dancing done by young girls or boys in processions following a main performer who is dressed with fresh branches, leaves and herbs, with the purpose of invoking rain, usually practiced in times of [[drought]]s, especially in the summer season, when drought endangers crops and pastures, even human life itself.

According to one interpretation, the custom could have Slavic origin and be related to Slavic god [[Perun]], and Perperuna could have been a Slavic goddess of rain, and the wife of the supreme deity Perun (god of thunder and weather in the [[Slavic pantheon]]). Recent research criticize [[List of Slavic pseudo-deities|invention]] of a Slavic female goddess, and indicate as possible both Slavic and old-Balkan influences. In Albanian ritual songs are invoked [[Dielli (Albanian paganism)|Dielli]] (the Sun), [[Perëndi]] (the [[Sky]], or deity of weather), and Ilia ([[Elijah]], who in Christianized Albanian and South Slavic folklore has replaced the Sun god and the thunder or weather god, [[Drangue]] and Perun).