What is "sorcova"

Sorcova is a Romanian popular custom, practiced on January 1. This custom is very old and is spread throughout the country, being practiced mainly by children. Sorcova is also used to describe the object that characterizes this custom. It consists of a stick or twig decorated with artificial flowers of different colors, wherewith children slightly hit on back their parents or acquaintances in the morning of New Year, wishing them, in special verses, health and luck. When they begin to say the verses, sorcova is inclined in the direction of the person to whom they address all wishes, sorcova playing the role of a magic wand, endowed with the ability to transmit health, youth and fertility to the vised one; verses are very suggestive in this regard. The text of sorcova, reminiscent of a spell, merely reinforces the movement of sorcova.