In Romanian mythology, Baba Dochia, or The Old Dokia, is a name originating from the Byzantin calendar which celebrates the Martyr Evdokia on 1 March. The Romanian Dokia personifies mankind's impatience in waiting for the return of spring.
Baba Dochia has a son, called Dragomir or Dragobete , who is married. Dochia ill-treats her daughter-in-law by sending her to pick up berries in the forest at the end of February. God appears to the girl as an old man and helps her in her task. When Dochia sees the berries, she thinks that spring has come back and leaves for the mountains with her son and her goats. She is dressed with twelve lambskins, but it rains on the mountain and the skins get soaked and heavy. Dochia has to get rid of the skins and when frost comes she perishes from the cold with her goats. Her son freezes to death with a piece of ice in his mouth as he was playing the flute.
In other sources, Dochia was the daughter(or sister) of Decebalus, King of the Dacians. When the Roman Emperor Trajan was conquering part of the Dacian territory, Dochia seeks refuge in the Carpathian Mountains in order to avoid marrying him. She disguises herself as a shepherd but she takes off her lambskin garments and freezes to death with her herd. She is transformed into a stream and her animals into flowers.
In the calendar, there are 9 days associated with the 9 coats she's shedding, from March 1 to March 9. Her spirit is haunting every year around that time, bringing snowstorms and cold weather before the spring sets in. Women use to pick a day out of these 9 beforehand, and if the day turns out to be fair, they'll be fair in their old days, and if the day turns out to be cold, they'll turn bitter when older.
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