The game of the goat is found during the winter holidays.

The
lyrics and the game refer to the idea of fertilization as a cosmic
transformation. "During the game, the goat dances, consuming
vital energies, dies and is reborn, symbolizing the ritual
regeneration and continuity of life" (Marcel Lutic, ethnographer
at the Ethnographic Museum of Moldova). The goat dies violently,
by hitting or shooting and is reborn symbolically.

The goat is the personification of fertility. The goat game lasts

from Christmas to New Year. In some villages in Bucovina, we find
several goats in the form of herds (Oyster), and in other areas of
the country, the goat is alone, in the presence of a shepherd, an
old man and a grandmother. The mask consists of a wooden
goat's head, with the mobile lower jaw, which is pulled with a
string during the dance. The most important thing in the Goat
Game is that the movements are performed correctly from the
goat's snout, and the body is worn on one side and on the other
from the middle, to curl. The movements must form waves. The
goat game presents a scenario of ritual death and resurrection.
The goat falls to the ground and must be resurrected, brought
back to life. Probably the origin is in ancient cults of deities with
animal appearances that die and are reborn; this fits very well
with the time of year when the old, aged, worn time of the year is
the one that is reborn, the sun rises every day with the solstice
(Serban Anghelescu, ethnologist at the Museum of the Romanian
Peasant in the Capital).