The source of this ritual, as is the case with those of many other local popular beliefs and practices, precedes the introduction of Christianity, although it came in time to be associated with Orthodox Easter or with the Feast of the Ascension.

The figurine was generally made from clay and most often by girls, though sometimes also by boys or married women; the ceremony itself would draw in the whole village community as spectators, and, in isolated cases, also had active participation from the Romanian Orthodox clergy.

It evoked memories of human sacrifice for the appeasement of rain deities, with parallel near-sacrifices of girls being still attested in rural Romania during the first half of the 20th century.

The Caloian litany, which exists in various arrangements as a sample of primitive Romanian literature, usually refers to the figure being sent off to the skies to unlock rain, and buried so that it may be reborn.

Intermingling with the latter is attested in Caloian's primary spread along the Danube, but also in its supposed etymology, which reveals either a Slavonic term for "dirt" or a folkloric nod to Ioannitsa (Ioniță) Kaloyan.

[4] Performers are most often described as young girls, and sometimes boys,[5] though folklorist Teodor Burada, who speaks from a Western Moldavian perspective, also records the occasional involvement of married women.

"[10] As Burada notes, the Caloian makers made sure to present it in a mortuary pose, with hands crossed on the chest; sometimes, a secondary figure, the "female" Caloiță, would be added.

[11] The Easter egg variant remained well attested in the local culture of Niculițel, though other accounts refer to the Caloian being dressed in flowers and made to hold up a candle; a cross was placed near its head.

[2] Folklorist Ion I. Drăgoescu reported a form of the ritual as seen in Potlogi, where the Caloian (known here exclusively as Caloiță) is made from dough, and its coffin carved out of a pumpkin shell.

"[6] In some documented cases, the burial spot was specifically chosen as the line separating two villages or at crossroads, which were also "mythical places, spaces allowing for the communication between two worlds".

[15] In the oldest variants, Christian symbolism is scarcely present in the funeral ceremony, and the procession is limited to girls wearing leaves of dwarf elder for clothes.

The recovered figurine was either broken up into small pieces that were taken back to the village and thrown into wells, or left intact in its coffin and set down on a river to be carried downstream.

[2] Another variant of the ritual, attested in Fântâna Doamnei, had it buried in a field of green wheat and exhumed at Saint George's Festival (April 23), which, according to folklorist Mihai Pop, underscores Caloian's function as an agrarian fertility rite.

They refer to first-hand accounts from the early 20th century which described adolescent girls, dressed up in funeral attire, being hurled into Moldavian rivers by other youth, and barely surviving the experience.

[27] A transition between the human version and the Caloian is attested in Lișna, where young villagers created human-sized dolls, or zâne, which they pretended were real girls that have to be kidnapped and buried in order to end droughts.

[28] One informant suggested in 1949 that Caloian (known to her as Iene) was only ever performed in times of drought, usually on weekends, and with no day of rest in-between (though "sometimes, preparation are made throughout the week ahead").

[30] A variant attested in Călmățui had the figurine buried in grains of wheat or barley, whereas in Tudor Vladimirescu the ceremony closely followed regular church burials, including funeral services provided by a Romanian Orthodox priest, and a dedicated grave in the village cemetery.

[30] With or without the burial, the rainmaking ritual closely mimicked attested practices for Easter-time (including alms which attracted the village in its entirety),[32] with the song performed being a notable exception.

Istoria literaturii romîne described Caloian as one of several songs or chants which serve to "mirror forms of [social] life that lead us back to the patriarchal village as it was at the dawn of the feudal era", and more particularly "descriptions of ceremonials or rites.

Philologist Vasile Bogrea sees Caloian as originally a likely reference to a 12th-century Bulgarian Tsar, Ioannitsa (Ioniță) Kaloyan, polemically known in Greek as Skyloioannes (which would explain contexts in which Scaloian is used).

[53] Meanwhile, the custom had spread out to eastern peripheral areas: one 1920 report notes the Caloian being practiced by the Gagauz and Romanians of Vulcănești, in Bessarabia (now Gagauzia, Republic of Moldova).

[54] According to Pop, the ritual had a "much larger area" than usually acknowledged, though derivatives such as Muma ploii ("Mother of Rain"), in Oltenia, and Cheloșag at Ferești in Western Moldavia.

Examples include Ploița and Ploițica ("Rainy Girl") in Focuri, Păpușa ("Doll") in Horodniceni, and Mama secetei ("Mother of Drought") in Heleșteni and Santa Mare.

[56] Late adoption correlates with the usage of common female names, as is the case with Aglăița of Concești and Havârna, Catrina of Lungani, and Maricica of Vorona.

They note (as with Adrian Fochi) that Caloian should be seen as one specific incarnation of a ritual which mostly employs feminine figurines under many other names, including Caloiana, Ploaia ("The Rain"), and Maica Călătoarea ("Mother Traveler").

[60] They marked a festival known as Paștele morțîlor [sic] ("Easter of the Dead"), in which they hurled eggshells into rivers, and also had Păpărugă as a localized Dodola; some fashioned Muma ploii on a separate occasion, using only clay that had been used to build a cob oven.

[67] The ritual's name was also revived by Romanian wine producers, with Crama Oprișor marketing as Caloian its Fetească neagră, rosé and Merlot varieties.