Periniţa or Perniţa is a wedding

Wedding

A wedding is the ceremony in which two people are united in marriage or a similar institution. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes...

 party folk dance

Folk dance

The term folk dance describes dances that share some or all of the following attributes:*They are dances performed at social functions by people with little or no professional training, often to traditional music or music based on traditional music....

, typical of and deriving from Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

 and Moldova

Moldova

Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...

.

The dancers are arranged in a circle and dance, e.g., Joc. A person with a handkerchief

Handkerchief

A handkerchief , also called a handkercher or hanky, is a form of a kerchief, typically a hemmed square of thin fabric that can be carried in the pocket or purse, and which is intended for personal hygiene purposes such as wiping one's hands or face, or blowing one's nose...

 or pillow

Pillow

A pillow is a large cushion support for the head, usually used while sleeping in a bed, or for the body as used on a couch or chair. There are also throw pillows , which are pillows that are purely decorative and not designed for support or comfort...

dances inside a circle, then chooses a person of an opposite sex by placing the handkerchief around his/her neck. They kiss on the cheek, the first person goes into the circle, while the second one repeats the same.

The name of the dance comes from the pillow (sometimes handkerchief) on which a young man places his knee when kneeling before a girl he chooses. The Romanian word for pillow is "pernă" (from South Slavic "perina"), and the dance is called Perniţa or Periniţa after the "pernă" that is often used.