Rainmaking is a weather modification ritual that attempts to invoke rain. It is based on the belief that humans can influence nature, spirits, or the ancestors who withhold or bring rain.
Among the best known examples of weather modification rituals are North American rain dances, historically performed by many Native American tribes, particularly in the Southwestern United States. Some of these weather modification rituals are still implemented today.
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Nine Dragons (九龍圖卷; Jiǔlóngtú juǎn) is a handscroll painting by Chinese artist Chen Rong. Painted in 1244, it depicts the apparitions of dragons soaring amidst clouds, mists, whirlpools, rocky mountains and fire, the painting refers to the dynamic forces of nature in Daoism and the liquid, water-like essence of the Tao. The depicted dragons are associated with nine sons of the Dragon King, while the number nine itself is considered auspicious in Chinese astrology and folk beliefs.
Areas of the painting are spattered with drops of ink, either flung or blown onto the surface in a manner similar to action painting. This is a conscious evocation of rain and may even be a rainmaking ritual by the artist; lines 32 and 33 of Chen Rong's poetic inscription describe how his dragons either could, or did, produce rainfall:
Omek tannou, Ommk tangou or Amuk taniqu is an ancient Tunisian rainmaking ritual which was inherited from Punic and Berber traditions involving invocations of the goddess Tanit. It is now all but extinct.
It features the ritual use of the sculpted head of a woman (somewhat resembling the head of a girl's doll), which is carried in procession between the houses of a village during periods of drought by children singing the refrain أمك طانقو يا نساء طلبت ربي على الشتاء (Tunisian Latin script: Ommk tangou ya nsee, talbt rabbi ëla s'sctee, Tunisian Arabic pronunciation: [omː(ə)k tɜngu jæ nsɛː tälb(ə) rabːi ʕla ʃːteː]), "Oh women, Ommk tangou has asked God for rain". The song varies according to the region because the term shta designates rain only in certain urban areas. Each housewife then pours a little water on the statuette, invoking rain.
Dodola (also spelled Dodole, Dodoli, Dudola, Dudula etc.) and Perperuna (also spelled Peperuda, Preperuda, Preperuša, Prporuša, Papaluga etc.) are rainmaking pagan customs widespread among different peoples in Southeast Europe until the 20th century, found in Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, and Serbia. It is still practiced in remote Albanian ethnographic regions, but only in rare events, when the summer is dry and without atmospheric precipitation.
The ceremonial ritual is an analogical-imitative magic rite that consists of singing and dancing done by young girls or boys in processions following a main performer who is dressed with fresh branches, leaves and herbs, with the purpose of invoking rain, usually practiced in times of droughts, especially in the summer season, when drought endangers crops and pastures, even human life itself.