Winter festivals around Europe

BULGARIA

• New year

• Trifon Zarezan

• Christmas day

BULGARIA (NEW YEAR)• Bulgarians celebrate the first day of the New Year, New Year’s

Day and Vasilyovden On New Year's Day families cut the vasilopita to bless the house and bring good luck for the New Year. This is usually done at the midnight of New Year's Eve.. At midnight the sign of the cross is etched with a knife across the cake. A piece of cake is sliced for each member of the family and any visitors present at the time, by order of age from eldest to youngest.

• Next morning, very early, the little children with their sourvaki gather in groups of 3 or 4 and go around house to house. They tap lightly on the backs of the heads of house with their beautifully decorated twigs, wishing them health, long life, and good luck in the family and business matters.

BULGARIA (Trifon Zarezan day)

• FEBRUARY is the month when Bulgarians celebrate wine and its patron saint Trifon, also known as Trifon Zarezan. For vine-growers and wine-makers Trifon Zarezan has become so popular that it is celebrated both in accordance with the old and the new religious calendars. February 14 has become the day of Trifon Zarezan

BULGARIA (Christmas Eve)

• Koledari, or Christmas carolers, go from house to house through villages. These groups of carolers are typically made up of young men dressed in traditional costumes which vary from region to region. Some preparation goes into the koledari's performances, which begin at midnight on Christmas Eve.

ROMANIA

• Saint Nicolas day

• Orthodox easter

• Christmas day

ROMANIA(Saint nicolas day)

• Saint Nicholas come with two baskets: one filled with candy and other goodies and in the other he brings twigs. Every child must put a shoe or a boot next to the door and weather they had been good or bad they would receive candies or twigs.

ROMANIA (Christmas eve)

• Christmas carols and the practice of caroling both feature heavily in Romanian Christmas traditions. The act of going through the village, or from house to house, singing carols dates to pre-Christian times. Today, Romanian carolers are most often children who may carry a staff topped with a representation of the Christmas star.

Polonia

• Christmas day• The three wise men

POLONIA (Christmas)

• The Christmas season in Poland starts with the end of Advent (Christmas Eve) and finishes with Candlemas on Feb. 2.

• Wigilia (from the Latin term vigilare meaning "to await") is the Polish name for Christmas Eve. Much work must be done, including cooking, baking, and all the housework. This way, the two holidays that follow can be devoted to praying, caroling, eating, relaxing, and eventually visiting. This special day is associated with several beliefs and customs.

POLONIA (The Epiphany or Feast of the Three Kings )

• On Twelfth Night, Jan. 6, Poles take small boxes containing chalk, a gold ring, incense and a piece of amber, in memory of the gifts of the Magi, to church to be blessed. Once at home, they inscribe the date and "K+M+B" with the blessed chalk above every door in the house to provide protection against illness and misfortune for those within. For 2011, it would look like "20 K+M+B 11." The letters, with a cross after each one, stand for names of the Three Kings -- Kaspar, Melchior and Balthasar. They remain above the doors all year until they are inadvertently dusted off or replaced by new markings the next year.

TURKEY

• New year

• Atatürk commemoration day

TURKEY (NEW YEAR’S DAY)

• The morning of January 1 is usually quiet. People who celebrated the New Year’s Eve in out-of-town locations generally start returning home in the late afternoon. It is also common for people to visiting relatives and friends who were not around them on December 31 and for people to exchange small gifts to each other.

TURKEY (Atatürk DAY)

• Many people in Turkey celebrate Republic Day on October 29 by attending performances and participating in traditional processions with flags and musical bands. The Turkish Republic’s founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk proclaimed Republic Day as Turkey’s most important holiday.

Italy

• carnival

• New year

• Christmas day

Italy (carnival)

• Carnevale, also known as carnival or mardi gras, is celebrated in Italy and many places around the world 40 days before Easter, a final party before Ash Wednesday and the restrictions of Lent.

• Masks, maschere, are an important part of the carnevale festival and Venice is the best city for traditional carnival masks. Carnival masks are sold year round and can be found in many shops in Venice, ranging from cheap masks to elaborate and expensive masks. Walking through the streets of Venice, it's a pleasure to view the variety of masks on display in shop windows. People also wear elaborate costumes for the festival and there are costume or masquerade balls, both private and public.

Italy (NEW YEAR’S EVE)

• La Festa di San Silvestro is celebrated December 31 on New Year's Eve. As with most Italian festivals, food plays a major role. Families and friends get together for a huge feast. The star of the dinner is lentils, symbolizing money and good fortune for the coming year. Traditionally, the dinner in many parts of Italy also includes acotechino, a large spiced sausage, or a zampone, stuffed pig's trotter. The pork symbolizes the richness of life in the coming year.

Italy (Christmas eve )

• Serving a multi-course seafood dinner on Christmas Eve (La Vigilia) is a wonderful holiday mealtime tradition that originated in Southern Italy. Known as the Feast of the Seven Fishes, the tradition is a celebration of the vigil awaiting the midnight birth of the baby Jesus

Lithuania

• New year

• San casimiro’s day

• Christmas day

lithuania(NEW YEARS DAY)

• In certain regions of Lithuanian New Year's Eve was known as "the little Christmas Eve". Foods similar to those of Christmas Eve were prepared, except that the dishes could contain meat and straw was not placed under the tablecloth. People stayed up on New Year's Eve at least until midnight to greet the new year. If an individual sleeps through such an important moments his entire year will go badly - he'll be groggy and laz

lithuania(CHRISTMAS EVE) • Supper started when the sun went down and the first stars appeared in the sky.

When everyone was assembled by the table, the head of the family said a prayer of thanksgiving for the blessings of the past year and added a wish that the family would stay together and would be present at next year’s Christmas Eve supper. Then he (she) broke and shared his (her) Christmas wafer with everyone present and wished them a merry Christmas, and they, in turn, shared their wafers with each other and exchanged Christmas wishes. Now it was time to eat.

• The meal served on Christmas Eve did not include meat, milk products or eggs. Even so, the meal was memorable. It consisted of twelve dishes, one for each Apostle. Typical dishes were beet soup, mushroom-filled dumplings, herring and other fish, bread, boiled or baked potatoes, cooked sauerkraut, mushrooms, dice-sized hard biscuits with poppy seed “milk”, cranberry pudding, and whole wheat with honey. Food was washed down with homemade cider. The meal was eaten leisurely and solemnly. Everyone was expected to eat some of each dish served; it was considered unlucky to skip a dish. Leaving the table before everyone was finished eating was also considered unlucky.

Lithuania (St Casimir’s Day)

• St. Casimir’s Day remembers the patron saint of Lithuania. Kaziukas Fair, an enormous crafts fair, takes place on the weekend nearest to this day in Vilnius. Gediminas Prospect, Pilies Street, and side streets are packed with vendors from Lithuania and nearby countries as well as people who come to shop for handmade and traditional goods.

Spain

• Christmas day

• New year

• St.Valentine’s day

Spain (CHRISTMAS EVE )

• Spanish Christmas dinner is never eaten until after midnight. It is a family feast, and often highlighted with "Pavo Trufado de Navidad" (Christmas turkey with truffles; truffles are a mushroom-like delicacy found underground). After the meal, family members gather around the Christmas tree and sing Christmas carols and hymns of Christendom. The rejoicing continues through the wee hours of the morning.

Spain (NEW YEARS’ EVE) • The Twelve Grapes (Sp. Las doce uvas de la suerte, "The twelve

grapes of luck") is aSpanish tradition that dates back from at least 1895 but became established in 1909. In December of that year, some alicantese vine growers popularized this custom to better sell huge amounts of grapes from an excellent harvest.

• The tradition consists of eating a grape with each bell strike at midnight of December 31 with our families. According to the tradition, that leads to a year of prosperity. In some areas, it is believed that the tradition wards away witches and general evil.

• The twelve grapes are linked to the Puerta del Sol tower clock, where this tradition started and from where the change of year is always broadcast

Spain (St valentin’s day)

• Valentine's Day is celebrated on 14th February, the feast day of St. Valentine. It is a traditional celebration in which lovers, partners and married couples express their love and affection for each other. In some countries it is known as The Day of Lovers or The Day of Love and Friendship .