TRADITIONS TRADITIONS AND AND

CUSTOMSCUSTOMS

The Romanian holidays have preserved the foundations of family structure and organizations, as well as the patterns defining social groups. The holidays reflect rules of behavior that originated in the Roman and Byzantine civilization.

The Romanian folklore developed within the borders of the two great regions of European civilization - the west and the southeast. Over the centuries, the Romanian people crystallized their own popular culture. This culture expresses the need for communication between man and nature, between man and man, and among different human groups.

The Romanian practice of faith and spirituality have been in synchrony and in harmony with aspects of popular trades and facets of Romanian geography.

The Romanian customs can be divided into: • family customsfamily customs representing a "triptych" marked by the three major life changes: birth, marriage and death;

• calendar-based customscalendar-based customs are divided by the four seasons: winter is designated as the season of rest, gatherings and spiritual expressions; spring represents the rejuvenation of nature and the beginning of the farming season - the season of birth and blooming; summer is dominated by the busy farming season; autumn is the season of wealth, the harvest and beginning preparations for the long winter ahead;

• religious customsreligious customs, among them Christmas and Easter are the most beloved.

The birthThe birth is related to the mother and to the baby.

• The ceremony of the "first bath" is very important. Fresh, clean water enriched with flowers, money, honey and milk are thought to purify and join the newborn to the family. The elder woman gives the cleansed baby to the mother with wishes for the child’s moral, spiritual and physical integrity. She wishes for the child to marry, to be good-looking and healthy, to be respectful of his or her parents and to be a patient person and to experience good luck in life.

• The second important moment related to birth is the baptize of the child, a ceremony in which the child is named. The "God-parents" of the child have an important ceremonial function. They say: “I carry a pagan; I’ll bring back a Christian”. Later, the God-parents will play an important role in the wedding ceremony of the child.

FAMILY CUSTOMSFAMILY CUSTOMS

The weddingThe wedding is preceded by an engagement and recalls both members of the young couple being Christians. The ceremony is hold by a priest who blesses the union of the young couple. The religious ceremony takes place Saturday in the evening, being followed by a party during the night. • In the village, the wedding is a performance with well-established rituals. Poetry, song, dance and ceremonial costumes all have a detailed role in the wedding ceremony. It begins when the spokesman of the bridegroom comes to the bride’s home to woo her. During this time, the best men go throughout the village inviting the relative and friends to the wedding. The dress and hairdressing of the bride are very important. She wears a ceremonial costume and flowers in her hair. The entrance of the bride into the community of married women is marked by a change of her hair style, and the covering of her head with a scarf. The scarf is a symbol of the married women. • Just as for a medieval meal, the wedding meal provides an opportunity for singing, dancing and listening to epic hero songs. The wedding ceremonials last for three days.

When someone is on his death bed the family calls for the priest to perform an extreme unction by reading from the Bible, so the soul of the dying man lives the body easier.The faith of Romanians encompasses a belief that for each man, there exists a star and a tree. The falling of the star marks the deaththe death of a person. The fir - the tree of life - is placed at the head on the grave of a deceased person and the women sing a song about the link of the man with the tree of life. During all of the funeral proceedings, there is a wake organized for the deceased. A body is never left alone, and those present at the wake tell stories about the deceased. A group o old women mourn the body as well.

MMĂRŢIŞORĂRŢIŞOR• Mărţişor is an authentic traditional celebration of the beginning of the springthe spring. The day’s name is the diminutive of March and thus means something like “little” or “dear March”. It is a symbol of spring, “a good luck charm”.

• Symbolically, it is correlated to women and to fertility as a means of life and continuity. In fact, the white is the symbol of men wisdom and the red the colour of women’s vitality.

• The white and red thread of the amulet, which parents customarily tied around their new born child’s wrist, young men offered to young women, and young women used to exchange among themselves was believed to bring good luck and good health. It is also a a gift of sincerity, of devoted love, is a gift of the nobility of our soul.

CALENDAR-BASED CUSTOMSCALENDAR-BASED CUSTOMS

THE LEGEND OF BABA DOCHIATHE LEGEND OF BABA DOCHIABaba DochiaBaba Dochia (the old woman Dokia) is a figure identified with the return of spring. She is sometimes depicted as a proud woman who teases the month of March, who in return gets its revenge by taking some days from February.

Baba Dochia has a son, called Dragobete, who is married. Dochia ill-treats her daughter-in-law by sending her to pick up berries in the forest at the end of February. God appears to the girl as an old man and helps her in her task. When Dochia sees the berries, she thinks that spring has come back and leaves for the mountains with her son and her goats. She is dressed with twelve lambskins, but it rains on the mountain and the skins get soaked and heavy. Dochia has to get rid of the skins and when frost comes she perishes from the cold with her goats. Her son freezes to death with a piece of ice in his mouth as he was playing the flute.

In the calendar, there are 9 days associated with the 9 coats she’s shedding, from March 1st to March 9th. Her spirit is haunting every year around that time, bringing snowstorms and cold weather before the spring sets in. Women use to pick a day out of these 9 beforehand, and if the day turns out to be fair, they'll be fair in their old days, and if the day turns out to be cold, they'll turn bitter when older.

DDRAGOBETERAGOBETE the holiday of LOVEthe holiday of LOVE

• DragobeteDragobete is celebrated on February 24th. Specifically, Dragobete was the son of Baba Dochia, which stands for the main character in the pagan myth related to spring arrival and the to spring arrival and the end of the harsh winterend of the harsh winter.

• The day is particularly known as "the day when the birds are betrothed". It is around this time that the birds begin to build their nests and mate. On this day, boys and girls gather flowers and sing together. Maidens used to collect the snow that still lies on the ground and then melt it, using the water in magic potions throughout the rest of the year. Those who take part in the custom are supposed to be protected from illness, especially fevers, for the rest of the year. If the weather allows, girls and boys pick snowdrops or other early spring plants for the person they are courting.

• This day is known as a day for lovers - like Valentine's Day.

WOMEN’S DAYWOMEN’S DAY

International Women's Day (originally called International Working Women’s Day) is marked on March 8th every year.

It is observed as an equivalent of Mother’s Day. The celebrations include gift-giving of little children to their mothers and grandmothers.

It is also an occasion for men to express their love for women in a way somewhat similar to a mixture of Mother's Day and Valentine's Day.

SÂNZIENESÂNZIENE• SânzianăSânziană is the Romanian name for gentle fairies who play an important part in local folklore. Under the plural form SânzieneSânziene, the word designates an annual festival in the fairies’ honor.

• People celebrate the holiday annually, on June 24th. It is believed to be a pagan celebration of the summer solsticesummer solstice.

• The folk practices imply that the most beautiful maidens in the village dress in white and spend all day searching for and picking flowers, of which one must be Galium verum. Using the flowers they picked during the day, the girls braid floral crowns which they wear upon returning to the village at nightfall. There they meet their beloved and they dance around a bonfire. Another folk belief is that during the Sânziene Eve night, the heavens open up, making it the strongest night for magic spells, especially for the love spells. Also it is said that the plants harvested during this night will have tremendous magical powers.It is not a good thing though to be a male and walk at night during that night, as that is the time when the fairies dance in the air, blessing the crops and bestowing health on people - they do not like to be seen by males, and whomever sees them will be maimed, or the fairies will take their hearing/speech or make them mad.

Summer, as a season of intensive field work, has relatively few traditional customs taking place within it. Fairs transpire during the summer, including the well-known Mount GMount Găăina ina Maidens FairMaidens Fair, on the closest Sunday to July 20th.

The fair has had a dual purpose: it is a time for the exchange of goods and celebrating summer and it is an opportunity for matchmaking between young maidens and men.

The chance to meet and fall in love at a fair was a highly anticipated event each year.

This festival is an event that gathers craftsmen, traditional costumes, traditional dances and songs.

MOUNT GMOUNT GĂĂINA INA MAIDEN FAIRMAIDEN FAIR

SHEPHERDS’ AUTUMN DESCENT FROM THE MOIUNTAINS at the beginning of October

The rules of pastoral life are tough:

• women are not allowed to live close to the sheep – their presence could damage the fertility of the sheep or the taste of the cheese.

• the shepherd is not allowed to leave the sheep to seek the company of other people in the villages.

So, all summer long, the shepherd’s best friends are the whistling and his dogs. “Răvăşitul Oilor” is the moment when the shepherds are coming down to the villages and each owner gets back their sheep and the other rights he is entitled to and the animals are taken to the winter shelter.

The shepherds are now allowed to party! 

EASTEREASTER It is the most important Christian holiday. The holiday that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus is

one well expected by all the Romanians. The specific food for the Easter dinner are the lamb tripe

and the red painted eggs.

RELIGIUOS CUSTOMSRELIGIUOS CUSTOMS

The eggs are painted red (the initially accepted colour) because the blood of Jesus that was split.When the Easter comes, the wine is the most drunk alcohol, symbol of Jesus’ blood, too.

When you want to eat the red eggs, you must smash two eggs head in head with someone, one of you saying: “Jesus has risen!” and the other one must answer: “He has truly risen!”

CHRISTMASCHRISTMAS

ChristmasChristmas is a major annual celebration. The observance of Christmas was introduced once with the Christianization of Romania.

Christmas in Romania falls on December 25th but the Christmas holiday season starts officially on November 30th, on Saint Andrew’s day and ends on January 7th, with the celebration of Saint John.

Romanians celebrate Saint AndrewSaint Andrew as a patron saint on 30th November.

It is said that Andrew preached the Gospel to the people living between the Danube and the Black Sea whom he is said to have converted to Christianity. There have been some ancient Christian symbols found carved in a cave.

The night of Saint Andrew is destined to some pre-Christian customs for the protection of the people, animals and households. The eve of this feast is considered to be the moment when the barrier between the real world and the yonder world rises. It is also a good moment to find out how fruitful the next year will be.

The best known tradition connected to this night is the one about matrimony and premonitory dreams. Single girls must put under their pillow a branch of sweet basil. If someone takes the plants in their dreams, that means the girl will marry soon. They can also plant wheat in a dish and water it until New Year’s day. The nicer the wheat looks that day, the better the year to come.

SAINT ANDREW’S DAYSAINT ANDREW’S DAY

It is a very important Christmas custom practiced in villages - the sacrifice of a pig in every house in the honor of Saint Ignatius.

A pig is specially chosen for this purpose (around 300 pounds).

Five days before Christmas, on 20th December, a very sharp knife is used to cut the throat of the pig. This sacrificial ceremony is performed in the back yard of houses. A small portion of the pig’s meat is immediately fried and a feast is held. All the members of the family, friends and neighbours are invited to the feast and the meat is then shared with them, along with bacon and plum brandy.

This feast is known as the pig's funeral feast.

SAINT SAINT IGNATIUSIGNATIUS and the pig slaughtering

Saint NicholasSaint Nicholas had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him, and thus became the model for Santa Claus.

In his most famous legend, a poor man had three daughters but could not afford a proper dowry for them. This meant that they would remain unmarried and probably, in absence of any other possible employment, would have to become prostitutes. Hearing of the poor man’s plight, Nicholas decided to help him, but being too modest to help the man in public (or to save the man the humiliation of accepting charity), he went to his house under the cover of night and threw three purses (one for each daughter) filled with gold coins through the window opening into the man's house

On 5th December Moş NicolaeMoş Nicolae comes and gives children presents. Children receive their gifts early in the morning of December 6th or late at night on December 5th.

Traditionally, the gifts are put in their laced up boots.

Children are usually given sweets or books.

If they have been naughty they get wooden sticks.

• Christmas in Romania falls on December 25th.

• The celebrations begin with the decoration of the Christmas tree. Gift exchanges take place in Romania in the evening of Christmas Eve.• Children believe that 'Mos Craciun' (Santa Claus) is the one who delivers them their presents.

• In Romanian, Merry Christmas is Crặciun Fericit.

Groups of people, young and old, go from house to house singing, cheering people, spreading love and harmony all over the place with the Romanian beautiful songs about Jesus.

There is a special genre of music, related to Christmas carols but with more traditional Christian lyrics. These are named colindă. The texts are concerned with the events of the Nativity.

There are Christmas carol which involve carolers dressed as “bears” and “goats”. For the carol called “the masked people” carolers wearing hideous masks and large bells try to scare off the old year. They dance and sing and make a lot of noise. The tradition goes back hundreds of years and the masks used on this occasion are hand crafted by traditional craftsmen.

People eat a lot of pork when Christmas comes, kinds of food like: bacon, sausages, steak.

The sponge cake, called cozonaccozonac, is the cake that all the Romanian serve for dinner.

NEW YEAR’S EVENEW YEAR’S EVE

The Christmas and New Year celebrations become merged, and elements of the Christian faith are blended with hopes for a prosperous New Year.

New Year’s Eve is an occasion for night-long parties. On this night, the traditional turkey is served. It is believed that no person should spend the night alone, as it is the night when the new year - represented by a baby, and the old year - represented by the tired old man, is replaced.

In the countryside the first day of the new year is celebrated through songs and dances. The songs mostly symbolize the desire for a prosperous new year as characterized by fair weather, good crops, health and happiness.

In the Orthodox faith, it is customary to celebrate the lives of the saints. If a person's name has a religious meaning, he or she celebrates the anniversary of the respective saint's day.

St. John, St. Constantine, St. Elena, St. Ilie and St. Mary are some of the more renowned names.

Those people whose names have no religious meaning celebrate on March 9th by enjoying some traditional cookies which happen to be prepared differently in different regions of the country.