Romania

LocationRomania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, north of the Balkan Peninsula, bordering on the Black Sea. Romania shares a border with Hungary

and Serbia to the west, Ukraine and the Moldova to the northeast, and Bulgaria to the

south. The capital and biggest city is Bucharest.

Christmas traditions in Romania

Christmas is popularly known as 'Craciun' in Romania and is generally considered

the second most important religious Romanian holiday after Easter.

Christmas pigA very important Christmas

custom practiced in Romanian villages (on 20th December )is 'Ignatius', the sacrifice of a pig in every

house in the honor of Saint Ignatius. A pig is specially chosen and fed to make it grow fat. Romanians insist

that it is performed to ensure that the soul of the pig receives huge gratitude for the food that it provides

to all in the family.

The Goat dance

Originally, it was a serious, grave ceremony. In old times, that animal was considered to have had amazing powers and to have predicted if the weather was good or bad. Now, the Goat tradition consists of a very noisy young person wearing the very colorful costume of a goat. The entire group that follows this person, dances being accompanied by music. The goat makes many funny movements, full of optimism.

CarolsThe singing of carols is a very important part of Romanian Christmas festivities. Throughout the Christmas season, little Romanian children (especially those in the villages) visit every house in the locality singing carols such as Steaua ('The Star'), Trei Pastori ('The Three Shepherds') and Mos Craciun ('Santa Claus').

Christmas treePreviously, decorating fir tree was

connected with weddings and funerals. Since I World War It is

being decorated on Christmas Eve with walnuts, chestnuts, hazelnuts,

candies, apples and chocolates wrapped in colored paper.

EasterIn Romania Easter (Paste) seems to be more important than Christmas. Easter in Romania is celebrated according to the rituals of the Eastern Orthodox Church. It takes place on Sunday after first spring full moon and Jewish Passover.

On Easter Monday Romanians visit graves

of their relatives (cleaned during Holy

Week).

New Year TraditionNew Year’s Eve (Revelion), interpretatied as a

renovation of life, is pompously celebrated. Days free of work are: 24th December,

Christmas (Craciun) and following days until 2nd January.

Rasnov is medival castle in Transilvania, located 12 km southeast of Brasov. It was.built to withstand invasion from

Turks and Tartars.

Customs and traditions

Although Romanian regions are culturally different, they have a common feature - hospitality.

Romania is advertised by its Ministry of Tourism as a country rich of folklore, which has been

unchanged for centuries and as an island of Latin culture, surrounded by a sea of Slavianism.

It is quite possible to see villagers wearing traditional folk costumes playing on instruments and dancing during festivals.

Romanian cuisineRomanians eat a lot of meat, aspecially pork, beef and

poultry. Their traditional meal is sarmale. It’s a dish, which looks like Polish „gołąbki”, made of minced meat wrapped

in cabbage leaves. Another Romanian speciality is mamaliga, meal (orginally Turkish), prepared from corn, including also cheese and butter (better known as Italian pulenta). Romania is also famous of wines. It’s 5th wine

producer in Europe.

Malamiga, Duvec (kind of stew with vegetables and asparagus) and salad (paprika, tomatoes,

onion and feta)