Christmas Eve ‘s Tradition In the morning of the Christmas Eve, the young people go carolling along the village, announcing the approach of the holy day of Christ's birth, preparing the spirits for the magic evening to come.

Carolling with the star is a Christmas Eve's evening tradition. Children (generally) make by heir own hands a big star of coloured paper and other materials. Then, in the evening, they go carolling along the village, in groups, entering each household, knocking at the door of each family in the village, bringing, in song, the wonderful news of the Christ's holy birth. The traditional gifts which children expect to receive include fruit, nuts, pastries, and knot-shaped bread, which is itself a symbol of abundance and rich harvests. It is also customary to give them small sums of money in coin.

Painted Easter Eggs Easter is the most important event in the Orthodox Christian calendar. Traditionally, celebrations in Romania begin on the Saturday evening. Dressed in all their finest clothes and holding candles, people gather round the churches. At the Easter Resurrection Mass (Slujba de Inviere) just before midnight, the priest comes out to give a blessing, distribute holy bread and provide the flame from which everyone will light their candles. Suddenly the darkness is lit up and thousands of candles take to the streets. Everyone tries to keep the flame alive until they arrive home. There, around the table, the family comes together for a special Easter meal. Roast lamb and home-made cozonac (sponge cake with nuts and poppy seeds) are the traditional dishes.

In the countryside, the Easter Resurrection Mass lasts until early morning. The custom among country folk is to take their painted eggs, cozonaci and specially prepared dishes into the church on Saturday night so they can be blessed by the priest.

Martisor . Romanians have a beautiful ancient tradition on the first day of March : Martisor (The Amulet). Its name is a diminutive from the name of Martie - the Romanian word for March. If you love history, it is possible to notice a similarity between Martie and the ancient Roman God "Mars" or "Marte" in Latin language. You are right because in ancient Rome this God was a symbol of revival, green fields, flocks and love. They used to celebrate their God on the first day of spring exactly as Tracians, later Dacians and nowadays Romanians. So Dacians borrowed the Latin word for naming their first month of spring.

The archeological finds show that over 8,000 years ago on the present territory of Romania this custom was alive. People were celebrated the coming of spring with long time forgotten rituals. They used small pebbles painted in white and red arranged alternatively on a string. It might be curious why they had chosen these two colors : red and white. In those times, many magical rituals involved human or animal sacrifices for determining their pagan Gods to listen to their prayers. So blood was associated with life, fertility and worship. On the other hand, the snow, the ice and the clouds were white. In a single expression the meaning of two colors might be : "let's forget about winter and pray our Gods to bring us fertility".

More than two thousands years ago, the Dacians had that tradition on March 1st. The Dacians God who was celebrated at the beginning of March was named "Marsyas Silen". He was the inventor of flute (shepherd's whistle) and he had the most greatest influence upon the entire nature. The Amulet's meaning was greatly enlarged. It was considered to be a protective charm for children and animals in the next coming year. Those tiny pebbles were changed into a couple of yarns, one colored in red and one colored in white. Red meant the Sun, the power of fire, passion and woman, and white meant the benefits of water, clouds, winter but also man's intelligence. The combination of those colors can be interpreted as the union of man and woman, these two opposite forces who will determine a new life cycle.

At the beginning of 19th century the beautiful Amulet was found in all Romanian regions. Especially children and women wore around their necks or on their left hands two woolen yarns (one red, one white) knitted together and a small silver or golden coin hung on them. The belief was that those who wore that Amulet were protected and would have good luck in the next year. It was written in books that young Moldavian girls wore Martisor from March 1st till March 12th. After two weeks, they used to tie their hair with that special red-white yarn waiting to see the first spring birds coming to their village. Only after that event, the young girls took out the Amulet and hang it to the first tree they saw in blossom

You must know that in the Romanian folk tradition each season has a different color : spring is red, summer is green, autumn is black and winter is symbolized by white. All these colors can be found also having the same meaning on many patterns on Romanian pottery, carpets and folk costumes

Nowadays "Martisor" is present in all Romanian regions but you can find a similar tradition in Macedonia and Albania too. In Romania this Amulet is a symbol of coming spring and joy. Exchanging them is a gesture of love, friendship, respect and appreciation. You can buy silky red-white threads (tied into a bow) and small plastic objects : flowers, horse shoes, leaves, bumblebees, animals, birds, tiny suns or stars, red hearts, and many others. Specific to Romania is a small black chimney sweeper - an old symbol for good luck! Especially women and children wear in the left side on their chests these amulets during nine days, starting from March 1st, of course.

Men usually buy spring flowers called "snow drops" (ghiocei) and offer them together with a postcard in which they hang the Amulet. It is the modern way of making this wonderful surprise to your dear ones! The pleasant emotion remains the same as you were a little child and received your first Martisor from your parents. The passing years don't make it less surprising. It is like wearing the Sun above your heart, warming the entire atmosphere around, and make the smiles appear any time.

Dragobete .Romanians have their own Valentine's Day - the celebration of universal love. It is known that Valentine was a Bishop of ancient Rome and he was killed in 270 A.D. by cutting his head. This martyr entered in Western culture as the saint protector of love. Even in Romania young people celebrate St. Valentine's Day on 14th of February in the last years. . . but they forget that on 24th of February we have our special celebration of love called Dragobete

Visiting Romanian villages on 24th of February you will be amazed talking with old people how they imagine this pagan God : Dragobete is a beautiful young man similar to the ancient Greek God named Eros, very strong but kind, extremely sensual but honest, protecting sincere love between animals and human beings, brave and ready to defend a broken heart.

His name is explained in different ways but let's take in consideration only one source of inspiration. The Dacians, who lived thousands of years ago on this territory, had a special symbol for fertility, vital force and love: the he-goat named by them "Trago". The other part of Dragobete came from a forgotten Dacian word "Pede" which means "legs". Due to the language evolution over centuries these two words became later Drago-Bete and formed a single name with a different meaning. It might be strange for you why these "legs" are connected to love. . . but don't forget that ancient civilizations (as Dacians) performed magic rituals on certain occasions. It is possible that in the last days of winter the entire Dacian community brought together in their small sanctuary for singing and dancing. They were asking their Gods to encourage love between animals which would increase their flocks or the number of their domestic birds. Also they could use "goat legs" in their rituals as a powerful ingredient for making people more loving persons; in this way would grow the number of boys in their community which would determine a greater number of soldiers for defending their land against intruders. All these are speculations. . . but it is still a possibility to be true. One last detail: the ancient Romans and Greeks had their celebrations of love and they imagined their Gods having goat-legs and goat-horns.

On this special day, 24th February, Romanian single young men and single girls form brotherhoods sometimes for life (boys with boys and girls with girls). This day is celebrated different in the Romanian provinces. For example in Transylvanian mountains, young men use to form Cete (in English can be translated as "bands") with special flags and distinctive marks. These bands are created at the beginning of winter and they respected by the whole community. It is a special competition between them. In many villages these bands break up at the end of February on Dragobete Day.

Tourists visiting Romanian on this special occasion will notice that people don't work as usual. With one exception : people make a general clean in the house because they believe that Dragobete will help to increase their richness starting with this coming spring. It is nice to see single men and single women wearing their best clothes and going in a hurry to the forest for collecting flowers. Many hours later, at their return home, they are making jokes together, they sing, dance and even kiss each other in public. In this way they show to their village that they are engaged for one year with his/her favorite person.

Those who remain single, will remain so till the next celebration of love : next Dragobete Day!

New Year’s Eve Tradition. With the Romanians, the goat was believed to be the animal that could show if the weather was to be fine or foul. Most certainly at first

the "capra" dance (the killing, the mourning, the burial, the resurection) was a solemn ceremony, a part of the cult. As part of the agrarian festivities the dance has become a ritual designed to bring fertility in the year to come, an increase in the number of animals in the shepherds’ flocks, bumper crops - invoked and evoked by the grains flung by the host over the procession of the "capra".
The "capra" (goat) dance, generalized all over the country by the end of the 19th century and considered a pagan dance, a lot of members of the clergy refused to receive the procession in their houses, considering it „forbidden by the Christian religion". Gr.Tocilescu) Nowadays the dance is only a pretext for one of the traditional artistic events, an opportunity for displaying beautiful ornaments, carpets, towels, and so on, all in bright colours, at times rather loud, to cheer up the householders and to express best wishes on the occasion of the New Year.

On the New Year's Eve, groups of young men (unmarried) and recently married men go "with the Plow" - ancient agrarian custom derived

from a primitive practice, passed through the stage of a fertility rite, has become a common wish for rich harvests in the year to come.

The Plow wishing is in fact a real poem opening with holy gift, using fabulous elements, all the agricultural activities. The custom contributes to the general joy of the New Year's festivals, colouring them with the elements illustrating one of the main occupations of our people – agriculture.