Winter Holidays In Romania

                               Winter Holidays in Romania

    There is no other most important time of the year for Romanians then the winter holiday.Because half of the country is mountains the traditions are well preserved and the old people insist on keeping them and showing to the young people the beauty and the fun of the traditions they also learned from their parents.
All throughout Romania the winter holidays begin with the holiday of St. Nicholas on 6th December when kids get the first presents of the year. On 5th evening kids clean and shine their shoes so that st. nick will get them presents in them. The cleaner the bigger the presents the grandparents tell them. So kids put the shoes on the window and wait till morning when st. nick puts presents in them mostly sweets and little games.

         From this date on the lights are turned on in all cities and the holiday spirit is turned on. Also after this date people start to cut pigs for a big feast in the Christmas night. This tradition is not liked by the western Europeans that prefer to protest for the animal rights. The truth is that in Romania in the rural area people raise pigs especially for this purpose  The making of the Christmas tree is usually 3 days before Christmas and the kids help always doing this task.

      Women have a hard time for holidays since they do most of the cooking and in Romania the cooking lasts from dusk till dawn. For Christmas evening women cook a special cake called "cozonac" with poppy seeds and walnuts grounded. This cake is a holiday cake and Romanians cook it for any holiday or celebration.

      The fresh made sausages are a must for Christmas  smocked or fresh. Also the fresh pork meat roasted or fried. The Christmas dishes for Romanians have pork meat in them. "Sarmale" with sour cabbage leaves is also on the menu. The pickles are on every table a side dish. The garnish for the meat is regularly mashed potatoes but can also be corn mash.

Women are also busy with cleaning the house and making sure there is a clean, warm and welcoming house for when the guests arrive. Kids as all kids in the world await Santa Clause and hope for lots of toys under the Christmas tree.
The traditions for the social activities are multiple. Kids and young persons go to the church on Christmas eve and get the blessing from the priest then they go caroling. In Romania there are different types of caroling : Steaua which is a carol about the star that marked the place of Jesus birth, Viflaemul is a carol about the city where Jesus was born and the events that occurred in the city in the time that Jesus was born. All Romanian Christians go to church on 25th morning .

For New Year Romanians have different traditions : "mersul cu capra" which is a tradition of dancing 1 to 5 goats and getting something in exchange of the play, the other is "dansul ursilor" which is the dancing of the bears that come from mountains in the winter and their master is usually getting money for the play.This habits is for the adults regularly  Kids go with "Plugusorul" which is way for young to go caroling. In the new years mornings also kids go caroling with "Sorcova" and they carry Christmas tree decorated branches and announce that a new year has began. At midnight in between the years all Romanians drink a cup of champagne and the first cup they drink they smash for good luck in the next year, because of the Romanians belief that the smashed pieces of glass bring good luck. Also you must take the first step out of the house with the right foot and you must make sure that a man enters first the house so that you have a good year with wealth and money.

The Romanian people have a great fun and feast whenever they have a chance during winter.

They kindly welcome anyone to their table and lots of visitors choose Romania as a destination for winter holiday.