Spring traditions – choose your “Baba”
March 1st, the first day of spring according to tradition, brings not only the celebration of “Martisor” (an amulette of white and red tread woven together, which we spoke about here), but also another interesting myth in Romanian traditions: Dochia’s Days or “Babele” – “The Old Women”. This old lady called Dochia has been the [...]
The Romanian Valentine
Valentine’s Day has caught a lot of momentum in the last 10 years in Romania, growing exponentially from a shy attempt at mimicking a Western tradition to a full-fledged commercial craze, like mostly everywhere. This “imported holiday” caused a counter-reaction in some milieus, at the beginning mostly artsy people who opposed the over-the-top commercial spirit [...]
The Christmas carol institution
For Romanians, Christmas carols are not only a custom, but a real institution, an entire process with very precise rules maintained for centuries. Of course, modern life did to these customs what it does best to all traditions – nearly wipe them out. Still, in some villages spread across the country, you can still find [...]
Sânziene (some sort of Veela sisters)
Romanians have at least 3 types of mythologic characters Harry Potter would call “Veela”. We’ve talked about the Rusalii, celebrated sometime after Easter; the Sânziene have their feast on June 24th. According to legends, Sânzienele (or Drăgaica in Muntenia and Oltenia) are beautiful girls (obviously) who live in the forests or plains. They dance in [...]
Whitsuntide
50 days after Easter, people celebrate Whitsuntide, for 3 days or a week (varies across regions). In Romanian mythology the “rusalii” are crazy, frolicsome, merry maidens who make people lose their minds. (in Harry Potter terms, this sounds like a Veela; in Romania the translation for veela would be “iele”, with similar characteristics). The almost [...]
Easter traditions
Decorated branches On Friday before Easter, unmarried young male villagers get together in groups and go into the forest to fetch branches. On Saturday morning they decorate the branches with red eggs and colored ribbons, and in the evening they sneak into the unmarried girls’ yards, to decorate their house doors. In the meantime, girls [...]
Easter food
Painted eggs Painted eggs symbolize Jesus’ tomb, which opened when Jesus returned to life, therefore when knocking and breaking two eggs against each other (as well as when people meet) a set greeting formula is used – “Jesus has risen!” “He has risen indeed!” Apparently, people knocking red Easter eggs will meet each other in [...]
March 1st, a.k.a. “Mărţişor”
March 1st – the city is full of flowers and mărţişoare, and the merchants’ creativity has no limits. You can find everywhere classic amulets, with little hearts, little flowers, stars and also papyruses with love declarations on them. Everything is breathing “spring”. In the streets dried out by a promising sun, the crowd is looking [...]
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