All Romanians are vampires

On February 24th Romanians celebrate  “Dragobete”, an ancient version of Valentine’s Day, minus (Hallmark) cards, plus flowers. Interestingly, this holiday would have long disappeared from the collective memory if it hadn’t been for the quite commercially imported Valentine’s Day, which caused a reaction in certain circles – so they rediscovered good old Dragobete, polished him [...]

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 [...]

Go hug/kiss/caress/…. /smile at/dance with someone you love. She/he will be surprised by what’s gotten into you (Valentine’s Day is gone, after all). BUT – you have the perfect excuse:  it’s “Dragobete”, the Romanian Valentine, so no one will blame you. More about this ancient celebration, a few posts back.

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 [...]