Romanian Traditions

Romania is known for its mixed cultural influences that strongly reflect in the Romanian traditions as well as traditional cuisines. Romanians are very connected to their roots and traditions.

This includes both family traditions such as baptisms and weddings as well as traditional festivals such as Christmas, Easter, St. Andrew’s Day, and so on.

Each of the festivals has its specific customs like welcoming the spring with the symbolic Martisor (trinkets) to painting eggs for Easter, slaughtering the pig for Christmas, and eating garlic for St. Andrew’s Day.

Every Romanian festival is celebrated with cuisines that are specific
to the festival.

Let us know talk about some of these famous Romanian traditions–

Christmas

Christmas is celebrated all over the world. Romanian Christmas celebrations start from the 20th of December and last till the 7th of January. The 20th of December is called ‘Ziua de Ignat’ or simply ‘Ignat Day’. This is the day on which many households slaughter pigs.

The event is celebrated with traditional dishes such as ‘Pomana Porcului’ (Pork’s Charity) which is traditionally cooked in a cauldron and consists of a variety of pork bits (pork belly, shoulder, liver, kidneys, etc.) in a garlic sauce and served with polenta.

On Christmas Eve, children go out carol singing. They go from house to house and are gifted with fruits, sweets, and traditional fruit cake Cozonaci.

The Christmas day is enjoyed with a feast of several delicacies such as Roast Gammon and Pork Chops (made from the killed pig), ‘Ciorba de perisoare’ which is a slightly sour vegetable soup made with fermented bran, pork meatballs, ‘Sarmale’ (cabbage leaves stuffed with ground pork) served with polenta, and Romanian doughnuts called ‘gogosi’ and cheesecakes.

Easter

Easter Day (Paștele) is celebrated across Romania. The day marks Jesus’ resurrection from death, as told in the Christian bible.

The date varies from year to year, and The day is usually celebrated on a Sunday. There are several traditions for Easter, but the most important one is painting and decorating boiled eggs which takes place on Thursday
before Easter.

Romanians celebrate Easter with Lots of traditional foods such as Dyed
Eggs, Roast Lamb steak, Drob (a lamb organ’ haggis with vegetables), Boeuf salad, traditional sponge cake, Pasca (a dessert), and Red wIne.

St. Andrew’s Day

Saint Andrew’s Day is one of the most significant days for the Romanian People. This is the day in which Saint Andrew is presented as being one of the first apostles of Jesus.

This night, between 29th-30th November, is one marked by sacred and supernatural manifestations bringing diseases and bad luck. To counter the bad effect, cuisines with ingredients such as salt, poppy, hemp, basil, and, the main ingredient, garlic, are made.

Mucenici

Mucenici, a Christian holiday, marks the feast of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste. The day is celebrated on March 9th. Romanians celebrate this day by eating a special type of dessert in the shape of 8 or infinity. The desert is made of a dough that is boiled and seasoned with sugar, cinnamon, and walnuts.

Other than these, there are some other Romanian traditions such as The Dragobete, the Romanian equivalent to Valentine’s Day which is celebrated on February 24th, The Babele, Which is the New Year tradition, Sâmbra oilor which marks the beginning of the movement of livestock on 1st Sunday of May, and many more.

To Romanians, their traditions play a significant part in their life. Hence, they celebrate all these traditions with lots of joy and happiness.

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