|
 Romanian Winter Traditions
In Romania, the winter holiday season is truly in full-swing from December 24 to January 7. Highlights include: Christmas Day, New Year and Epiphany, with their respective eves. The most important feature of these celebrations is their unique variety of colorful Romanian customs, traditions, and believes, of artistic, literary, musical, and other folklore events, which make the winter holidays some of the most original and spectacular spiritual manifestations of the Romanian people.
Children of all ages go from house to house singing Christmas Carols, or through the streets on New Year's Eve reciting congratulatory verse. The whole traditional village participates in waists, although mostly children practice this custom.
The Caroling * Colindatul
Traditionally, during the first hours after dark on Christmas' Eve is the time for children to go caroling and the adults stay home to greet them. As they go caroling from house to house, the children receive treats like candy, fruit, baked treats and sometimes even money in appreciation of their performance and as a sign of holiday good will.
The grown-ups caroling goes on Christmas evening and night. The waits -young and mature people - gather in groups and they choose a leader. When they are in the front yard of a house, they perform their repertory to the host. The songs are always accompanied by dance. When the performance is over, the host invites the carolers inside the house for food, drinks and presents.
The Star Carol * Steaua
Children make a star using colored paper and then they put in its middle an icon of Jesus. Many of children decorate their star using shiny tinsel. The “Star Carol” is a tradition during the 3 days of Romanian Christmas.
While holding the star in the hands the children sing:
"The star has appeared on high,
Like a big secret in the sky,
The star is bright,
May all your wishes turn out right…"
The Goat Tradition * Capra
Throughout the season, teenagers and young adults especially enjoy caroling with the “Goat”. The “Goat” is actually a usually boisterous young person dressed up in a goat costume. The whole group dances through the streets and from door to door, often with flute music. This tradition comes from the ancient Roman people and it reminds us of the celebration of the ancient Greek gods.
This custom is also called "brezaia" in Wallachia and Oltenia, because of the multicolored appearance of the goat mask. The goat jumps, jerks, turns round, and bends, clattering regularly the wooden jaws.
Bear Custom * Ursul
This custom is known only in Moldavia, a part of Romania, on the Christmas Eve. In this case a young person dresses up in a bear costume adorned with red tassels on its ears, on his head and shoulders. The person wearing the bear costume is accompanied by fiddlers and followed by a whole procession of characters, among them a child dressed-up as the bear's cub. Inspired by the crowd’s singing:
"Dance well, you old bear,
And I’ll give you bread and olives",
the bear grumbles and imitates the steps of the bear, striking strongly against the earth with the soles of its feet to the sound of drums and pipes.
The Little Plough * Plugusorul
Plugusorul is a small plough. In Romanian folklore is a traditional procession with a decorated plough, on New Years' Eve. This is a well wishing custom for the field fruitfulness into the new year. This custom arises from "Carmen arvale", a Roman wish for bountiful crops.
The ploughmen are teenagers and children carrying whips, bells and pipes in their hands.
Mâine anul se-nnoieşte,
Pluguşorul se porneşte
Şi-om începe a ura,
Pe la case a colinda.
|
Iarna-i grea, omătu-i mare,
Semne bune anul are;
Semne bune de belşug,
Pentru brazda de sub plug."
|
Sorcova
"Sorcova" is a special bouquet used for New Year's wishes early New Year’s morning. Children wish people a “Happy New Year!” while touching them lightly with this bouquet. After they have wished a Happy New Year to the members of their family, the children go to the neighbors and relatives. Traditionally, the "Sorcova" bouquet was made up of one or several fruit - tree twigs (apple-tree, pear-tree, cherry-tree, plum-tree); all of them are put into water, in warm place, on November 30th (St. Andrew’s Day), in order to bud and to blossom on New Year's Eve.
Sorcova, vesela,
Sã trãiti, sã-mbãtrâniti,
Ca un mãr, ca un pãr,
Ca un fir de trandafir,
Tare ca piatra,
Iute ca sãgeata,
Tare ca fierul,
Iute ca otelul,
Peste varã, primavarã,
Nici capul sã nu te doarã,
La anu' si la multi ani !
|
Merry Sorcova,
May your health be strong
And you life long:
As an apple tree
As a pear stately
As a rose bush fair
Blossoming beyond compare:
Strong as a granite rock
Quick as an arrow’s shock
Hard as an iron bar
Tougher than steel by far,
Over summer, over spring,
May your health be great
A New Year with happiness
And in everything success.
|
Nowadays people often use an apple-tree or pear-tree twig decorated with flowers made up of colored paper. The children receive all kinds of treats such as: cakes, honeycombs, biscuits, pretzels, candies, nuts, money.
Romanian Christmas Traditions
On Christmas Eve, bread is placed under the table to bear luck for the whole family, and wheat is placed under the table cloth, to bring good crops.
In Romania, Christmas begins with fasting (as the majority is represented by the Orthodox Church), which takes six weeks (from November 15th to December 24th). Fasting implies giving up on meat, eggs and milk, or like our grandfathers would say, restraining from sweet foods.
A true fasting would mean giving up on physical love, on alcohol and paying back any dues. People from villages do not listen to the radio during the fasting period, they don’t watch TV and they don’t throw or go to any parties. The fasting ends on Christmas night.
On December 20th, people celebrate "the Ignat Day." On that day, they aren’t allowed to do any work, but prepare the pork. According to the tradition, those who are poor and have no pig (which is usually sacrificed and prepared at the farmer’s home) should sacrifice another animal.
An old belief was that in the night before Ignat, the pig dreams of its knife. Those who are faint at heart and feel sorry for the pig are not allowed to participate in this ceremony, unless it dies slowly and its meat is no longer good. Grandfathers usually make the sign of the Cross on their grandchildren’s foreheads, in order for them to be healthy.
Men and women start by cutting and preparing the lard bacon, the sausages and other traditional specialties. And thus, begin the preparations for the Christmas feast. Housewives choose meat for their delicious cabbage rolls, for steaks, and the grease for baking cookies.
In the old times, children were given pretzels, nuts and apples. Today, they receive money, candy and cookies. Both parents and children go carol-singing on Christmas Eve. The houses are beautifully adorned on that eve, perfectly clean and ready to receive the carol-singers. Carol-singing is a ritual made of ceremonial texts (carols), dances and gestures. Carols give messages and wishes of good health, prosperity, good crops and the fulfilment of all wishes. Carol-singing is the most widespread Romanian tradition.
In Transylvania, the tables are laid, waiting for the carol-singers. Carol-singers start their day at dawn, and end it at dusk. After they sing two or three carols in the courtyard, the youth are invited inside, to be properly welcomed and fed with traditional meals and drinks. Christmas Eve is a great opportunity for Romanians to visit their friends, neighbours and relatives.
In some parts of the country, there is a custom called "carrying the icon", which symbolizes the birth of Jesus Christ. In the north of Moldavia, the Christmas Eve feast is made of fasting food. And no one is allowed to uncover the table, until the priest comes through the door.
The priest blesses the feast, he is the first to taste the meals, and only after that do the rest of the household start eating. The pig slaughter on Ignat day is a purely Romanian custom, which was in fact "Christianized" at the end of the middle age.
As always, there is a legend behind this custom. The legend says that a man called Ignat, trying to slaughter the pig, accidentally hit his father in the head with an axe.
In the Romanian Christmas traditions, within the typical Romanian family, there is a lot of love, poetry, fairy tales and respect. Whoever wants to get to know the Romanian spirit has to enter a Romanian house, especially in winter time. He will see the Romanian bowing to the East, where light comes from, and how he makes the sign of the cross before eating, or how before cutting the bread, the traditional Romanian woman makes the sign of the cross three times.
There are many, very beautiful traditions and customs that focus on the two great winter holidays: Christmas, i.e. the birth of our Lord Jesus, and the New Year’s Eve. Customs and traditions are common for all places on the planet…yet the hearts of the people are the most important during a feast. As you already know, many celebrate Christmas but without The Celebrated One, without the One whose birthday Christmas is. Feast or no feast…without the very core of Christmas which is Jesus Christ Himself, Christmas is nothing but another tradition.
|
