Romanian Christmas Traditions

Christmas is celebrated with great festive fervor all over the world. People come together to welcome the festival. The families get busy in preparing for the festival. Houses are cleaned and decorated with Christmas lights, wreaths and twigs of evergreen trees. Buying a Christmas tree and decorating it with ornaments, tinsel, paper flowers is a great activity for entire family. Every individual loves to spend quality time with family and enjoy the feasts and parties. Christmas music is an integral part of Christmas celebration. Christmas traditions differ from one country to other. The gusto and hope that the festival brings is same all over the world.

Traditions are an important part of Christmas celebration. The Christmas in Romania is celebrated quite traditionally with a lot of emphasis on customs. The European belief of worshipping solar god during winter solstice was carried out in Romania. The Christmas and New Year are celebrated in Romania with great joy. Christmas has religious significance among Romanians. Santa Claus is important as he was born before all the saints in the general belief followed. He is termed as leader of shepherds who lives in a big house that has stable of cattle. He is an elderly figure.

The Christmas celebrations in Romania start on December 20 and end by January 7. A lot of rituals are carried out during this holy period. Romanians sacrifice a pig and then use it in their feasts. The day on which the pig is sacrificed is called as Ignat's Day. This marks the beginning of Christmas celebrations in the country. On the Christmas Eve, the food served has meat of the pig sacrificed with fried pork, bacon and wine. People go to attend the church service and mass. The Christmas Eve as well as Christmas day has a lot of young children singing popular carols on the roads.

The people singing carols wear masks. The masks help in hiding the identity of person. It is believed god is here to sing the carols for his children. Lights are used to decorate homes on Christmas day. A special fire is ignited to purify the place near homes on Christmas day. There is a practice of tying a loaf of bread on a tree, which is cut on New Year's Eve. Then this bread is cut in slices and children are asked to eat it. The entire Christmas period is celebrated with traditional folk songs and dances. The young men enact scenes from Christ's life and entertain the masses.

The rituals are part of Romanian Christmas. But, today with commercialization and influence of western thoughts, the Romanian Christmas is undergoing change. The decoration, gifts, etc. seen in the market lacks the traditional look of Romanian culture.