Enjoy a rich holiday season
The season starts on November 30th with St. Andrew’s Day, the patron saint of Romania, who came to Dobrogea at the Black Sea Coast to preach the Gospel. The 1st of December marks the National Day of Romania, when ceremonies are held all over the country. The most impressive are in Alba Iulia (the city where the Great Union was signed in 1918) and in Bucharest. December 6th is dedicated to St. Nicholas, when the evening before, well-behaved children find gifts in their cleaned boots, and the naughty ones a symbolic colored stick. Christmas is celebrated from December 24th-26, very much a family time.
Throughout Advent, which starts on November 15th, a magical suite of carols is sung, above all on Christmas Eve, when groups of children and adults go caroling from house to house, creating a special communion. The men’s caroling group is listed as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.
The New Year holiday lasts from New Year’s Eve until the 2nd of January and is rich in customs and traditions. Plugușorul (the little plough), full of joy and good wishes for the year to come, is very popular in both cities and rural areas. The winter season ends with Epiphany on January 6th and St. John Day on the 7th.
Traditional dishes prepared for the winter holidays include various kinds of ciorba (sour soup) for the first course, sarmale (cabbage or vine leaves rolls filled with pork or veal), piftie (meat jelly), or fried sausage with pickles for the second course, and as a dessert, cozonac (a weet bread with walnuts, cocoa, or poppy seeds). They are accompanied by quality wines; Romania has produced wine for over 4000 years! There are several extremely valuable native Romanian varieties: Băbească and Fetească Neagră for red wines and Fetească Regală, Fetească Albă, Francușa, Grasa, Galbena, Busuioacă and Tămâioasă for white wines.
Christmas Markets have become a long-awaited attraction of the season. The most famous ones are in big cities such as Bucharest, Sibiu, Brașov, Alba Iulia, Cluj- Napoca, Craiova, Constanța, Timișoara, Iași, and Suceava. Visitors can experience traditional Romanian music and gastronomy specific to this time of the year.
Whether in the big cities, in the countryside, at the many resorts with facilities for winter sports or wellness programs in mineral and thermal springs, or in the wonderful landscape of the Carpathian Mountains, a winter holiday in Romania will be unforgettable and delightful.
