1. NATIONAL HOLIDAYS IN ROMANIA
SCOALA GIMANAZIALĂ TEASC, DOLJ

2. Romanian National holidays

3. National Day 1st of December
Great Union occurring on December 1, is the national holiday of Romania. It commemorates the assembly of the delegates of ethnic Romanians held in Alba Iulia, which declared the Union of Transilvania with Romania.
This holiday was set after the 1989 Romanian Revolution and it marks the unification of Transilvania, but also of the provinces of Basarabia and Bucovina with the Romanian Kingdom, in 1918.

4. 24 JANUARY LITTLE UNION
The United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, also known as The Romanian United Principalities, was the official name of Romania following the 24 January 1859 election of Alexandru Ioan Cuza as the Ruling Prince of both territories

5. 1st of May International Labour Day
In Romania, May 1, known as the International Labor Day, the International Workers' Day , or simply 1/First of May, is an official public holiday. During the communist regime, like in all former Eastern Bloc countries, the day was marked by large state-organized parades in most towns and cities, to which many workers were de facto required to participate. After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, May 1 continues to be an official public holiday, but without any state organized events or parades. Most people celebrate together with friends and family, organizing picnics and barbecues. It is also the first day of the year when people, especially those from the southeastern part of the country including the capital Bucharest, go to spend the day in one of the Romanian Black Sea resorts.

6. 9 MAY INDEPENCE DAY
On 9 May 1877, in the Romanian parliament, Mihail Kogălniceanu declared the independence of Romania as the will of the Romanian people. A day later, the act was signed by Prince Carol I. The Romanian War of Independence is the name used in Romanian historiography to refer to the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78), following which Romania, fighting on the Russian side, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire.

7. Traditions

8. WINTER
Christmas and New Year
On Christmas and New Year’s Eve, children and young men go from house to house singings carols. In some regions, they dance with folk masks on their faces and recite speeches. For their effort, they receive fruit and home-made cakes. The best known carols are Steaua, Pluguşorul, Sorcova and Capra.

9. WINTER
Epiphany(Boboteaza)
Epiphany - Boboteaza (January 6) and St. John - Sfantul Ioan (January 7) mark the first week of January. It is the moment when Romanians go to the church to take holy water, used for curing and purification. In the riverside villages and towns, young men compete in bringing back to the shore the cross that the priest throws into the frozen waters. Those who succeed have success in store. It is the moment when waters are believed to be holy, which is why women do no laundry in the following 8 days.

10. WINTER
DRAGOBETELE
Dragobete is a traditional Romanian holiday originating from Dacian times and celebrated on February 24. Dragobete was the son of Baba Dochia, which stands for the main character in the pagan myth related to spring arrival and the end of the harsh winter. The day is particularly known as "the day when the birds are betrothed". On this day, considered locally the first day of spring, boys and girls gather vernal flowers and sing together. If the weather allows, girls and boys pick snowdrops or other early spring plants for the person they are courting. In Romania, Dragobete is known as a day for lovers, rather like Valentine's Day.

11. SPRING
Martisorul (March 1) is the celebration that brings hope, optimism and faith in a better future, year by year. Now, from the clash between cold and sun rays, between dark and light, life and spring break out in victory. The festival is symbolised by a white and red lace with an amulet (a coin, a shell), that parents used to tie around their children’s joints and young men offered to girls as a sign of good luck and health. In Dobrogea, the March amulet is worn until the coming of the storks, and then it is thrown into the doors, windows and on animals’ horns to cast away bad spirits and to invoke life.
Martisorul ()March 1)

12. SPRING
MUCENICII
Mucenici is a Christian feast of the 40 Martyrs of Sebaste, a traditional holiday in Romania and Moldova. It coincides with the start of the agricultural year. Those who observe this holiday clean their households and light fire to garbage collected from their homes, to bring warmth outside. Some believe that when the Martyrs were drowned, flowers rose to the surface. As a result, for the date of 9 March, every, year, there is a typical dessert with the same name, Mucenici. The desserts are made in the figure 8 to look like garlands. Others believe that the figure 8 denotes a stylized human form of the martyrs themselves. In Moldova, dough in the shape of the figure 8 is baked, then smeared with honey and walnuts. In the Muntenia and Dobrogea regions of Romania, the dough is smaller and cooked in water with sugar, cinnamon and crushed nuts, symbolizing the lake where the Martyrs were cast.

13. SPRING
EASTER
Easter is the holiday that Romanians will always associate with knocking red eggs. The legend goes that after Jesus was crucified, the Rabbis of Pharisaism held a celebration banquet. One of them said: “When the cock we are eating raised from the dead and the boiled eggs turn red, only then will Jesus resurrect!” No sooner had he finished his words, the eggs turned red and the cock started to flap its wings. Now, at Easter time, eggs are knocked according to a specific ritual: the elder person knocks the head of its egg against the head of the egg held by a table companion, while saying: “Christ has raised from the dead!” and he is answered “Indeed he has!” On the first day of Easter, it is customary to wear new clothes, as a sign of the refreshment of the body and soul. The meal is an opportunity to gather the family and is made up besides red eggs, of traditional dishes such as sheep pot cheese, radish and green salad, roast lamb and sweet cream cheesecake.

14. SUMMER
SÂNZIENELE
Sânziană is the Romanian name for gentle fairies who play an important part in local folklore, also used to designate the Galium verum or Cruciata laevipes flowers. Under the plural form Sânziene, the word designates an annual festival in the fairies' honor. Etymologically, the name stands for sân (common abbreviation of sfânt - "saint", "holy") and zână (a word used for fairies in general). Another likely etymology is that the word comes from the Latin Sancta Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt and moon, also celebrated in Roman Dacia (ancient Romania). Diana was known to be the virgin goddess and looked after virgins and women. She was one of the three maiden goddesses, Diana, Minerva and Vesta, who swore never to marry. People in the western Carpathian Mountains celebrate the Sânziene holiday annually, on June 24. This is similar to the Swedish Midsummer holiday, and is believed to be a pagan celebration of the summer solstice in June.

15. SUMMER
SÂNZIENELE
Rituals: The folk practices of Sânziene imply that the most beautiful maidens in the village dress in white and spend all day searching for and picking flowers, of which one MUST be Galium verum (Lady's bedstraw or Yellow bedstraw) which in Romanian is also named "Sânziànă". Using the flowers they picked during the day, the girls braid floral crowns which they wear upon returning to the village at nightfall. There they meet with their beloved and they dance around a bonfire. The crowns are thrown over the houses, and whenever the crown falls, it is said that someone will die in that house; if the crown stays on the roof of the house, then good harvest and wealth will be bestowed upon the owners. As with other bonfire celebrations, jumping over the embers after the bonfire is not raging anymore is done to purify the person and also to bring health. Another folk belief is that during the Sânziene Eve night, the heavens open up, making it the strongest night for magic spells, especially for the love spells. Also it is said that the plants harvested during this night will have tremendous magical powers. It is not a good thing though to be a male and walk at night during Sanziene Eve night, as that is the time when the fairies dance in the air, blessing the crops and bestowing health on people - they do not like to be seen by males, and whomever sees them will be maimed, or the fairies will take their hearing/speech or make them mad. In some areas of the Carpathians, the villagers then light a big wheel of hay from the ceremonial bonfire and push it down a hill. This has been interpreted as a symbol for the setting sun (from the solstice to come and until the midwinter solstice, the days will be getting shorter).

16. AUTUMN Saint Paraskeva
Saint Paraskeva of the Balkans (also known as Sveta Petka, Petka of Bulgaria, Petka Paraskeva, Paraskeva of Serbia, Paraskeva Pyatnitsa, Parascheva of Tirnovo, Paraskeva the Serbian, Paraskeva of Belgrade, Parascheva the New, Parascheva the Young) was an ascetic female saint of the 11th century. She was born in the town of Epivates (close to today's Istanbul) on the shore of the Sea of Marmara; her parents were wealthy landowners. The legend says that when she was 10 years old, Paraskeva heard in a church the Lord's words: "Whoever wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." These words would determine her to give her rich clothes away to the poor and flee to Constantinople. Her parents, who did not support her decision to follow an ascetic, religious life, looked for her in various cities. Paraskeva fled to Chalcedon, and afterwards lived at the church of the Most Holy Theotokos in Heraclea Pontica. She lived an austere life, experiencing visions of the Virgin Mary. Her voyages took her to Jerusalem, wishing to spend the rest of her life there. After seeing Jerusalem, she settled in convent in the river Jordanian desert. When she was 25, an angel appeared in her dreams, telling her to return to homeland. She returned to Constantinople, and then when she was 25, lived in the village of Kallikrateia, in the church of the Holy Apostles. She died at the age of 27. Pilgrimage at the shrines located in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Iaşi has become one of the major religious events in Romania. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims gather each year in Iasi in the second weekend of October to commemorate St. Paraskeva, while the city itself established its Celebration Days at the same time.

17. AUTUMN
Fire of Samedru
Fire of Samedru or Fire of Sumedru is a Romanian tradition that dates two thousands years ago. On the night of 25 to 26 October, before the celebration of St. Demetrius (Dumitru), the defender of shepherds, young people light bonfires and gather around them. The custom is preserved in the villages of Arges, Valcea and Dâmboviţa. In the past, fires were made on hills to be seen from a long distance. In the fire thez put a stem of a tree cut from the forest as a symbol of the god who dies and is reborn every year.

18. AUTUMN
St. Andrew's night
St. Andrew is the protector of Romania. St. Andrew's night (30 november) is somehow Romanian equivalent of Halloween night and it is accompanied by many traditions and superstitions. The spirits come out in the world, the wolves talking with a human voice and people defend with spells and garlic against evil spirits. At the same time girls who want to marry hide under a pillow a basil thread to dream the one she is destined to marry.