For all the Christians, the Christmas celebration signifies the Lord’s birth and thus an occasion for joy and hope. Every year, we relive the emotions of the God’s birth and of the news received from the angels and we open our hearts and minds to hear once again the story of the Christ’s birth. Christmas time is an occasion of great celebration for us -the Romanians who are in majority Orthodox Christians . Since December 20th it smells like Christmas; actually it smells like our traditional food based mainly on pork and that’s why pigs are being sacrificed now. Drums resound louder, not so shy as at the beginning of the Christmas Fast while the children repeat carols, and some of them sing the "Star Song".
The celebration of the Holy Infant’s birth begins in the morning of the Christmas Eve with Christmas carols and lasts until late at night. Meanwhile, in the evening everybody prepares the Christmas meal which will be served the next day.
In the morning of December 25th, everybody attends the Christmas Holy Mass and then they get together to have a special Christmas meal and to celebrate. Now is the moment when children go caroling to all the relatives or friends , telling everybody about Jesus’ birth and his worship by the three wise men.
The worship of the three wise men who also brought gifts to the Holy Infant, generated the custom of giving and receiving presents for Christmas. It was also created a mythical character -Santa Claus who brings gifts to all the children. They find their gifts under the fir tree and they are being told that Santa Claus came while they were sleeping.
In the Orthodox calendar the three days of Christmas end with St. Steven’s celebration. The three days of Christmas are an occasion for visiting friends and for everybody to get together to celebrate.
After Christmas, the adorned fir tree is still kept for a while, either because people want to take pride in it, or because they like it too much to throw it so quickly.
Romanian team - Popa Madalina
