Christmas in Romania

How Romania celebrates Christmas

Christmas in Romania is both a major Orthodox feast and a village festival with customs that long predate the modern holiday. Its most distinctive sound is the colindă, the Romanian carol, sung by groups who go from door to door on Christmas Eve. Around it sit a fast, a pig slaughter, a Christmas Day feast, and a run of masked dances and New Year wishing customs that continues to Epiphany.

In the towns, Christmas looks much like the rest of Europe: a decorated tree, presents from Moș Crăciun (Father Christmas) and Christmas markets in the main squares. In the villages of Maramureș, Bucovina, Moldavia and Oltenia, older traditions remain strong.

The calendar and the Nativity fast

Romania adopted the Gregorian calendar for civil use in 1919, and the Romanian Orthodox Church switched to the revised calendar on 1 October 1924. As a result, Romania celebrates Christmas on 25 December, unlike the Orthodox churches of Russia, Serbia or Georgia. Some old-calendar communities still keep Christmas on 7 January, most notably the Lipovan Russians of Suceava County and Dobrogea, along with some Ukrainian and Serbian communities.

The Orthodox Church prepares for Christmas with the Postul Crăciunului, the Nativity fast, which lasts 40 days from 15 November to Christmas Eve, 24 December. During the fast, observant families avoid meat, dairy and eggs, with fish allowed on certain days. This is why the great meat dishes of Romanian Christmas are eaten from Christmas Day onwards.

On the night of 5 to 6 December, boots are polished and left by the door for Moș Nicolae, St Nicholas, who fills them with sweets, fruit and small gifts. Anyone who has misbehaved may find a nuielușă, a switch cut from an apple tree; if it blossoms in water by Christmas, tradition says the misbehaviour has been forgiven.

Ignat: 20 December

Ignat, the feast of St Ignatius of Antioch on 20 December, is the traditional day for rural families to slaughter the pig that will feed the household through Christmas. Relatives and neighbours help, and they are thanked with pomana porcului, cubes of fresh pork fried in the pan and served on the spot. The rest of the pig becomes cârnați (sausages), tobă, piftie and other dishes, and the minced meat for the sarmale. Folk custom also holds that from Ignat until Epiphany no laundry should be washed and no wool spun.

Colinde and the carollers

Colindat, carol singing from house to house, is the most widespread Romanian Christmas custom. The carollers, colindători, often in traditional dress, ask permission to sing at each house. Hosts offer food and drink, such as mulled wine or hot țuică, and give the singers colaci (ring-shaped breads), covrigi (pretzels), nuts, apples or money. Turning carollers away is considered bad luck.

The UNESCO-listed men's group colindat

In 2013, UNESCO inscribed the men's group colindat, a Christmas-time ritual shared by Romania and the Republic of Moldova, on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Each year before Christmas, groups of young men, traditionally unmarried, form in the villages and rehearse daily under experienced leaders, often former group leaders. On Christmas Eve they go from house to house singing festive songs with epic content adapted to each household, with special songs for unmarried girls, and dancing with them, which tradition says helps them find a husband within the year.

The Star, the Vicleim and the Goat

Many groups carry Steaua, the Star: a handmade, ornate star on a pole, recalling the star of Bethlehem. "Walking with the Star", a merge cu Steaua, gives its name to one of the best-known Romanian carols, sung in Oltenia by small groups of about four. The Vicleim is a folk nativity play, performed by groups of 20 to 30 young people, which re-enacts the Magi and shepherds announcing the birth of Jesus.

From Christmas to New Year, Capra, the Goat, goes from door to door: a young man in a goat mask and a fleece coat turned inside out, hung with bells and decorations, dances at each house, a symbol of plenty and of chasing away evil spirits. The goat is called țurcă in parts of Moldavia and Transylvania and brezaia in Muntenia and Oltenia, and the custom was already described by Prince Dimitrie Cantemir in his Description of Moldavia in the early 18th century.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Christmas Eve, Ajunul Crăciunului, is the last day of the fast. Families decorate the tree, presents from Moș Crăciun appear, and in the evening the carollers arrive. In Bucovina, the Christmas Eve table traditionally holds twelve meatless dishes.

Christmas Day, 25 December, begins with the church service, and then the feasting starts. The first, second and third days of Christmas, 25 to 27 December, are the main days of celebration, spent with family and visiting, and 25 and 26 December are public holidays. In Oltenia, women bake colaci on Christmas Day, place an egg and a candle on each, and give them away as alms.

Traditional Romanian Christmas food

Sarmale are usually the centrepiece of the Christmas table, and cozonac, a sweet bread most often filled with walnuts, is the traditional Christmas cake.

Christmas around Romania

Christmas markets 2026

The big city markets set up wooden stalls and a Christmas tree in the main square, and several open as early as mid-November in 2026.

Revelion, New Year wishing and Epiphany

New Year's Eve, Revelion, is celebrated with parties and fireworks at midnight, but it is also the evening of old wishing customs. In Plugușorul, the Little Plough, groups, especially in Moldavia, go from house to house on New Year's Eve with a real or symbolic decorated plough, bells, drums and whips, reciting a long verse that wishes the household a rich harvest. The Bear dance, Ursul, strongest in Moldavia and Bucovina, has a dancer in a bearskin, led by a bear-keeper and musicians, leaping and turning to the sound of drums, a symbol of the death and rebirth of the year. Many Romanians send greetings at midnight too, and you can find free Happy New Year images for Revelion, along with New Year 2027 cards, status images and ready-to-send wishes.

On 1 January, Sfântul Vasile (St Basil's Day), the young go out with the Sorcova, a stick decorated with paper flowers, and tap their hosts gently while reciting wishes of health, long life and good fortune for the new year. The usual greeting is La mulți ani!, "many years".

The season closes with Boboteaza, Epiphany, on 6 January, the feast of the Baptism of Jesus, followed by the Synaxis of St John the Baptist on 7 January. Both are public holidays; a 2025 proposal to abolish them was not adopted, and both are in the 2027 calendar of legal holidays.

Christmas under communism and in 1989

Under the communist regime, Christmas was officially sidelined: it was not a day off, the Christmas tree was renamed the "winter tree", and the gift-bringer became "Father Frost". Families kept the customs privately. The Romanian Revolution of December 1989 ended that era over Christmas itself: on 24 December 1989, carols were heard on newly free radio and television, and on Christmas Day 1989, Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena were tried and executed at Târgoviște. Since then, Christmas has regained its place as the country's great family festival.

Romanian Christmas season dates 2026

Christmas in Romania: frequently asked questions

Christmas in nearby countries