Christmas In Romania A CVN Interview with ella2001
According to sources close to Cybertown, we have at least two citizens from Romania in Cybertown. CVN conducted an interview with one, ella2001, about Christmas customs in that beautiful country. We present links for more details, urging caution because there was no way to check every link at those sites, a few did not even work for us. The ones we finally present looked useful, informative and fun to us.
Ella tells us the Romanians are "a latin people, but Greek Orthodox lol. Our language its very similar to Italian. btw we are the Dracula country. You know, Transylvania its the west part of Romania "
CVN: Ella, tell us about the Christmas season in Romania, please.
ella2001 says: well first thing we have on 6th december, is St Nikolas. He brings to kids candies and fruits in their shoes. So the kids here, on the St. Nikolas' Eve, clean all their shoes! lol but the candys are for only kids who been good all year , if not they get a ...twig. They were not good, so this is like to hit them? It doesn't happen often. Nope lol, the parents always give them candies...the twigs we get are now more as a funny thing. Just like for attention to be good lol. The St. Nicoloae, in Romanian spelling, is only here and in Holland. So our Xmas holidays start with St Nikolas. But also during this period we are not allowed to eat meat. Yes, the church, doesn't allow us to eat meat before Xmas and nothing comming from animals during the entire Advent season. Advent includes the four Sundays in December before Christmas.
CVN: We noted that western christian religions usually do that during lent, starting after the mardi gras celebration in February. What happens in Romania?
ella2001: Here we must do it before-both of them-but for Xmas usually not too many people are keeping that fast. I can't do it lol because on St Ignat Day, on the 20th, we kill the pig and we must taste it! And then we drink tzuica and eat pork. The fresh killed pork lol
CVN: How does St. Ignat Day start?
ella2001 says: It starts in the morning. We get the pork. There are specialists on killing them, because they must know how to cut it. We kill the pig on the 20th and it's like a party around the pig lol. In the meantime they prepare a big fire for the now dead pig and set the fire to be with out flames...to put the pig on it and burn the hair and the skin! After that we must wash the pig very well. Then the one who killed the pig, and the kids, all get the pig's ears and the tail to eat. And we drink, during this time, boiled tzuica-plum spirits, 30-35 percent alcohol. We have in the west country even stronger plum tzuica at about 60 percent. That is in Translvannia. We call this drink palinca.
All the family, cousins...etc., eat the ears and the tail-as they are- and some part of the skin. This is after it's burned ánd we start cutting it and give the pomana porcului lol.The pomana porcului is the gift of pork made up of the ears, tail and skin. On the skin we only put some sel (salt) and we eat it..yummy lol. We drink tzuica because all the ritual is outside and it's cold. We also put sugar, pepper in the tzuica and it's boiled till we see bubbles coming up. It is a party, you see. The skin its sooooo good lol Everyone there gets the pomana porcului, but the first piece goes to the one who killed the pig.
CVN: What happens next?
ella2001: Next we start cuting the meat, we make sausages. We put some part of the pig away for smoking and to use it during the year. We have many kinds of sausages! But this is dificult to tell you how we make them... I don't really know the words. Basically we grind up the meat, add spices. Some are made with only meat and lard, some with liver, kidney... All must be done in one day because we must prepare these things for Xmas lunch. For Xmas we eat all these sausages, and we have a special plate called sarmale. We have side dishes of potatoes and rice.
ella2001: Here are several sites with more information.This is much easier to explain!
http://www.meetromania.info/uk_xmas.html
http://www.santas.net/romanianchristmas.htm
http://www.ehow.com/how_10785_celebrate-romanian-christmas.html
http://www.geocities.com/petrud98/localcustoms/foodanddrink.html
http://www.romanianembassy.dk/romania/bucatarie.html
http://my.execpc.com/~raa/romanian_holidays.htm
http://www.roembus.org/english/communities/copii/romanian_winter_season_tradition.htm
that last one has some pics too
CVN: Do you still live in Romania?
ella2001 says: Yes in Bucharest. I was born in Bucharest.
CVN: How are city celebrations different from the country?
ella2001 says: We dont have to kill the pork lol All other things are the same. We go to store and use that pork for the meal.
CVN: Have you ever visited during the country celebrations?
ella2001 says: I only have been to some friends for the killing of the porkThe fresh meat has another very different taste. I was there like guest and i only eat and drink...i could see how the ykill the pork
CVN: What did you like about the countyry celebration?
ella2001 says:I liked the holliday atmosphere, the holliday air. I love the way the family do everything together I smelled the Xmas, the sense of closeness, of family. I don't have a big family and I would like to have it and its what i liked there and its what i like about you US ppl It's why I love Xmas. It's a family holliday. We all must be happy and born again with our God. Xmas for me its a holliday of love, family and friendship.
CVN: What do you do for New Years?
ella2001 says: lol we must have a new dress as women and a very nice one for the night.
CVN:(politically incorrect, of course!) lol we men ALWAYS see women as rotfl "wanting a new dress"
ella2001: ...and we have lots to eat all night. We have fireworks, we have outside parties in plazas, but it's not a family holliday like Xmas CVN: Thank you ella 2001 for this fun, informative interview.
ella2001: Thank you for being interested!