The Romanian Celebrations of December 🌟

National Romania Day, Christmas Markets, Timișoara, Multicultural Celebrations in Song, and New Year's Eve in Brașov

National Romania Day! 💥 🇷🇴

National Romania Day, or Great Union Day (Ziua națională a României), marks the anniversary of the unification of Transylvania, Bessarabia, and Bukovina with the Romanian Kingdom in 1918. Celebrations are held across the country on December 1, though this particular date of celebration was not officially placed on the calendar until after the revolution in 1989. I enjoyed learning more about the national holiday from friends and this helpful site (Rolandia). Our Romanian friends have expressed how much they like to celebrate, but until December 1, I underestimated the celebratory potential of this lovely country! Because we have a rooftop patio close to the city center, we were fortunate to experience Great Union Day from our own flat. The day began with a military parade (we live right next door to the military complex here in Cluj), and by sunset, the crowds, music, and fireworks intensified! Massive Romanian flags were hung throughout the city, and lights in the flag colors of blue, gold, and red were shone on multiple buildings. The ultimate point of celebration came when the national anthem was loudly and proudly sung by the dense crowds.

Christmas Markets 🎄 The national holiday coincided with the opening day of the Christmas market in the main square, Piața Unirii. For weeks leading up to their opening, small wooden structures resembling tiny homes were constructed in the square, preparing for vendors to occupy them throughout the month of December. It was magical to experience the transformation of our beautiful city into a twinkling winter wonderland, and gave us many reasons to spend more time in the square to attend concerts, eat special treats, and ride on the ferris wheel. Our favorite concert was a Pink Floyd cover band, and our favorite treats were chimney cakes (Hungarian kürtős) and hot wine!

Timișoara 🇷🇴 ✊

The December Fulbright gathering was held December 6-9 in Timișoara, and the family was able to stay in a lovely apartment close to the square. You can read more about the Fulbright gathering by clicking below:

We gathered in community with our Fulbright friends, and experienced another Christmas market in the beautiful city of Timișoara. Claire enjoyed ice skating, Max enjoyed the floating earth and the ferris wheel, Scott enjoyed the food, and I enjoyed learning a bit about the history of Timișoara. We also visited the Brâncuși exhibit at the National Art Museum with our Fulbright friends.

The revolution of 1989 began in Timișoara, and we were fortunate to meet a jolly guide who took us on a (cold) walking tour through the city. In December of 1989, reformed priest, Lazlo TőkésIt, who was known for condemning Ceauşescu's communist regime in his sermons, was going to be expelled to another location. The multicultural community protested this decision, and students began showing up in the streets. It was fascinating to hear how, because of the multilingual population in Timișoara, Romanians were listening to radio broadcasts out of other countries, in other languages, and became aware of what was happening in their own country. The revolution quickly spread from Timișoara eastward, and by December 25, 1989, Ceauşescu and his wife Elena were executed by a group of soldiers in Bucharest, marking the end of communism in Romania. (You can read more here.) All of these events make the month of December such a special time of celebration in Romania. Streets remained illuminated by strings of white lights throughout the month, and a festive spirit blanketed the Romanian cities of Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, Brașov, and Sighișoara along our travels.

Multicultural Celebrations (Colours of Christmas) in Song 🎄🇷🇴 🇹🇷 🇺🇸 🇵🇱 🇺🇦 🇨🇺 🇭🇺 🎶 🎵

After meeting the Director of the Ukraine House here in Cluj (see last month's blog post about starting my research at Ukraine House), we were invited to participate in Kseniia's vision to sing on the main stage of the Cluj-Napoca Christmas Market in Piața Unirii with a multicultural choir. Her vision became reality after multiple rehearsals (one was held at our kids' school!) and community building with folks from Romania, Turkey, Poland, Ukraine, Cuba, and Hungary. We were so happy to learn Feliz Navidad in eight languages, and to learn an Abba song I never knew--Happy New Year! You can watch the Colours of Christmas concert here (our group comes on at about 20:45 😉).

Since the concert, our relationships with our friends have grown, and we've gathered a few more times (of course, Scott likes to feed everyone when we gather). Here are another couple of videos my friend Carmen took from the audience (Scott and I are on the far right):

New Year's Eve in Brașov 🥳🎆🎇

The skies opened up on Christmas Eve and dumped a hearty bit of snow in Cluj, so the kids enjoyed making a snowman and welcomed Christmas Day with happy hearts. Claire's mom made the trip across the pond just after Christmas and rented a little apartment in the square to spend a week with Claire. We were all so grateful they got to spend some quality time together. Our family was again blessed by Scott's mother's generosity this month. Martha (Marmi) brought her husband Jim, and our niece, Kennedy, to visit us in Romania. The plan was to let Kennedy cook with Scott, and for he and Claire to teach her how to ski! I booked the seven of us an apartment in Brașov, just above the city square. We rented a little SUV, packed the people and luggage in tight, strapped the skis to the roof, and took a road trip! We stopped in Sighișoara on the way (see my Romania: First Month blog post), scarfed down some lunch, and gave the family a brief tour of our favorite little medieval town.

Once we got to Brașov, we just had to take off down the countless steps to the square: one more Romanian Christmas market to explore! Of course there was hot wine, ice skating, a deejay drawing a big crowd, a massive decorated tree, and brightly lit, festive streets. We. Love. Brașov. It reminds us so much of our mountain town of Boone, NC, and we felt right at home in the chillier temperatures. While Scott, Claire, and Kennedy went skiing, I took the in-laws and Max down to the square for some authentic Romanian cuisine in the square. They got back around 3 pm, exhausted, and Scott got to cooking us dinner. From our apartment, we could see the BRASOV sign that resembles the Hollywood sign in LA, perched atop Mount Tâmpa, and brightly illuminated at night. On New Year's Eve we knew there would be fireworks, and we knew they would be loud, but OH MY. The colorful explosions popped off for at least two full hours. It was so beautiful and so special, but poor Max had ENOUGH after about 15 minutes, and went to cover himself up with a blanket. 😥 On New Year's Day we traveled about 20 minutes down the road to Poiana, Brasov's ski mountain, and let Claire and Scott ski while the rest of us rode the gondola to the top of the mountain for a coffee (and maybe a beer). After this ski trip, we again imbibed in a special Romanian dish--a beef shank lit on fire at the table, then drizzled with the marrow of the bone. It was fantastic and we all had a lovely time. We left Poisana to travel to Bran (see my Toamna in Romania blog post from October), so we could show off "Dracula's castle" to our visiting family members, and to check out a property we considered buying and flipping to rent out in the future. We have since changed our minds about that (at least for the next year or two), but remain interested in purchasing property someday here in Romania. It was so fun playing tour guide instead of tourist, showing the family our favorite parts of Transylvania. We drove back to Cluj to spend one night at home catching up on laundry and re-packing before heading off on our next adventure... I will write next about our January adventures in Istanbul and Germany!

Enjoy some fireworks from Brașov!