Christmas in Romania
We won’t get to every (or even most countries) of the world, but Ben has been trying to find and highlight ones that have especially unique or interesting Christmas traditions. And when he found out that Romania had such a thing as a Communist Santa, it was a no-brainer to feature the country. And so today, we celebrated the things that make Christmas in Romania unique... specifically with a lot of Communism, a lot pork, and a lot of vampires. For those wanting some Romanian history lessons, read on! Otherwise, Craciun Fericit!, ("Merry Christmas!" in Romanian).
The Communist party took over Romania in 1948 and Christmas carols and celebrations and the entire holiday were declared illegal as they were too religious. Within three years of them taking over, December 25th had become a regular working day and holidays were shifted to the New Year instead. With this, “Father Christmas” was also deemed too religious and reinvented into Mos Gerila (“Father Frost”). He was portrayed as a strong, young, bare-chested man who secretly brought gifts to children on December 30th. It wasn’t until after the violent revolution of December 1989 (in which the communist dictator and his wife were executed on Christmas Day) that things returned to normal and Santa Claus and Christmas reappeared. To play into this, we had some fun by reading a list of the top reasons that Santa is a Communist (mass surveillance, loves the color red, keeps a list of names, etc...).
For Christmas dinner, the pig is the undisputed king in Romania. There is a customary slaughtering of the family pig a few days before Christmas. It is so traditional that Romania has received an exception from the E.U. for this specific time of year to not have to follow the standard pain-free pig killing procedures and can still use a knife instead. For days after the slaughter, the family makes meters of sausages, blood puddings, pork chops, and more to get ready for Christmas dinner. Nearly every dish is heavily influenced by pork. We kept our celebration a bit more innocent as we focused on making their traditional pork alms dish but also played Pass the Pigs and getting the kids a book of Christmas teacup piggies.
And of course Romania is famous for vampires. St. Andrew is the patron of wolves and donor of garlic and the Feast of St. Andrew leads into the holiday season, leaving many to believe that December is the most active and dangerous month for vampires and werewolves. As a result, hanging garlic and crucifixes next to doors and windows is recommended. Once again, we lightened things up with focusing on a menu of garlic pretzel (vampire) bites, roasted garlic crostinis, and hors d'oeuvres on toothpicks (wooden stakes).
MENU:
Roasted Garlic Crostini
Wooden Stake (ie: Toothpick) Hors D' Oeuvres
Salata de Boeuf (Chicken Potato Salad)
Sugar Plum Sidecar (w/ Plum Brandy) in (Grandfather) Frosted Cocktail Glass
ACTIVITIES:
Making a Star Carol
Santa Interrogation Christmas Video
Pass the Pigs
INTERESTING READS & CONTEXT:
Mos Gerila (Father Frost / aka: Communist Santa)
Colina
