11/12/2025
I’ve been asked to talk a bit about Romanian Christmas traditions. In this post I’m describing some characters that have been playing a big role in every Christmas community festivities.
One of the most striking traditions is Capra – the Goat. Groups of young people carry a wooden goat head with snapping jaws, covered in colored cloth, beads, and ribbons. The goat dances wildly from house to house, accompanied by chanting and rhythmic steps. This isn’t just performance—it’s a pre-Christian ritual tied to fertility, renewal, and abundance. When the goat “dies” and comes back to life through dance, it reenacts the cycle of the year ending and beginning again.
Just as powerful is Ursul – the Bear. In the eastern regions, especially Moldavia, men wear real bear skins passed down through generations. The bear dance is heavy and hypnotic, moved by drumbeats that echo through frozen streets. The bear symbolizes strength, protection, and purification. As it stomps and sways, it is believed to chase away evil spirits and cleanse the community for the coming year.
Then there are the masks. Disturbing, comic, exaggerated—long noses, horns, crooked teeth, animal-human hybrids. The bears with exaggerated bells are chasing away evil spirits…
These characters don’t aim to be beautiful. They aim to be powerful. By wearing them, people step outside themselves, becoming something liminal: spirit, trickster, guardian. Laughter, fear, and chaos mix together, because the old year must be shaken loose before the new one can begin.
Romanian Christmas traditions are not neatly packaged. They are loud, raw, and ancient. They remind us that the holidays were once about surviving winter, honoring nature, and facing the unknown together—with noise, courage, and a little wildness.
pictures are mine, taken last year when I went back there to spend Christmas with my family.