|
Superior Level
| |
Merry Christmas everyone!
I write to you, dear friend, in this lovely night, Christmas Eve, to let you know the
customs of the Romanian people related to Christmas. In each house, joy, gay and happiness
surrounds us. Some say, and I believe them, that this is the real spirit of Christmas. On
the 23rd of December, this magnificent night, people all over the world celebrate the
Birth of Jesus Christ.
Here, in Bucharest, people are very excited. And so am I. This is a very important
holiday, my favourite. We all go at least once to the church, that in these days is very
lovely. There we pray for the unlucky people and for those who don't have a decent home to
live in.
Especially at night, this town, and every important town in Romania looks like in a fairy
tale. Everything is glowing, on every street there are bells and Saints. Some people take
care of poor people and they offer them a really great holiday. Christmas is very nice
here, but even greater is the old villages..
There is the traditional cutting of the pig, but we don't do this here in town. Also, in
the villages, you can see people in big sleds with horses and here there is the
traditional dinner table. We all eat a lot of food during this holiday.
If you are wondering what the children are doing for this holiday, I'll answer to your
question. We play. We fight with snowballs, we make snowmen and, of course we play Santa
and the Elves. We also go from house to house singing carols and kind people give us
fruit, candy or money. Boys go with a big star on New Year's day and with PLUGUSORU. We
also help mom and dad with decorating the Christmas tree. This is my favourite part. But
this is not a national tradition it is from the German people. They were the first people
who invented it. At first, there weren't decorations for the tree and so they decorated
the tree with painted apples and nuts and of course, candels. We also decorate the room
with bells, lots of Santas and guirlands.
In this time of the year, we also do a lot of writing: for the Christmas cards,
invitations and the biggest letter of all - the letter to Santa. We think that Santa lives
at the North Pole, in this big toy factory, surrounded by little elves - Santa's helpers.
Craciunita, his wife and reindeers with Rudolf as the leader. There's a mistery about
Santa: How does he stay fat? Doesn't he do all the hard work climbing the chimneys and all
that?
But I bet that when he is home, he eats just cookies of course, when Craciunita is not
watching him. I like Santa's laugh, you know HO-HO-HO
In this special night, we gather together and tell stories about Christmas Eve and
Christmas night and of course we are surrounded by the Christmas spirit. This happy spirit
is in our heart all the time, but we only sense it in the Holy Week and Christmas Night.
On Christmas Day and in this week we are very happy and we forget all the bad things we
suffered. I hope that you feel the same and I wish you with all my heart
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
|