In the ethnographic area of Botosani winter holidays that have Christmas as a main focus point , begin with the holidays of Saints Andrew and Nicholas, when the main mood of the people of yore (and today) turns to joy. It continues with Christmas and New Year, which here in Romania, is received with a deeper joy and pomp than in other parts of the world. The holidays end with Epiphany and St. John’s Holiday. Christmas is the celebration that abunds the most in traditions, rituals, practices, beliefs. In anticipation of Christmas and New Year, people become better persons, more generous and more optimistic, hoping that Nativity and New Year will bring them health, goodness and peace.
In the old days, when people used to meet on these days, they used to greet with the phrase „Christ is born” – which disappeared from the traditional vocabulary specific to our winter holidays.
Nativity news brought by groups of singers on Christmas Eve (at night) is also accompanied by the belief that the graves open and the sky and the animals start speaking. In all events there is a noticeable blend of the sacred with the profane.