Customs and Traditions for celebrating New Year's
Created by Ourania Politou
Last updated by
Florina Madalina Oprea
5 months 3 weeks ago
Among the most beautiful customs that Romanians have on New Year's Eve and on the first day of the new year, Sorcova and Pluguşorul.
Plowing - an ancient agrarian custom derived from a primitive practice, passed through a fertility rite - turned, over time, into a wish for rich harvests in the year just beginning, accompanied by shouts, whip cracks and bells .
Walking with Sorcova represents the joy of children, who carry a budded tree branch or a Sorcova made of a stick around which colored paper flowers are woven. The name "sorcova" comes from the Bulgarian word "surov" (tender green), an allusion to the branch that has just budded, torn from a tree.