East Europe Christmas Traditions

Hungary, Romania, Moldova, and Bulgaria no longer practice some folk traditions during Christmas celebrations.

Christmas in Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania and Moldova has traditionally been celebrated in small villages where groups of boys dress up in costumes and go from house to house singing carols. This tradition, much anticipated in historical Eastern Europe, has since fallen out of fashion. Urbanized and metropolitan areas make the close-knit communities of the villages as much of a memory as the traditions themselves. While people still gather together as friends and family during the holiday season, and carols still may be sung by children, the village tradition of the Romanian colinde belongs to folkloric memories of rural Eastern Europe.