Colindatul
The “colindat” opens up the 12 days of the New Year holidays. At this custom all the traditional village takes part, even dough only boys go out and sing. The boys form bands with their own chain of command and with their own meeting places. This structure is common throughout the village during the New Year. All that goes on during this period has to have a joyful pace, the carols making an atmosphere of optimism in which wishes are expressed, some of these even fantastic.
The gift given to the carollers is the knot-shaped bread, itself being a sign of wealth and abundance.
31st December is the day when the kids go out and sing the “Plugul” and “Plugusorul”. The text of these songs presents a variation of agricultural techniques, proof that New Year was celebrated on the 1st March. The older boys care with them from house to house 2 ox with a plow. As props the also bring along a whip and some bells, which are used when reciting different parts of the song. Younger kids have with them only the whip and bells and even sometimes a small wooden plow.
On this special night different customs are performed to interpret the agricultural potential of the following year. 12 layers from an onion are taken and in each the same amount of salt is put. The next day according to the amount of water that each layer has, the humidity of the coming months is predicted. Also in this night in order to find out ones future a series of customs can be performed similar to the ones done on the night of Saint Andrew. In any case starting from nightfall and until down no light must be turned off and no one must sleep.