Easter - Easter is the most important religious festival in Romania. The starting point is Palm Sunday, celebrating the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. On that day, small palm leaves or pussy willows are distributed in church and hung up at home. The following week, the "Week of Sufferings", and Lent, a period of 40 days prior to Good Friday, is an important time of devout prayer and fasting for Christians. While Good Friday is a solemn day, in remembrance of the crucifixion, Easter Sunday is a joyful occasion, and every Christian church is full of worshippers, particularly during midnight mass. In the Orthodox church, Easter is calculated according to the Old Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar used in the West. Consequently, there can be a month's difference between Easter Sunday in Romania and its celebration in other parts of the world.

Martisor - The meaning of martisor is literally "little march", and it is the name of an old custom that is still observed in various parts of the country. Women are presented with simple and inexpensive little gifts by men. Although similar to St. Valentine's Day in this respect, the gifts do not necessarily have romantic overtones. The little trinkets, often tied up with red and white string and worn with a pin on a blouse, are an expression of friendship and represent good luck for the future.

Sinzienele - The summer festival of sinzienele is celebrated throughout rural Romania though each region has its own specific ceremony and rituals. However, they have a common trait: the women gather flowers, leaves, and roots for medicinal use, and also to lure love, wealth, and luck, and to chase away evil spirits. Sinzienele occurs very near the summer solstice.

The Sheep Feast - (Simbra Oilor) -  This is a traditional shepherds folk feast associated with the annual moving of sheep to the high pastures. There they graze under the watchful eyes of shepherds on the lookout for predators like wolves. The sheep themselves do not belong to the shepherds, but to the local inhabitants. A deal is negotiated with the shepherds, who not only guard the animals but also make cheese for the villagers from the milk. An important part of the festival is the milking of sheep and measuring of milk in order to ascertain the quantity of cheese to expect from each sheep.
The festivities are prefaced with a suggestive outdoor dance known as the "Dance of the Girls". The event is signalled by the oldest shepherd in the community shouting the "call to the simbra", signalling for the work to begin. There follows a lively scene as groups of men and women go through the motions of milking a flock of sheep and measuring out the milk into wooden pails. They dress for the event in waist-length sheepskin jackets that are covered in embroidery and coloured tassels. Playful body searches are carried out to make sure no one is secretly trying to dilute their quota of milk with water to obtain a higher rating. After the event, the community feasts on cheese, local meat dishes, especially mutton, and plum brandy (palinca). The climax of the feast is the popular artistic program performed by village groups made up of singers, dancers, tipuritori (those who accompany the dances shouting short rhymes), pipers, and trumpeters singing and dancing.

The Calusarii - is the name of the dance that forms part of the ritual of Calus, associated with the town of Calusul, which is about 100 miles west of Bucharest, on the Danube. This dance and its associated rituals go far back into the pagan past and the original meaning has been lost. It is related to the world of magic, and a diminishing minority of followers still believe that if all the various rites are carefully and strictly carried out, then magic can indeed be performed.
     Learning the dance steps took place in secret and was led by a village elder who had been instructed in the steps of the magical dance by his predecessor. On Whit Sunday, 50 days after Easter Sunday, the dancers would go from house to house, dancing and chanting various incantations. No band of musicians accompany the dancers as they provide their own rhythm by beating on the ground with sticks. The chanting was supposed to drive away unhelpful spirits and promise good luck to the inhabitants of the house.

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