The Romanian Culture - A Mixed Population

More than 21 ethnic groups are recognized by the authorities at the present time, though more than 90 percent of population declared themselves ethnically Romanian in the 2002 census. Did you know? . A multitude of faces, colors and races will parade in front of you, at any corner of the street, blowing apart any statistics, proving once more Romania has remained an interesting mixture of people. Defining who is or not a Romanian has become a rather hard thing, in part due to the assimilation policy of Nicolae Ceausescu. Making everyone a Romanian was one of his goals, mostly to secure his power rather than creating a homogenous society. Minorities have been forced to integrate and the Romanian ethnicity was imposed on them even if they did not considered to be so. Less...

In the past however, by the end of 18th century, Romanians were known as Vlachs or Wallachians to all those who surrounded them: Slavs, Turks and Magyars. The term is still used to refer to the people considered to be of Romanian descent, including the Istro-Romanians and the Aromanians of Albania and Macedonia. Did you know? .

Alexandru Ioan Cuza was elected in 1859 as the ruler of the principalities of Wallachia and Moldova, this being the first time when the name Romania was used for a political entity, and it was chosen to reflect the Roman origins of the people.

Beginning with the communist period the name was changed from Romania into Rominia, as an attempt to slavicise the language and the people. However, during the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu, the spelling was changed back to Romania, and a campaign was led to have the United Nations adopt the name of Romania and Romanian in preference to the older Rumania, this being successful only in 1971.

This campaign marks a point where Romania and its people rediscovered pride in their Roman and Latin origins.Less...

The Hungarians living in Romania are in big part Roman Catholics, although there are a large number of Calvinists and Unitarians, as well.

Transylvania is disputed even today, the Romanians and Hungarians still not agreeing on the region's history. Romanians believe that they populated Transylvania long before the Magyars, while Hungarians insist that when the Magyar tribes settled the Carpathian Mountains around 1000 AD, they found the land empty. Whichever is true, Hungary ruled the region most of the last 1000 years; Transylvania becoming a part of Romania after the Treaty of Trianon was signed in 1920.

Following this period and until the WWII, around 300,000 ethnic Hungarians decided to leave Romania, due to various reasons. Some due to the discrimination that reduced them -Jews as well - to second- class citizens, some lost their land in the Land Reform of 1920.

The wheel always turns around, so in the period of 4 years, after 1940 when the Second Vienna Award gave northern Transylvania back to Hungary, Romanians in the region found themselves suffering from the daily life persecutions. This led to the anti-Hungarian campaign of 1944, when more than 40,000 Hungarian men were arrested, sent to imprisonment camps and a number of mini-pogroms took place in remote villages.

After the war, the Communist Party in Romania created the Hungarian Autonomous Province in 1952 which comprised most of Harghita, northern Covasna and eastern Mures counties. This lasted around 16 years, but the autonomy was rather false, as it was controlled by Bucharest.

Further discriminations were carried out during Ceausescu's dictatorship, when ideas of Hungarians being unpatriotic and to blame for the economic failures were encouraged. The Hungarians, who did not flee the country, attempted to assimilate and most changed their names and spoke Hungarian only within their family and trusted ones.

The systematization program, which involved the bulldozing of Transylvanian villages was stopped by the 1989 Revolution, sparked to some extent by the outspoken Hungarian priest, Laszlo Tokes.

After the Revolution, in March 1990, inter-ethnic conflicts flared up in the city of Targu Mures, after Romanian youths attacked the UDMR political party offices. Hungarians retaliated and the riot lasted three days.

In 1995 Hungary and Romania signed a bilateral treaty in which Hungary renounced all territorial claims to Transylvania and Romania reiterated its respect for the rights of its minorities.

Minor disagreements still remain, due to the failure of the Romanian authorities to create an exclusively Hungarian-language university in Cluj-Napoca, and the interminable delay in returning the properties confiscated by the Communist Regime from the Catholic Church. The disputes regarding the right of the Hungarians to take their driving tests in the Hungarian language have been resolved by EU membership and the adoption of EU wide legislation covering such issues.

The Hungarian Theater of Cluj Less...

Even if in 19 century the Turks treated the Jews fairly, many Jews began to immigrate to North America, due to the fact they were progressively regarded as foreigners by the independent Romania.

The strongly anti-Semitic riot in 1907 was followed by the rise of the Iron Guard and Romanian Holocaust which began in the summer of 1941. The Jews living in Moldova were deported to Transnistria and to territories in Ukraine held by the Germans. The Romanian Army shot at least 100,000 Jews at Odessa. The Jews in Wallachia were spared deportation but were subjected to forced labor, where the Transylvanian Jews were not as lucky and in 1944 the vast majority was taken directly to Auschwitz.

One of the worst pogroms on Romanian territory took place in Iasi, in July 1941 when 10,000 Jews were killed. In all, during the Holocaust at least half of Romania's pre-war Jews were killed. More than 200,000 Jews, who were left in Romania, fled between 1945 and 1950 to Israel.

The Ceausescu Regime, in the latter years of Communism, promoted a policy under which Israel would purchase exit visas for Romanian Jewish population. Around 50,000 Jewish people emigrated this way.

The few remaining Jews try to keep a low profile and none currently occupies an elevated position in any of the political parties. 33 Synagogues are still functioning throughout the country, however many are historic monuments and some are being renovated.

Romania recognized its role in the Holocaust only in 2005.

At the 2002 census, just 5,780 people declared themselves ethnically Jewish; a further 1,200 attested to being members of the Jewish faith.

The Romanian Jewish Community

Oradea Jewish Community

Gura Humorului Jewish Community

The Organization of the Young Jews of Romania Less...

Their knowledge in mining and other crafts was another reason for bringing the Saxons in. Their loyalty was rewarded through privileges uncommon for that period such as: trading privileges and the right to choose their own judges and priests, and lasted for 600 years. As a result more Saxons settled in Transylvania.

Seven fortresses developed by the end of 13th century in order to accommodate the Saxon settlers: Bistrita , Sibiu , Brasov , Medias , Sebes and Sighisoara . Massive fortified churches were built as well to protect the Saxons against Turkish attacks. The Saxons controlled Transylvania along with the Szekelers and Hungarian nobles.

Their privileged position fell with the Hungarian Independence at the middle of 19th century, and many Saxons emigrated to Germany and Austria. During the World War II about 175,000 were killed or left the country, and after Romania switched sides against Hitler's Nazi Germany, 70,000 were accused of Nazi collaboration and sentenced to five years hard labor.

At the end of World War II, the survivors returned to find their land and property confiscated by the communist regime, and many of them emigrated. As in the case of the Jews, they were also sold exit visa at the approximate price of $8000.

After the 1989 Revolutions most of the remaining Saxons left as well, leaving many villages abandoned. At the present time only some 59,764 Saxons live in Romania, compared to 1930 when the population peaked to the number of 633,488. Some of them started to return however to their old villages and homes.

The Saxon Community of Transylvania is served today by state-run German schools and represented politically by the German Democratic Forum.Less...

With the sixteenth century a period of great persecution began matched only by the Holocaust. In Wallachia and Moldova they were divided into the nomadic and the enslaved. After the unification of the two principalities in 1859, Gypsies were freed from slavery, many remaining with their owners as paid employees, while others emigrated to Germany, France, Britain, The Netherlands and North America.

During the World War II at least 20,000 were deported to Transnistria by Antonescu's regime, being estimated that it was the highest number of Gypsies to die, than in any other European country. The communist regime forced them to settle on the edges of villages, jailing them if they refused do to so.

Today, some 535,140 are estimated to live in Romania, this making it easily the largest Gypsy population in Europe, though the International Roma Congress places the number close to 2 million.

Regardless of their long history and persecutions, Gypsies seem to have integrated relatively well into the Romanian urban society. Only about 10 percent of them are still nomadic, spending the winter at permanent encampments, where around 40% no longer speak Romany and consider themselves barely Roma. Most of the Gypsies speak Romanian as well.

The remaining nomadic Roma are split between 40 different clans comprising 21 castes, each of them with its own traditional costume, superstitions and taboos.

Most major towns have identifiable Gypsy slums , but the majority live same as Romanians in housing blocks, and their daily problems such as, lack of running water or heating in winter, are encountered by all people with limited means.

Gypsies still suffer discrimination, particularly in employment, this pushing many into crime. Culturally they remain distant from the rest of the society, regardless of the integration degree. In poor villages, the women are still subservient to the men. One area where Gypsies receive most respect is music.

Politically they are represented by the Roma Party, The Alliance for Roma Unity, The Romany Christian Center and The Community of Roma Ethnicity.

One of the few recognized gypsies in public life is Marian Vanghelie, Mayor of Bucharest's largest sector.

The National Agency for Roma

The National Office for Roma

The European Roma Rights Center

Aven Amentza NGO Less...

The Lipoveni are people who migrated from Russia in the 18th century, in order to avoid religious persecution, settled in the Dobrogea and Moldova regions, particularly in the Danube Delta. 35,791 people were living on the Romanian territory at the 2002 census.

The Serbs , Croats and Slovaks settled in northwest of the country numbering 29,570 of the population.

Muslim descendants of the Turks and Tatars, who settled in Dobrogea for centuries, still live on the Black Sea coast. Recently a significant number of Turks have been coming to Romania, mainly as small businessmen, making up to a minority of 56,033 people.

Throughout the country you will meet people from other minorities such as Greeks, Italians, and Chinese .

A small number of Armenians, who settled in the thirteen century, are to be found in towns such as Suceava, Braila, Constanta, Dumbraveni, Gheorgheni and Gherla; now numbering around 5,000, almost totally assimilated. Some of their churches have survived.

The Aromanians, a group of ethnic Romanians who lived in Bulgaria and near Thessaloniki for many centuries, returned to Romania between the World Wars, but they have virtually vanished as a recognizable culture, although their weaving can still be seen in museums.Less...