Have you ever noticed similarities between your country’s and other countries’ traditions for Christmas? There are many symbols attached to this holiday in Europe, and each country has kept its own identity and traditions, while enriching them with influences form various other sources. This diversity and richness prove the importance given by Europeans to the Christmas holiday. This year the AEGEEan asked and found out how people celebrate Christmas in Greece, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine.

Let’s start from the place where the festive period begins really early. In Romania, celebrations start on November 30th, the day of Saint Andrew. Customs say everyone should hang plenty of garlic and a crucifix next to all doors and windows of the house to keep evil spirits away from their home. At the beginning of December, the Christmas lights are turned on all over the streets. Moş Nicolae comes and gives children presents. Children receive their gifts early in the morning of December 6th, or late at night on December 5th; traditionally, gifts are put in their laced up boots. On December 20th, Saint Ignatius Day, Romanians start the last preparations for Christmas. On this date, they slaughter pigs for the Christmas Eve supper. “Around this date, people usually buy their Christmas trees from public markets or supermarkets.”, Ioana Nedelcu (AEGEE-Ploieşti) told us.
December 24rd it’s Noaptea de ajun, the day children usually start caroling their neighbours. Music is an important part of Christmas celebration all over Romania. There is a special genre of music, related to Christmas carols but with more traditional/Christian lyrics. These are named colindă, which are also popular in Moldova. On the same date, women bake traditional cookies to give children for their caroling. By this time, the Christmas tree must usually already be decorated. During Christmas, Romanians bake or buy various special dishes, including desserts and sweets. Romanians most usually bake cozonac, a type of sweet bread. You can fill the cozonac with walnuts, cocoa, raisins, Turkish delight and in Transylvania: poppy seed paste (cozonac cu mac). Plates heaped with small pastries and cakes (corni și baclava) are prepared to serve to carollers when they call. A boiled vegetable and chicken salad held together with mayonnaise and decorated with olives and boiled eggs is often prepared. It is called Salată de boeuf (from French), although it usually does not contain beef. Other Christmas dishes include piftie, sarmale and pork dishes.

In Moldova, although Christmas is celebrated on December 25th like in Romania, January 7th is also recognised as an official holiday. On Christmas Day, families are having breakfast and/or lunch together.

In Greece, Christmas caroling is also very popular and there are actually three official caroling days. The custom is that children go from house to house singing the carol, with the accompaniment of a triangle, and residents of the house give them a small amount of money. Greek Christmas carols (calanda) are sung on the mornings of Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and January 5, the Eve of the Epiphany. About thirty to twenty years ago, carolers were getting cookies for singing the calanda.

Homemade kourabiedes

Melomakarona and kourabiedes are the two varieties of Christmas and New Year’s cookies in Greece. The first are semolina, cinnamon, and clove cookies drenched in honey, while the second are fresh butter cookies sprinkled with powdered sugar that are normally served on New Year’s, but many succumb to temptation and begin consuming them earlier. Vasilopita is a cake that is eaten on New Year’s Day. Before the cake is baked, a coin covered in foil is placed in it. The person who cuts the cake makes the sign of the cross three times above it and then starts serving the pieces, one to each person, the house, Christ, The Virgin Mary and Saint Vasileios. Whoever has the coin in his piece of cake will have luck for the rest of the year.
On the 1st of January, Saint Vasileios (Saint Basil the Great) from Caesarea, Cappadocia (Turkey), brings the gifts to the children. People in Greece also celebrate Epiphany on the 6th January. In the Greek Orthodox Church, Epiphany celebrates Jesus’s baptism when he was a man. There are many events throughout the country where young men dive into really cold lakes, rivers and the sea to try to be the first to get a cross which has been blessed by a priest and thrown into the water. Whoever gets the cross first is meant to have good luck during the coming year.

“Noeliniz Ve Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun” this is how you say “Merry Christmas” in Turkish. However, how Christmas and the new year is perceived depends on where you are in Turkey. Christians who live in Turkey celebrate Christmas at churches or with family gatherings. In many districts of major cities the lights, Christmas decorations and trees appear in early December. In Turkey Christmas is of course not celebrated as a religious holiday. It can, in many ways, be comparable to Father’s day, Mother’s Day, Valentines Day and so on. Christmas is brought to Turkey by the major stores and supermarkets who have seen their chance to implement this festive celebration. There are some very natural differences to the way other Christian countries celebrate Christmas. In Turkey there is no dancing around the Christmas tree and sing Christmas carols, just like Christmas cookies and socks over the fireplace are not a part of the tradition yet. But they have Christmas trees and Santa Claus and gifts! In the last years in Turkey they started celebrating the New Year by exchanging gifts.

On the other hand, in Ukraine the festive period starts on New Years Eve. Ukrainians usually congregate in a house of their families and/or friends. They have many dishes at the table, so they start with food, watching different TV shows and chatting. When it is 00:00 the champagne is opened, and there are exclamations “Urrraaaa” (Hurrah) and people wishing everyone Happy New Year. “After midnight, children find their presents under the New Year tree, some other people are just exchanging presents, telling nice words to people. Then Ukrainians call other friends, who are not celebrating with them and congratulate everyone they think is important. Very often the mobile network is overloaded. Then we have parties till the morning, and go to bed at 02:00-08:00 (it depends). In the morning celebration continues.”, says Hanna Polishchuk (AEGEE-Kyiv).
On the 6th of January it is Sviat Vechir (Holy Evening). In the evening, after 6pm all family congregates at the table, which has 12 dishes (obligatory). The main dish is called Kutia (sweet grain pudding), and everyone should eat at least one spoon of this dish first. After dinner, children (and sometimes adults) wear traditional clothes and go around carol singing. People give them sweets and close friends give also money. The next day (January 7th) is Christmas. In the morning people tell each family member “The Christ was born”, and they answer “Glory to Him”. They tell this three times, and each time people kiss the cheek of the person, to whom they tell these words. On this day people continue going round carol-singing. There is a tradition to forgive everyone on this day.

Photo by Szabina Hellinger

In Hungary, Santa is called Mikulás and comes on the 6th of December instead of Christmas. He brings presents to children in their boots in case they have been behaving well all throughout the year. If they have been naughty, they get some rods (for being whipped with) from krampuses instead. “On Christmas night, the 24th of December (Szenteste = Holy Night) we decorate our Christmas tree indoors and “Little Jesus” (Jézuska) is supposed to bring nice presents for the kids untill the next morning, placing them under the tree.”, Balázs Kovács (AEGEE-Debrecen) told us. The Christmas decoration involves szaloncukor, special Hungarian goodies.

Hoping you enjoyed reading this article, the AEGEEan would like to wish you Merry Christmas anywhere you are!

Written by Lia Tuska, AEGEE-Kastoria/Sofia

After some open call extensions we finally have a name… the hosting local for the Autumn Agora 2016 is AEGEE-Chişinău! We spoke with the President and Main Organiser of the statutory event, Andrei Dodiţa, and the core team to have a sneak peak of what has to come. Plus, to present themselves, the organisers have prepared a short video which you can view here.

The AEGEEan: Why did you decide to apply?

Core team: Organising an Agora was the biggest challenge for us. AEGEE-Chişinău has a rich experience in organising different kind of projects, both on national and international levels and as a result, we reached the peak and needed a new motivation. Hence, the Agora was the most suitable solution and the perfect new purpose. AEGEE-Chişinău has all that is necessary to organise the Agora: the beauty of the country, the hospitality of the people and an enthusiastic, experienced team. So far, it will be the first and biggest international event ever in Moldova and we are really excited we will be the ones organising it. We plan to place Chişinău steadily on the map of AEGEE-Europe. Last but not least, organising an Agora in Chişinău was a personal goal and dream of the President of AEGEE-Chişinău, Andrei Dodiţa, and he was our biggest motivator.

Why didn’t you apply on the first open call?

During our local’s General Assembly, which took place in September, initially, we agreed to apply for Spring Agora 2017. But, due to some favorable circumstances, we had another Assembly and, after the evaluation of our antenna, we decided to apply for the Autumn Agora 2016. Thereby, we have taken a good decision.

Present your local!

AEGEE- Chişinău was founded on the 4th of June 1999, so in June 2016, we will celebrate our 17th anniversary. In the last two years, AEGEE- Chişinău has organised and hosted ten projects, four of which on national level – namely: PROject for YOUth vol. I in 2014, Let’s Start to Grow in 2014, PROject for YOUth vol. II in 2015 and Be efficient in 2015; and six projects on European level – namely Check-in in Moldova Summer University in 2014, Exchange with AEGEE-Mannheim in 2014, local host for the Election Observation Mission in Moldova in 2014, The Hottest Summer School Summer University in 2015, 4 seasons 3 reasons 2 countries 1 story Traveling Summer University in 2015 with AEGEE-Bucureşti and Taste the Moldavian Hospitality Autumn Agora Kyïv Pre event.

Around 359 young people took part in these projects took part, among which 111 were foreign students.

Who is in the core team?

The core team is formed by the most active, motivated and experienced members that we have in AEGEE- Chişinău: Andrei Dodiţa – the president of the local and the main organiser of the Agora; Aliona Ciorba – the best project manager and members coordinator from our local; Arsenis Tselengidis – former President of AEGEE Thessaloniki, former Network Commissioner and Member of Pool of Representatives; Vali Bala – one of the most experienced members and a very good project manager; Lucia Gori – the former president of our local and one of the longest-serving members; Anisoara Tricolici and Maria Josan – the PR responsible and Secretary of the local and two of the most involved and dedicated members and Ana Gancearuc and Ina Botnari – two of the most experienced longest-serving members.

Can you give us a sneak peek of what you are preparing (facilities, plenaries, also food)?

Everything will be a big surprise for you, as big as our application was for the Comité Directeur, so we will keep this a secret. But, be sure you will feel like home in Chişinău. You will try the best food and the most delicious wine that you have ever tasted. So far, all the foreign participants have agreed with us on that. We have the support of municipality and Ministry of Youth and Sport, so everything will be on a high level.

How can we reach Chişinău? What has Chişinău to offer?

Chişinău is starting to have better connection to Europe via direct flights, however most low-cost airlines fly to the nearby hubs in Romania like Bucharest, Iasi and Bacau. From there, and some other nearby major cities, there are numerous train and bus connections to Chişinău (especially Bucharest, Iasi, Cluj-Napoca and Kyïv) and, in some cases, central and even western Europe (Moskva, L’viv, Praha, Sofia, Aachen, Kraków, etc). Of course, Moldova has a strong reputation for hospitality so hitchhiking is common and recommended for the complete experience!

Andrei Dodiţa, president and main organiser of Autumn Agora 2016

Even if Chişinău is a small city, it has a very big heart. You will visit one of the greenest cities in Europe, with free wi-fi everywhere and very cordial and beautiful people.

What were you doing when the CD delivered the news and how did you feel about it?

Andrei Dodiţa: I received the news at midnight and the good thing is that when I got the answer I was already in bed so it saved me from falling down. I couldn’t fall asleep that night because the movie of Agora being held in Chişinău was constantly running in front of my eyes. Being extremely excited, I started calling my core team to share the news with them but they were all already sleeping [he laughs, ed].

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona

On the 1st of December, Moldova woke up with the results of the parliamentary elections that would decide the direction that this small landlocked country would have taken. Bordering a European Union member state (Romania) and Ukraine, Moldova faces a similar challenge as their Eastern Partnership neighbours: keeping their ties with Russia, or pushing towards Europe?

Arrived in Chișinău, one could easily guess that there was something very relevant going on in the city. Giant panels with propaganda for the Moldovan parliamentary elections were spread all over the Stephen the Great’s boulevard, the main alley in the city. Some of them proudly showed the European Union (EU) flag and highlighted the European values and aspirations that Moldova aims to reach. Others, instead, voiced a strong anti-EU message – or, better said, a rather ‘pro-Russian’ message: “It’s better to be rich with Russia than to be poor in an indebted Europe!”, one could read on the panels from the Communist Party. Even Vladimir Putin’s face appeared in one of the panels: the Socialist Party showcased a picture of its leaders having a friendly talk with the Russian president.

It was clear from the start that Moldovan citizens had to make an important decision on November 30th. Since 2009, when the pro-European coalition entered in the government, the small country has been taking progressive steps to strive for a bigger commitment towards the EU and to meet the European standards. The country entered the Eastern Partnership and became what many consider its “star pupil”, as the magazine New Eastern Europe quoted. Its ties with Russia, though, are still strong and some feared that the contagion of the Ukrainian crisis could hit Moldova hard – in fact, its main exports, especially Moldovan wine, have been strongly affected by Russian bans for long.

In this context, it is relevant to highlight one of the main happenings before the Moldovan elections. Just 72 hours before the kick-off of the election day, the pro-Russian party Patria  (‘Homeland’) was banned from taking part in the elections after being accused of receiving funds from Russia. The party was expected to get around 13% of the total votes, so this wasn’t minor news – partly, because of the secrecy in which the Moldovan Justice Court had acted, as several experts acknowledged. Some feared that this would provoke a civil unrest similar to the Ukrainian EuroMaidan but from the Russian side, and  five people were even arrested the day before the elections, suspected of planning violent protests after the elections.

AEGEE-Europe observes on the spot

Twenty-two AEGEEans were deployed throughout the Moldovan capital, Chișinău, on the election day. From the early morning, when the polls were opened, until the end of the counting session, around 55 polling stations were visited. There was the general consensus among the observers that there had not been any major irregularities throughout the day, and that polling stations were generally well-equipped and organised.

However, the breakdown of the electronic voter registration system early in the morning was one of the highlights of the day. Long queues and overcrowding of the polling stations made it difficult at times to observe the procedure, and sometimes voters themselves were disoriented on which was the exact procedure in order to vote.

The long day was culminated by the counting process. One of the most striking things was the presence of several observers in the polling stations. From domestic observers, many of them representing several of the Moldovan political parties, but also civil society organisations, to international observers whom some of us could talk to.

Nonetheless, these national observers from political parties played an influential role during the counting process, sometimes obstructing it, arguing with the members of the polling station, and giving their opinion on the validity of votes (when, according to the election observers code of conduct, observers cannot have an active role, neither obstruct the overall election process) and acting rather coercively at times. As a matter of fact, many of the voters of the banned party ‘Patria’ did anyway cast their vote for them, so the number of invalid votes in several polling stations was remarkably high.

And now, which direction will Moldova take?

After the counting at the polling stations finished, some observers headed to the Moldovan Central Election Commission, where the first results were announced – and they were quite unexpected. “The Socialists have won”, one of the Moldovan journalists told us right when we got inside. Indeed, the Liberal Democrat Party of Moldova, the leader of the pro-European coalition in power, paid the price of being in the government for the past five years, and lost nine seats in Parliament.

Despite that, the final results showed that the three parties that formed the Alliance for European Integration kept the majority, winning 53 seats out of 101. The opposition got a close result of 48 seats – 26 for the Socialists, and 22 for the Communists, even though they refuse to cooperate and make a strong opposition together.

While the negotiations to form a new government are ongoing, these results might give wings to those who hope for stronger ties between Moldova and the European Union. However, one cannot elude the fact that a party which claimed it would be “better being with Russia” and which proudly showcased Putin’s face in their posters has actually won the elections. Throughout the past five years, the pro-EU coalition government in Moldova has been rather fragile and feared a breakdown several times, even though the aspirations of Moldova in Europe are pretty clear.

After the elections, the question is still unanswered – which direction is Moldova taking?

Written by Anna Gumbau, AEGEE-Barcelona & Election Observation Project

After six years of a Visa Facilitation Agreement (meaning a lower visa fee and simplification of visa procedures) between the EU and Moldova, on the 3^rd of April the Council of the European Union granted Moldova with a visa-free travel regime. After the visa liberalisation dialogue that started in 2010 and encouraged Moldova to successfully implement many reforms like strengthening the rule of law, Moldovan citizens didn’t need to apply for a visa anymore when travelling to the EU from the 28^th of April onwards. The AEGEEan spoke to a member from AEGEE-Chișinău, Aliona Ciorba, about her reaction and the future of Moldova in her eyes.  

Although the visa-free regime is great news, it doesn’t mean that Moldovans can travel as freely as European citizens are able to right now. “It means that we can travel to thirty states in Europe for a short-term stays up to 90 days in six months”, Aliona says. “In addition, on entering the EU, Moldovan citizens have to presents the same documents as they did when applying for a visa at embassies (trip tickets, hotel reservation or invitation of the person you are staying at, medical insurance and a proof of holding sufficient financial means).”

Still, the reactions of Aliona and other Moldovans were positive. “For me, as an AEGEEan, the liberalisation of the visa regime has a direct impact”, Aliona says. “I don’t have to worry about planning my trip anymore, so I can participate in events without any barriers. The members of my antenna can participate in mandatory events like the NWM, EPM and Agora too, so the criteria can be fulfilled and our antenna is saved.” Before the new rule, planning a trip could easily take some months, because appointments at the embassy sometimes couldn’t be planned earlier than a month ahead. Since the liberalisation of the visas, this part can be skipped and trips can be planned on a shorter notice. A chance happily accepted, because on the first day of the visa-elimination, 1683 Moldavian citizens travelled to EU countries.

Although the possibility to travel for free is great, Aliona does point out that many Moldovans still won’t have the money to travel to the EU. According to the public opinion poll, conducted in April 2014 by the Public Policy Institute of Moldova, 83% of the Moldovans didn’t travel to EU countries in the last five years and 54% didn’t believe that the visa-free regime would benefit them, because they didn’t plan to travel (34%) or didn’t have the financial resources for a travel (20%). Although the visa-free regime itself is a great step for Moldova, there is still a lot that can be done to improve the situation.

Right now, the opinions about how to better the Moldovan situation, are divided into two groups: the Romanian speaking Moldovans who want Moldova to take further steps and become a part of the EU, and the Russian speaking people who would be very happy if Moldova was reoriented towards Russia and became a part of it. Seeing the situation in Ukraine, many Moldovan citizens are also worried about the conflict between Ukraine and Russia and the possibility that it will extend to Moldova as well. It’s expected that the same scenario as happened in Crimea will take place in Transnistria too, but this isn’t something that most Moldavians would want to happen. “We believe in a bright future and the possibility to solve the conflict peacefully”, Aliona says.

Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen