RSS
IRES poll: Christmas, most beautiful festival for Romanians
The Romanians think that Christmas is the festival that is the most beautiful (84.9 percent), the most important (70.8 percent) and the richest in traditions (89.9 percent), informs a poll conducted by the Romanian Institute for Evaluation and Strategy (IRES).
Almost half of the Romanians (45.7 percent) fasted before Christmas partially (36.6 percent) or totally (9.1 percent) and 14.9 percent would have liked to fast, but did not do it for various reasons. In exchange, 38.9 percent of the polled said they did not fast.
At Christmas 74.9 percent of the Romanians are in the habit of going to church and only 25 percent are not.Christmas turns to best account the traditions of the Romanian people, think most of the respondents (82.9 percent) although 76.5 percent opine that the traditions specific to Christmas have started disappearing (37.2 percent totally agree to this statement and 39.3 percent partially agree to it).
On the other hand most Romanians think they are traditionalists (84 percent) although almost three quarters of the respondents (74.9 percent) opine that 'present-day young people do no longer observe the traditions of Christmas.'
Folk traditions are appreciated by 93.6 percent of the polled no matter what province they come from, the most beautiful custom, no matter in what part of Romania, is wassailing (according to 48.4 percent of the polled). Many of these customs are observed by 77.4 percent of the Romanians. They think that children too appreciate them and that they will go on existing in time (to a very large extent, 5.4 percent, to a large extent, 31.8 percent, to a small extent, 43 percent).
The IRES study was made over December 13-15 on a national sample of of 1,178 grownup persons, with an error margin of plusminus 2.9 percent.