Culture exchange

[Vrook]

ROMANIA

Seeing all the beautiful posts regarding the multitude of cultures present on this forum, I thought that is nice to share something about my country too. Hoping that you'll enjoy my little rant, there it begins.

First of all: Short history, and how Romania came to be

At first, in the space bordered by the Black Sea in South-East, the future Russian Empire at the North, the plain known as Panonia at West and the Danube river at the South, were the Daccians. Our ancestors, which arised the curiosity of the Roman Empire, which was in full expansion.

So, as how the Romanians came to be.

During the Roman Emperor Traian reign, there were two wars which led to the birth of Romanian people.

The first war, between 101-102

As Decebal, the leader of the Daccians, became a threat for the Roman Empire, Traian decided to declare war against Daccians. After a hard battle, with many casualties, a peace treaty was signed between Decebal and Traian, with the purpose to fortify the Daccians against further Northern invasions. But as Decebal used this oportunity to strenghten the people against the Roman, the second war, and the one that concluded the birth of Romanian people, emerged.

The second war, between 105-106

After the peace treaty failed, the Romans marched once again against the Daccians, this time for the final time. Following the heavy battles, and the fall of the Dacia capital, Sarmisegetuza, Decebal fled to the mountains, where he commited suicide, rather than to be captured by the Roman pursuers. 

Following this war, Dacia became a Roman province, lead by the Emperor, through a local governor.

Sarmisegetuza, the Dacian capital before the fall against the Roman Empire

But enough with the ancient history, let's go to some more appropiate times. Somewhere in the XV century.
And talk about a common language around Romania, and in the world also.

Yes, you guessed it. I'm talking about Dracula. Or Vlad Tepes, meaning the impaler.

Vlad Tepes, or Dracul, as he was borned, meaning the Dragon, was a Romanian leader, who ruled over Wallachia during XV century. 

Were did he took the name "Tepes" would you ask?

Well, during his ruling time, he was known as a honest lord, who didn't accepted the existence of thieves, beggars or corrupt officials, knew as "Boieri". So, the usual punishment for those crimes, were the cutting of the hand which commited the crime. And based on the severity of other crimes, punishment would have gone as further as the dismemberment of the guilty one.

But his favorite punishment, and the one that got his name, was impaling. Usually the one receiving this punishment were the so-called "Boieri" and the enemies.

And so, inspired by Vlad Tepes bloodthirst, and cruel punishments, Bram Stoker wrote the famous novel Dracula, which became a legend all over the world.

Ok, so we've talked about Dracula. What should I talk about next. Hmm. I know.

Nadia Comaneci

She was the Romanian gymnast, which, at the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics, obtained the first perfect Ten (10.00) in the history of Gymnastics.

But I'm sure she's well known already.

And people. How are we? How do we act? Hmm, let me think.

We Romanians are kind people, ready to help others when needed. But of course, there are people and people, like in all the countries.

But for most of the time, someone will be ready to help you if there is the need for it.

And in the country-side especially, the people are kind and ready to welcome everyone.

As for traditions. There are the usual Easter and Christmas ones, but during the year there are a lot of other ocassions in which the family gather for celebrating. Like Labor day, on 1st of May. At this moments, there will be a lot of eating and drinking, since we like this stuff.

But overall, we are kind and ready to welcome any new one to discover something about our land.

And there are a lot of things, which I will let you discover about Romania.

And now, I'll show you some pictures of our land.

    

I really hope you enjoyed this little story, and I'll be more than happy if you'll learn something about Romania.

Thank you for your time!

P.S. And yes, we also have one of the best roads in the world. The Transfagarasan!