This Saturday is a public holiday, the assumption of Saint Mary, or “Sfânta Maria Mare.” Some things will be closed, including the offices of the Făclia Newspaper, and perhaps post offices that were open on Saturdays. (There might also be different hours for banks, post offices, and government services over the weekend.)
A lot of our favorite street food places and even restaurants are already closed for the summer. Some others are still operating. But we didn’t notice any different hours for the major supermarkets.
According to Ramona Danciulescu, writing for Oficiul de Stiri, Adormirea Maicii domnului is celebrated on 15th of August by Catholics and Orthodox Christians. It is “one of the most important religious days in Romania, and it is linked to many traditions, habits, and even some superstitions. Among those include things that we don’t do on that day.”
Another day that celebrates Mary is the 8th of September, which seems to be her birthday. The time between the Assumption and the Birthday is known as într-Sfantul Maria’ or the interMary period, and is considered a good time to get married. (That pun doesn’t even exist in Romanian, I don’t know how it happened.)
One of the traditions, not surprisingly, is going to church. In parts of the country, women will bring grapes or plums with them to church, in the hope that their fruit will be blessed. Other parts will have unmarried young women gather flowers from their gardens and give them to an icon of Mary in the church.
One of the “superstitions” is not to have a fire in the household at the time of Saint Mary’s day. Well, it’s hot enough already, of course it’s a pretty dumb idea to start a fire. I mean, that could start a fire, or a bigger fire. The “superstition” says that starting a fire on one of the hottest day of the year might end up burning things you don’t want burnt… I don’t need a superstition to tell me not to be stupid.
There are also superstitions against working on that day. So, don’t be offended if some of your coworkers take the day off, or if it becomes hard to buy things from a local trader.