One of these particular traditions from the Field of Transylvania is the grape wreath. In the field of Transylvania the peasants have little vineyards, so they were preparing a wreath of grapes for the children to be tasted between the Christmas and the New Year’s Eve. In the old times imagine how big the enthusiasm of the children was in the way to eat grapes in the winter… We must say also that the Spanish tradition of eating twelve grapes in the New Year’s Eve has nothing to do with the Transylvanian tradition. Here the grapes are eaten between the Christmas and the New Year’s Eve and hasn’t a specific number of grapes to be eaten.

the heralds of the star, 1842

Another New Year’s Eve tradition generalized to all Romania is the heralds of the star (in Romanian “mersul cu steaua”, word by word: going with the star). This tradition is related with the Christmas. Between the Christmas and the New Year’s Eve some children are visiting the houses from the community with a star and singing a special carol dedicated to the star that gathered the Three Wise Men to look for Jesus Christ. The star is made by colored paper and other shiny materials and is a competition between the bands of the heralds to have the most beautiful star.

The New Year’s Eve party of the Queen of Transylvania from the Dracula Winter Castle in 31 of December 2015 is a foray into the best of the Transylvanian traditions.