Romanians celebrate two consecutive public holidays: St. Andrew’s Day (November 30) and National Day (December 1).
St. Andrew’s Day has been a national holiday in Romania since 2015. St. Andrew is the patron saint of Romania and the Romanian Orthodox Church and is credited with spreading Christianity in the Roman province Scythia Minor, the modern Romanian region of Dobrudja. More than 900,000 Romanians will celebrate their name day on November 30, with popular variants of the name being Andrei, Andraș, Andruș, Andreas, Andreiu, Endre, András, for men, and Andreea, Andra, Andrada, Andruța, Deia, Deea, for women. Andrew the Apostle is also the patron saint of Barbados, Ukraine, Russia, and Scotland.
December 1st is the National Day of Romania, also called Great Union Day (Romanian: Ziua Marii Uniri) or Unification Day (Romanian: Ziua Unirii), marking the unification of Transylvania, Bessarabia, and Bukovina with the Kingdom of Romania in 1918. The process of Romanian unification started earlier that year with the union of Bessarabia, which had gained independence from the Russian Empire, with the Kingdom of Romania, followed by Bukovina on November 28, and completed on December 1, with the Alba Iulia National Assembly, where 1,228 elected representatives of the Romanians in Transylvania, Banat, Crișana, and Maramureș, convened and decreed “the unification of those Romanians and of all the territories inhabited by them with Romania.” Today, 103 years later, Romanians around the world celebrate their National Day.
The BR team sends its regards to all Romanians, wishing them happy and peaceful St. Andrew’s Day and National Day!