Moldova’s traditions and holidays are of different nature: religious, agricultural, family related and social.

New Year is one holiday that is celebrated throughout the country on the 1st. of January. Christmas trees (firs and occasionally pines) are decorated inside and / or outside homes or apartments. Everybody is looking forward to Santa Claus (“Moş Crăciun”) to come on a sleigh filled with presents. Especially children prepare themselves for this event: they put on different costumes and masks and perform in front of the Christmas tree. New Year is celebrated usually with the family members or close friends with plenty of food and drinks and is toasted with traditional champagne at midnight with good wishes for the New Year.

The 1st. of March is the date of Martisor (should be read as “Martsishor”) celebration in Moldova. Martisor is the symbol of spring. Men offer small pendants (martisors) to the ladies (and vice versa). A martisor consist of a jewel or a small decoration like a flower, an animal, a heart, tied to a red and white string. Martisors are exchanged as signs of friendship or love and pinned on the outside of a shirt or coat, on the left side, over one’s heart. One of the old  legend says that once in a fight with the winter witch, that didn't want to give up its place, the beautiful lady Spring cut her finger and few drops of her blood fall on the snow, which melt. Soon on this place grew a snowdrop and in such a way the spring won the winter. The red color symbolizes love for all that is beautiful, while white represents purity, good health and the snowdrop, the first flower of spring.Literally Martisor means little March: a small trinket pinned on the lapel by which winter is parted and spring is welcomed. Since 1967, the Martisor musical festival is held from March 1st to 10th in Chisinau, the Republic of Moldova's capital. Members of amateur art groups and professional performers from other countries are invited to take part in the festival.

March 8 – is International Women's Day - Flowers and small gifts (candy, perfume..) are given to all women including small girls.

In spring the most important religious holiday is Easter. There is only one Easter in the Orthodox Calendar, and this is what unites all old-style and new-style Christian believers. For this celebration people prepare in good time, they cook special food: Easter Cake and painted eggs and the best wine. In the course of time the painted eggs have become a handicraft art. The egg as a symbol represents the miracle of creation. A ritual coloring of the eggs takes place to express this symbolism. Also during Easter, a midnight Mass takes place with a remarkable candle procession as part of the ceremony. Easter Eve is marked by total fasting and the first Easter meal takes place that night following the Mass. Next Monday after Easter  is the Memorial Easter. On this day  families bring flowers to family grave sites.

May 1  is Labor Day and May 9 is the day of Victory and Commemoration, when people celebrate the end of the World War II and give presents/flowers to the veterans.

August 27 and 31 are holidays of national great importance: August 27 is considered the Independence Day, namely on this date back in 1991 Moldova became an independent state. This is the day when the President of Moldova, together with other high-level officials are making public speeches and lay flowers at the Monument of Stefan cel Mare.

August 31 is Language Day. On this day plays, poetry readings and other events are organized to celebrate the establishment of the Romanian language as the official language of the country.

October 8 and 9 is National Day of Wine and Wine Festival. Today the Wine Festival is celebrated all over the republic. The aim of the Sarbatoarea Vinului is to return to the national cradles, to revive the traditions and to preserve the continuity of generations, to unite people irrespective of their political views, social status or financial situation. The Moldovans’ art of producing grape must and wine for consumption by themselves and others has remained an vital part of the country’s culture. The emblem of Moldovan wines is the white stork. A legend says that a huge army was besieging the fortress of Soroca. Though the siege lasted for months, the fortress could not be conquered. Why? Because several storks had their nests in the fortress, and they were bringing grapes from nearby vineyards for their chicks. The soldiers, as well as the baby storks, ate the grapes. The grapes gave the soldiers strength and they could repel every attack of the enemy with increased strength.
When the Voevod (Governor) of Moldova arrived with his army, he freed the fortress and drove off the enemy. All the soldiers who had been under siege in the fortress were alive and unharmed. Since then, out of gratitude to the white storks, local people greet them on the outskirts of their communities when spring arrives and when autumn starts they see them off. White storks are considered to bring good luck For the Moldovan people a bunch of grapes is a pearl, the value of which is unfading through the years. That is why the appearance of the National Day of Wine in Moldova has been a very bright and important event, and every year, on the second Sunday of October, they praise the brightest and the most generous drink in the world. Moldovan people usually make wine in October. That is why this month is called Luna lui kausi (the month of the scoop). Kausi is a round wooden vessel with a handle, which is a necessary thing in a peasant’s winery. It is used to scoop up pulp, mash or fermenting green wine. One can taste tulburel, i.e. green wine, with such kausi.
There are 180 wine-making plants among the 142 thousand hectares of vineyards in the Republic of Moldova . That's excluding the fact that every inhabitant of a Moldovan village has at his home everything needed to make his own wine: wine press, vat, casks.
Moldova currently produces 12-14 million decalitres of brut wines. There are 29 wineries in the country, which you can visit. Among the most famous are: Romanesti, Nisporeni, Cricova, Ialoveni, Tigheci, Ciumai, Cimislia, Comrat, Trifesti, Dubasari, Milesti Mici, etc.

Besides public holidays, numerous festive occasions are held in Moldova each year. These are "Maria Bieshu Invites" (a week of opera and ballet with the participation of guest performers from entire world), Russian Culture Days, Ukrainian Culture Days.

Moldova possesses a wealth of traditions in folk art, especially the brightly colored and original art of the potters, the carpet-makers, the weavers, and the stone and wood carvers. One of the most ancient crafts is pottery. In the past earthenware pots, jugs, plates, and bowls were used in everyday life. Folk ceramics are of high quality, varied in shape, decorated with a wide variety of patterns and many different colors. Carpet making was widespread because of an ancient tradition whereby a bride had to offer carpets made by her own hand as her dowry. The Moldovan carpet is smooth, without pile, of the same type of weave as linen.

Moldova's traditions have been influenced mainly by the Romanian origin of its majority of population, and has even more enriched due to national minorities that live on this territory too, like: Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Gagauzians, Russians, Germans, Greeks…In spite of the differences of nationalities, people here have the most important quality that unites them – Hospitality. In Moldova every guest is received with special warmth. In the villages guests are usually invited into the "Casa Mare" (Big Room) – a traditional room in each house where people feast together. The householder will always serve his guest with great Moldovan wine (in the villages this is usually home made wine; in Moldova, wine producing is a cultural tradition preserved for over 3 thousand years, not only an industry) and with the best dishes of food. A Moldovan maxim says: "The person who has failed to build a home, to raise a son, to dig a well and to plant a tree has wasted his life". That's why the Moldovan villages are so green, the houses are so beautiful and you can see wells along the streets. As a rule, Moldovans dig wells in a street, on a track or in the field, and not in the yard. The purpose is to provide water for anyone who might need it.

We cannot talk about Moldova without mentioning the traditions of a family nature: weddings, celebrations, etc., which become real shows made by guests and hosts.The first thing to point out would be the colorful, cheerful, noisy and all-night-long Moldovan weddings.

The wedding is a performance with well-established rituals. Poetry, song, dance and ceremonial costumes all have a detailed role in the wedding ceremony. This ceremony begins when the spokesman of the bridegroom comes to the bride's home to woo her. During this time, the best men go throughout the village inviting the relative and friends to the wedding. Then, before the closed gates guarded by the bride's relatives, the bridegroom's best man tells a story. It is the story of a young emperor who gathered a great army and went hunting. While hunting, he saw a fairy and sent his warriors to look for her. Following the fairy's trail, they arrive at the bride's house. They have been told that there is a certain flower in the garden. This flower cannot bear fruit because of the unsuitable soil in which it grows. The warriors came to pick the flower and plant it in the young emperor's garden. There, the soil was known to be good and provide the nutrients enabling the flower to bear fruit.The dress and hairdressing of the bride is also important. She wears a ceremonial costume and flowers in her hair. In some parts of Moldova, the bridegroom must pass a test of cleverness. He must solve a series of riddles in order to prove that he is able to be part of the married community. The entrance of the bride into the community of married women is marked by a change of her hair style, and the covering of her head with a scarf.The practice of weddings includes the moments when young people separate from their social groups. Additionally, there is the separation of the bride from her parents which is followed by her joining the bridegroom's family. Lastly, there is the union of the two young people and the integration of the bride into her new family. (Prior to the marriage is the betrothal which is followed by a long process of acceptance towards the prospective couple by the existing group of those who are already married.) The scarf is a symbol of the married women. This ceremony is also accompanied by a song. Just as for a medieval meal, the wedding meal provides an opportunity for singing, dancing and listening to epic hero songs. Dance forms, especially for the young people, are an essential part of the wedding, as well as the birth ceremonies. One dance, called a "hora" (a national dance in which men and women hold hands in a circle) marks the decisive moments of the ceremonial. It is a seal of the marriage contract.The modern ceremony includes the old wedding custom of bowing to the parents as a token of gratitude and respect. The singing, dancing and merry-making continues until daybreak. At dawn everyone sits down for a minute and the bride is given a child to hold in her arms. According to tradition, the bride will then be sure to have a home full of children. The young husband then leads her to the threshold of their house. But before they step over the threshold the couple is showered with grain - a sign of prosperity.

Other interesting traditions  family related include the Ceremony of the "First Bath" which  is one of the most important Moldovan rituals. Only the women can assist in the bathing of the newborn child, and the oldest woman related to the father of the baby is in charge of the event. Fresh, clean water enriched with flowers, money, honey and milk are thought to purify and join the newborn to the family. The elder woman gives the cleansed baby to the mother with wishes for the child's moral, spiritual and physical integrity. She wishes for the child to marry, to be good-looking and healthy, to be respectful of his or her parents and to be a patient person. She wishes that the child thrives, grows to maturity, becomes hardworking and experiences good luck in life.

The second important moment related to birth is the Christening of the Child, a ceremony in which the child is named. In the Eastern Orthodox church, the spiritual, or "God-parents" of the child have an important ceremonial function. Usually, the child will be named after the God-father, or after a close family member. Later, the God-parents will play an important role in the wedding ceremony of the child.

A Moldovan Funeral has as well its customs. Usually a dawn song is sung during the ceremony, also called the Great Song (bocetul). It is sung by a group of appointed old women at the dawn of the two days between a death and a funeral.This song advises the dead person and describes the journey that he or she will make into the land of the dead ancestors. It is a song of a poetic metaphor of the myth of the great transition. Also expressed is a wish for the sun to rise later in the day, so that the family of the deceased have more time to prepare for the ceremonies. The preparation of the funeral consists of greeting the relatives, making the funeral objects, such as the coffin, the vial that will cover the body, the funeral candle and the carriage with bulls, as well as the preparation of the food to be served to relatives and friends during the meal after the funeral. During all of the funeral proceedings, there is a wake organized for the deceased. A body is never left alone, and those present at the wake tell stories about the deceased. A group of old women mourn the body as well.

Another tradition organized mostly in villages are "Sezatorile" very traditional social meetings, especially in the winter, where people sing, dance, and make handicrafts.

In the Orthodox faith, it is customary to celebrate the lives of the saints. If a person's name has a religious meaning, he or she celebrates the anniversary of the respective Saint's day. St. John, St. Constantine, St. Elena, St. Ilie and St. Mary are some of the more renowned names. Those people whose names have no religious meaning celebrate on March 9 by enjoying some traditional cookies which happen to be prepared differently in different regions of the country.

Almost for all Moldovan celebrations, song is an essential and very appreciated component of the ceremonial activities. The songs reveal all sides of the sensitive hearts of Romanians. There are ceremonial songs, such as the song of the bride and the song of the dawn. There are "Doinele" or songs of sorrow, melancholy, love or rebellion. These were determined to evoke either the longing for loved ones or social injustice. The ballads, or epic songs, represent various human experiences. They will describe events such as the sunrise, or historical events, heroism, the death of freedom fighters and the like. They occasionally focus on the trades of the people as well.Love songs, lullabies and party songs are also present in the Moldovan folklore.