What is the 1st of December?
In Romania, we call it The Great Union Day (a better translation: Unification Day) – Ziua Unirii – A day celebrating the unification of all the Romanian territories after World War 1. Also the period with the greatest historical gains due to the Treaty of Trianon (more information at the end of the article)
How do we celebrate it?
Romanians love their days off and take the opportunity to celebrate said events. So on this day, most people get a couple days off from the state for the 30th of November, when we celebrate Saint Andrei (Andrew) and, as I mentioned before the Unification Day.
There are events and parades all across the country, but the most important ones are in Alba Iulia and Bucharest.
In Bucharest, people watch the military parade that can be seen in front of Arcul de Triumf (the Romanian version of Arc de Triomphe from Paris).
There is also a parade and festivities in the Alba Iulia fortress, where people gather in traditional clothing and celebrate the process of gathering signatures. Back then to confirm that people wanted to unify with Romania signatures were gathered in mass for the unification to happen (a sort of declaration of unification).
Most Romanians celebrate this day by either going on vacation for a long weekend or eating mici. We wrote a whole article on the topic:
This is what you can expect to see on the 1st of December if you are in Romania:
For more information with an international perspective, we recommend this historian:


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