Romania - People & Civilisation

About 89% of the people are ethnic Romanians, a group that - in contrast to its Slavic or Hungarian neighbours - traces itself to Latin-speaking Romans. Primarily a rural, agricultural country, the medieval Wallachians and Moldavians maintained their language and culture despite centuries of rule by foreign princes.

Hungarians and gypsies are the main minorities with a declining number of German population and smaller number of Serbs, Croats, Ukrainians, Greeks, Turks and Armenians.

Most Romanians identify themselves with the Romanian Orthodox Church but there are other congregations of Greek Catolics, Calvinists, Baptists and Pentecostals.

Romania's rich cultural traditions have been nourished by many sources. the traditional folk arts, including dance, wood carving, ceramics, weaving and embroidery of costumes and household decorations, the fascinating folk music flourish depending on the region. It was the folk culture that made Nicolae Grigorescu, Romanian painter, Mihai Eminescu, the greatest Romanian poet, George Enescu, Romanian composer or Constantin Brancusi, sculptor, draw their inspiration and their artistic genius.

The Romanian Culture is also marked by the presence of many Orthodox monasteries, such as Voronet, Moldovita, Varatec, Agapia in Moldavia with important cultural value or by the Catholic churches in Transylvania.

Romania can be proud of its artists during the contemporary period from the writers and poets such as Marin Preda, Nichita Stanescu to the new generation of artists such as Mircea Cartarescu or Horia Roman Patapievici, of its playwriters such as Eugen Ionesco or of its philosophers (Constantin Noica, Petre Tutea).

The Romanian music is an important chapter in the culture of our people. With folklore as a source of inspiration, composers like Alexandru Flechtenmacher, Eduard Candella, Ciprian Porumbescu composed choral and vocal-instrumental music, opera, operetta.

Although the presence of the Romanian motion picture was not very obvious in Romania due to the censhorship of the Ceausescu regime, there were some successes that marked the evolution of the film: Liviu Ciulei's "The Forest of the Hanged", "Unforgettable Summer" by Pintilie, "The Snails' Senator" by Daneliuc, "Pepe and Fifi" by Dan Piţa or the most recent awarded in Cannes in section "Un Certain Regard", "The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu" by the young director Cristi Puiu.