Knowledge of Romanian culture, administration, habits

Could you guess what "Bogdan" means in Romanian? is it the name of a city? or a name of a person? or a traditional dish? See the answer at the bottom of this page.

In your efforts to learn Romanian (see our free lessons at Romanian lessons it is very useful to have a basic knowledge of Romanian culture.

No expert level but minimum knowledge about Romania

One might consider a huge endevour taking on a new task of learning the Romanian culture, learning how Romania functions... which are all new to her/him and will require time to read and understand.
Well, you need to know at least the basics. Nobody will expect of you to be an expert in Romanian geography, but to know that you can ski in Romania, that you can go to the beach in Romania, and that Romania has a delta, the Danube delta will be useful for you to know.

Resources on Romanian culture, administration

The best would be to start with the descritpion of Romania on wikipedia. You can skip the parts that are of less interest for you.

You can also read about the Romanian counties (the main administrative division of Romania) on wikipedia.
It is very useful to read at least once the names of the counties. If you're living or visiting Romania, it is a must to know the county that you live in. County is called in Romanian: "judeţ".

For example here is the documentary (in English) about Transylvania called "Wild Carpathia":

Romanian wine

He have started writing a very interesting set of articles over Romanian wines, that presents the wines as well as teaches you the specific vocabulary and pronunciation.

Romanian customs

Did you know that:

• Romanian couples to get married need to choose another couple called Godfather and Godmother? This is not related with the baptizing, Romanian have godparents(the godparents at a wedding are different persons and more important than the bride's made and the best man) for the wedding as well as for the baptizing.
• most Romanians are Orthodox(religion) and that the orthodox Easter can be different than the Catholic one? In 2013 the Catholic Easter was celebrated on 31 March 2013, whereas the Orthodox Easter was celebrated on 5th of 2013. In 2011 the Orthodox and Catholic Easter were celebrated on the same day: 24 April 2011







Romanian folk music and dances

Do not worry if you did not understand every word, Romanian traditional music abounds in local dialect words.


Maybe the most famous Romanian folk dance: "Căluşarii"

And to answer the question at top of this page, "Bogdan" is a Romanian first name given only to man.