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The article discusses data gathered in two research projects and compares them to argue that folk practices continue to be transmitted and performed in urban settlements. This is due to the recent urbanization process that allows active folk beliefs to be enacted and witnessed frequently. The rites of passage are presented both in Romanian towns and in urban settlements from Western Europe, revealing a significant attachment to traditional ways. Calendar customs complete the image on cultural preservation in the midst of the city, even despite regulations. Romanian urbanites and immigrants maintain folk convictions they learned about in childhood or before leaving the country, with positive reflection results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relatively recent urbanization process in Romania allowed traditional knowledge to be transmitted, despite industrialization and technology diffusion. Childbirth is still a mysterious event, and magic thinking fills in the gaps of science in order to keep parents confident and at peace. Taboos are obeyed after birth and before christening, only to reach the phase when the future can be moulded: specific elements are chosen for the ritual bath, the child has to touch several objects that would make them smart, a good singer, etc. A year later, their future occupation will be predicted in a specific ceremony. All these active practices are found in urbanites' families, and also in Romanian immigrant communities in Western Europe. Rituals are mostly compared to neighbouring countries, but also to other distant cultures that show striking similarities. This large geographical spread indicates Indo-European synergies. The identical form of the post-liminal practice of haircutting in Eastern Europe and the Asian rite of passage have not been previously dwelt upon, and it implies the existence of traditional thinking universalia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ştefania Cristescu-Golopenţia reorganized the structure of magic intentions by subsuming all human desires under the category of household welfare. This view allows all rites and superstitions to coalesce around a coherent and unexpectedly modern cultural attitude towards life, for which women are directly responsible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from 1960 traditional birth attendants were forbidden to deliver in Romania and pregnant women found themselves forced to give birth in hospitals. The highly respected village figure became a cultural phenomenon that made her more of a legend character. A village from Galaţi County experienced an uncanny event that activated the cultural information on midwives, as a continuation of the stories of her qualities. In hospitals, however, rituals are maintained under the intention of purifying nurses from unclean birth, while granny-midwife became a role, a character usually played by the mother of the woman in parturition. Customs evolve against the loss of this important social persona and we face an artificial scenario. We are now able to witness the last social effects of banning homebirth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]