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Christmas bells entered the Romanian cultural space through a long process in which archaic traditions blended with Christian belief and European influences. Long before the holiday of Christmas developed as we know it, metallic sounds played an important ritual role in old communities: they were used to drive away evil spirits, to purify spaces, and to protect people during transitional moments at the turn of the year. These beliefs have been preserved in winter customs such as caroling, the Plugușor, and masked dances, where bells and jingles were indispensable.
With the spread of Christianity, the sound of the bell also acquired a profound religious meaning, becoming an announcer of major feasts and a symbol of the Nativity. Small bells, however, were not originally used as decorations but primarily as functional or ritual objects.
The first decorated Christmas tree in the Romanian lands was the one at the palace of Prince Carol I of Hohenzollern, following his arrival in the Romanian Principalities in 1866. From that moment the tradition took root, and on Christmas Eve princes and princesses invited to the palace would take part in decorating the tree. Among the ornaments used were small metal bells, symbolizing joy, the good news, and divine protection for the home.
In the twentieth century, Christmas bells spread across all Romanian provinces and became a visual emblem of the holiday, appearing in both decorations and carols. Even during periods when religious expression was curtailed, bells remained in people's homes as signs of joy and the continuity of tradition. Today they retain this dual meaning: the echo of ancient beliefs and, at the same time, the announcement of the Birth of Christ - a symbol of hope, light, and the link between past and present.
These tinkling pieces are part of a generous heritage collection at the National Museum of History of Moldova (NMHM), which includes more than 200 cultural items. A substantial contribution to the museum's collection of decorative bells was made by Dorina Raischi, a teacher at School No. 94 in Chișinău, who donated 174 bells, of which around 30 are winter-themed. Made of ceramic, porcelain, glass, and metal, they were brought from different parts of the world and together offer a succinct picture of the global culture of bells. They add a festive note to the home and even to a gift, and it is hard to imagine Christmas without their cheerful tinkling.

Virtual Tour


Exhibitions

„Monuments of the Great Union”

November 27 - December 31, 2018

The photodocumentary exhibition „Monuments of the Great Union"National was opened in the upper lobby by the National Museum of History of Moldova in partnership with the National Institute of Heritage in Bucharest. The exhibition aims to promote the monuments relevant to the Great Union, silent witnesses of events and actions that prepared the act of December 1, 1918.

The project is to highlight the role of the major capitals - Alba Iulia, Arad, Bucharest, Iaşi, Chişinău, and the historical and political personalities participants in the national movement and the achievement of the Great Union.

Alba Iulia represents the place where the Great Union was made. Later, in Bucharest, the capital of the old kingdom, the Union Act of 1918 was confirmed. Iuliu Maniu, Iuliu Hossu, Miron Cristea, Gheorghe Pop de Băsești, Alexandru Vaida Voievod, Iosif Jumanca, Aurel Lazăr, Elena Pop are one of the key personalities in the organization of the Great National Assembly in Alba Iulia, as well as other events that have prepared the Union. Along with these, it is also important the participation of local personalities from Alba Iulia, such as the lawyers Zaharia Muntean, Camil Velican, Rubin Patiția and photographer Samoila Mârza.

Arad was the center where the plebiscite was thought and prepared. Personalities such as Vasile Goldiş, Ştefan Cicio-Pop and Ioan Suciu were at the head of the Central Romanian National Council, which set the date and place of the Great Assembly. The national movement of the Transylvanian Romanians from Arad attracted the attention of both Romanian and Hungarian and German media. This brought about the move of the political nucleus to Arad, where, in 1908, the Romanian National Party moved its headquarters.

In Bucharest, on May 7, 1918, was signed the Treaty of Peace by which Romania gave up the Romanian territories in Austro-Hungary, while the territory of Bucovina was to be enlarged with some the parts of Hotin, Herţa, Dorohoi and Dorna. On the day when the Great Assembly took place in Alba Iulia and was proclaimed the Union of Transylvania with Romania (18 November / 1 December), King Ferdinand and Queen Maria arrived in the liberated capital. Thus, the previous treaty was invalidated by the defeat of the Central Powers by the Entente.

Iași, the „capital of war", was the capital of Romania at the beginning of the First World War, when the royal family and the government left Bucharest, increasingly threatened by a military occupation. For two years, the Royal House, the Government, the Senate and the Parliament of Romania have been working in Iași. During this time under the leadership of the Prime Minister Ion I. C. Brătianu, reforming laws were adopted which laid the foundations for the formation of the Romanian unitary national state.

Chișinău, the heart of Bessarabia, was the place where the meetings of Sfatul Țării took place on March 27, 1918, when 86 deputies voted for the Union Act, in which was written that: "The Moldovan Democratic Republic (Bessarabia), within its boundaries Prut, Nistru, the Black Sea and the old borders with Austria, ripped off by Russia a hundred and more years ago from the body of old Moldavia, based on the power of historical law and nation law, based on the principle that the peoples alone should decide their fate, today and forever unites with its mother, Romania. Long live the Union of Bessarabia with Romania forever and ever!" On behalf of Sfatul Țării, the Declaration of the Union was signed by Ion Inculeț, President, Pan Halippa, Vice-President, and Ion Buzdugan, Secretary of Sfatul Țării.

At the exhibition opening on November 27 participated: Andrei Chistol, State Secretary at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research of the Republic of Moldova; Dana Mihai, Program Director, National Institute of Heritage in Bucharest; Alexandru Mureşanu, Deputy Ambassador of Romania to the Republic of Moldova; Ion Negrei, historian; Elena Postică, deputy director of the National Museum of History of Moldova.


 




Independent Moldova
Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic
Bessarabia and MASSR between the Two World Wars
Bessarabia and Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in the Period between the Two World Wars
Revival of National Movement
Time of Reforms and their Consequences
Abolition of Autonomy. Bessarabia – a New Tsarist Colony
Period of Relative Autonomy of Bessarabia within the Russian Empire
Phanariot Regime
Golden Age of the Romanian Culture
Struggle for Maintaining of Independence of Moldova
Formation of Independent Medieval State of Moldova
Era of the
Great Nomad Migrations
Early Middle Ages
Iron Age and Antiquity
Bronze Age
Aeneolithic Age
Neolithic Age
Palaeolithic Age
  
  

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#Exhibit of the Month

Christmas bells entered the Romanian cultural space through a long process in which archaic traditions blended with Christian belief and European influences. Long before the holiday of Christmas developed as we know it, metallic sounds played an important ritual role in old communities: they were used to drive away evil spirits, to purify spaces, and to protect people during transitional moments at the turn of the year...

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The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
©2006-2026 National Museum of History of Moldova
Visit museum 31 August 1989 St., 121 A, MD 2012, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova
Phones:
Secretariat: +373 (22) 24-43-25
Department of Public Relations and Museum Education: +373 (22) 24-04-26
Fax: +373 (22) 24-43-69
E-mail: office@nationalmuseum.md
Technical Support: info@nationalmuseum.md
Web site administration and maintenance: Andrei EMILCIUC

 



The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
©2006-2026 National Museum of History of Moldova
Visit museum 31 August 1989 St., 121 A, MD 2012, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova
Phones:
Secretariat: +373 (22) 24-43-25
Department of Public Relations and Museum Education: +373 (22) 24-04-26
Fax: +373 (22) 24-43-69
E-mail: office@nationalmuseum.md
Technical Support: info@nationalmuseum.md
Web site administration and maintenance: Andrei EMILCIUC

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The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
©2006-2026 National Museum of History of Moldova
Visit museum 31 August 1989 St., 121 A, MD 2012, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova
Phones:
Secretariat: +373 (22) 24-43-25
Department of Public Relations and Museum Education: +373 (22) 24-04-26
Fax: +373 (22) 24-43-69
E-mail: office@nationalmuseum.md
Technical Support: info@nationalmuseum.md
Web site administration and maintenance: Andrei EMILCIUC