The Sibiu Christmas Market
On the 26th of November 2011, the fifth consecutive Sibiu Christmas Market opened its doors to bring the festive atmosphere of the end of year celebrations to the Romanian city of Sibiu. Considered by many to be amongst the most important fairs in the country, the Sibiu Christmas Market takes place at the center of the city in Sibiu’s Great Square between the 26th of November and the 26th of December.
The Fair first started in 2007, the year when Sibiu was the European Cultural Capital and since then it has grown in size and popularity.
The 2010 edition brought thousands of visitors to Sibiu but the 2011 edition aims to be bigger than that and has assembled 65 fair huts where merchants from over 20 counties will be selling their region’s traditional products. The fair caters to a wide range of shopping choices, one can search for presents for their loved ones while enjoying a variety of winter customs such as drinking mulled wine, eating roasted chestnuts and a lot of other delicatessen. The 2011 fair grounds will cover more than five thousand square meters and will feature merchants offering all sorts of products from food and drink to arts and crafts.
The Fair is a good place for children of course, oftentimes they are the center of the winter festivities and the Fair has several surprises prepared for there, from a playground-type park, to activities like pony riding or various workshops like the Little Gifts Factory. On Christmas Eve Santa will be making his long awaited appearance of course, bringing the little ones their much awaited presents.
The main attraction of the Festival will be the manger, which has been set up at the base of the Christmas Tree. This year the manger is a sculpture made out of lime wood, showing the nativity scene in natural size. The sculpture took six month to complete and it was donated especially for this even by the Austria Pro Romania Foundation.
Besides this there are a series of shows and concerts that visitors can enjoy throughout the Fair’s runtime, caroling concerts, magic shows, choir singing and popular dance workshop.
The Sibiu Christmas Market project was started by the Au-Ro Austria Pro Romania Foundation in association with the Social Attache Office of the Austrian Embassy, in partnership with the Sibiu City Hall.
