The Bear's Day

Every year on February 2nd, Romanians celebrate the Bear's Day, a popular tradition with similarities in other countries (see the 'Groundhog Day' in the US and Canada). It is said that in this particular day, the bear leave its winter shelter; if it is a sunny day and the bear can see its shadow on the snow, it hides for another 40 days, sign of a prolonged winter. On this day, people do not pronounce the word "bear", they refer at it with the nicknames "Old Martin" or "the old one" and some Romanian highlanders leave near the bear's couch pieces of veal meat.