These customs begin on Christmas Eve or the day before, and last till Epiphany. The most important of them is that known by the name of "colindat" (carolling). By these customs, groups of "colindatori" -carollers- go from house to house and sing at the windows or in the houses, according to a variable ceremonial, ancient songs of greeting, called "colinde" (carols). These carols are song by boys, youth girls, adults or mixed groups, according to the region of the country.

The texts of these carols may be either profane or religious in content. The profane ones tell about the contest between the hors and the hawk, about the incredibly large dowry required of the marriageable maiden, a dowry to which the wooers renounce on seeing, the beauty of the girl and being convinced of her industry; about the nine sons of the hunter turned into deer etc. The "religious" carols contain popular legends of God end they are of ten imbued with pagan elements. God and the Saints are personified: God as an old shepherd with a white beard, playing the flute as he watches a flock of sheep; Got and St. Peter dressed as beggars are driven out of the house of the rich, and the apocryphal content of the latter has determined the churchmen to try to remove them.

The Star-songs, whose poetical contents is inspired by the Scriptures, were created to that end. Poor in artistic images, they differ from the genuine folk creations both in language and style. Their melodies and rhythms draw them nearer to the pious Christmas hymns of the West. Here and there, as in the western part of Oltenia for instance, the texts of the Star- songs appear to have borrowed ancient carol melodies. Persistently diffused by the Church and old time schools, the star-songs have achieved a certain popularity. They are, as a rule, sung by children carrying a paper star painted and sometimes illuminated from within. In Transilvania these songs also given the name of "colinde" and are sung together with the authentic folk "colinde". This blending of creations pertaining to two different cultures have much contributed to the false conception which certain people still have of the "colinde", considering them as a whole to be religious, mystical, etc.
The aim of the carols is to greet and to praise in an allegoric way those to whom they are sung. Hence their specialisation, here and there, into carols for a young man, for a young girl, for a newlywed couple, for a shepherd, for a hunter, for a fisherman, etc.

Reaming the village from house to house, the carollers of Dobica, Hunedoara, part of Romania, play on flute and drum the "Song of the drum". On this melody is superimposed a carol for a young man, which the carollers sing as they march.
The "Dube" (drums) also accompany certain carols from the village of Almas, Saliste. The poem tells gracefully of a young shepherdess who wanted to pluck a flower in bud. The flower advises her to wait till it blossomed, to adorn herself with it and to dance the "hora" with it: as its petals  will be scattered and tossed about by the winds so will her beloved be tossed about by his thoughts of her.

The luck –visit of the plough, “plugusor” (little plough) is a very ancient fertility rite performed in Wallachia and Moldavia on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. A long recitation in verse representing allegorically the whole work of the field, from the ploughing to the kneading and baking of rolls of pure cornflower is intoned against a background of sounds produced by the bellowing of a friction drum called bull ("buhai"). Also it is added sometimes the melody of flute or other musical instruments:

Our plough works wonders
It has four or five coulters
Sharpened, tempered
Sharp and cutting,
Never sleeping
And where it passes it leaves
A soft and fertile furrow;
And where it furrows!
The field laughs and blooms!…

Among the masked dances performed during the winter feast, the most remarkable is “Capra” (Goat), emblem of fecundity. This custom, whose magical significance has become lost during the course of time, consists of the dance of a masked man generally representing a goat or a stag. The muzzle of the mask is made of two pieces of wood covered with hare-skin.

Many of the midwinter musical customs nowadays find excellent means of diffusion through the activities of organized artistic groups, whether amateur or professional.