The New Year’s Bear Dance Ritual gathered Saturday inhabitants of northern Moldova (Romania’s eastern region), from very young children to the elderly, for the final day of an approximately week-long festival of winter traditions taking place between Christmas and the end of the year.

According to tradition a bear entering the house yard brings good fortune.

The tradition, originating in pre-Christian times, when dancers wearing colored costumes or animal furs, went from house to house in villages singing and dancing to ward off evil, has also moved to Romania's cities, where the ritual is performed for money.

A bear fur costume, regarded as a family trophy, weighs up to 40 kg for the adult size and cost up to two-thousand euros, or 2,406 USD, with prices going up after the introduction of EU regulations controlling bear hunting.