BP I BulletinofIntegrative Psychiatry Buletin dePsihiatrieIntegrativa Taking traditional customs to town. A Romanian dynamic Adina Hulubaş Adina Hulubas - PhD, Senior Researcher, Romanian Academy - Iasi Subsidiary ABSTRACT The article discusses data gathered in two research projects and compares them to argue that folk practices continue to be transmitted and performed in urban settlements. This is due to the recent urbanization process that allows active folk beliefs to be enacted and witnessed frequently. The rites of passage are presented both in Romanian towns and in urban settlements from Western Europe, revealing a significant attachment to traditional ways. Calendar customs complete the image on cultural preservation in the midst of the city, even despite regulations. Romanian urbanites and immigrants maintain folk convictions they learned about in childhood or before leaving the country, with positive reflection results. KEYWORDS: Intangible cultural heritage, migration, urbanites, customs. Population flow has direct consequences on economic, political and social levels, but it also influences a more elusive segment of life: cultural practices and their psychological function. Leaving the rural home in search for a better life does not imply oblivion of the intangible cultural heritage. On the contrary, displacement often triggers an emotional response towards all childhood elements that built a feeling of security: food, ritual practices, family gatherings. Two projects on internal and international migration of Romanians allowed me to analyse the dynamics of customs in changed environments. The first consisted in a postdoctoral research on childbirth customs from Moldavia, which is a North-Eastern region of Romania (the fieldwork was conducted from 2011 to 2014), while the second is an on-going research entitled Migration and identity in the Romanian cultural milieu. The latter implied research interviews with citizens from the Republic of Moldova, too, since the two countries share a common language, history, and culture. Migrants bring more than statistics to their host societies. The semi-directive interviews with 53 subjects from destination countries