When it is spring and you are in Brasov, a natural thing to do is to ask when the traditional holiday called Junii Brasovului is held - a spring festival of Brasov’s unmarried young men. A spring festival of the Brasov Juni, comprising a parade of the local costume, a suite of very old dances, held in a part of the town of Brasov, the Schei district, where the first Romanian school was opened (1495) and which saw the beginings of the printing house of Deacon Coresi (1560).

A reminescence of an old military organization suported in the course of years and by the ruling princes of the Romanian Principalities as a means for the preservation of the unity of the Romanians living on both slopes of the Carpathians, this custom is about 400 years old.
Every year, Brasov's Schei District celebrates this holiday. Although its origins have been lost, the Juni, the inhabitants of Schei, still live according to well-established traditional rules

The military character disappeard with the passing of time , and today it has only preserved the prevailing elements, the virtuosity of the folk dances, the beauty of the costume, the skill in the trowing of the mace.

Observing “old-time rules”, as the documents of the time mention, the “juni” (comprising persons from 18 to 20 years of age) are divided into seven groups, each having distinct names: young juni, old juni, “curcani”, “rosiori”, “armasul mare” , “armasul mic” and “sutasul”:

The Junii are divided into seven main groups:
• The Young Junii (1728). They wear hats with three coloured bands. Their flag has the image of Saguna College on one side, and a mounted June on the other one;
• The Old Junii (1834). They come from the Young Juni who got married;
• The Whitish Junii (1869). They wear white fur caps and their flag has Al. I. Cuza's image;
• The Turkey Junii (1879). They wear black fur caps with a turkey feather. On their flag you can see Mihai Viteazu's countenance.
• The Horseman Junii called Rosiori (1908). They wear a cap with red tuft.
• The Dorobanti Junii (1924). They wear grey fur caps. Their flag has the image of a mounted June and a bugler soldier.
• The Junii of the Old City (Brasov). They wear black caps with a top and have the same flag as the Whitish Juni.

Their costumes are outstanding, every group, coming from a certain street differs from the others trough the colours and costumes and the badges they wear. The Young Junii and the Old Junii wear white trousers, black hats adorned with the colors of the romanian flag, a black tunic, white long loose shirt that go down to the knees and long black boots. The groups of Turkey and Dorobanti Junii have different hats, black with a feather for the Turkey Juni and black with no feather for the Dorobanti. The Rosiori have shirts adorned with red floral motives with golden spangles. The Rosiori wear a cylindrical black hat with red accents. The Whitish Juni have similar costumes, but wear a white hat. The Junii of the Old City have similar costumes to Young and Old Junii, except their black hats adorned with the three colours of the Romanian flag.

The shirt is one of the most valuable parts of the costume. The leader of ceremonies wears a shirt, which four women took four months to make: it is adorned with 40000 colorful spangles, weighting 20 lbs.

This custom is considered to be an initiation ritual, when the boys have to pass a number of tests of maturity and bravery: throwing the mace, springing them up into the air in a counterpane. Every year on the eve of the festival, the juni set out from prund Square, the centre of Schei district, riding beautifully adorned horses; they cross the district and stop at a place named “Pietrele lui Solomon” (Solomon`s Stones) where they enjoy themselves, dance the hora and fling the mace.
In the evening they all ride down to 23 August square, in the old centre of Brasov, in a real parade of the folk costume.

All the groups of “juni” and numerous inhabitants of the town of Brasov or from other parts take part in the festivity, admiring the beautiful Romanian customs and applauding the “juni” in their manycoloured costumes, unique in Romania.