Each year on the festival of Purim, Jewish communities commemorate the biblical story of Queen Esther and the deliverance of the Jews of ancient Persia through public reading, charitable giving, and celebratory gatherings. A central and widely recognized custom of the festival is the wearing of costumes and disguises, often accompanied by theatrical performances known as Purim spiels.

There is a documented tradition of Hasidic / Jewish folk music from the Maramureș region (in what is now Romania, formerly part of Transylvania).