Urban environment represent a complex heterogeneous system, which offers such positive opportunities as work, education, socialization, social networking, cultural diversity etc. Nevertheless, the overall complexity of modern cities may serve a challenge for integration, because of infrastructure, life style, rules of communication and social behavior, physical and psychological stress etc. Researchers point out that generally urban way of life completely opposes the rural one in its temporal, physiological and social characteristics. Globalization in the cities is another challenge for ethnic cultures, for it means gradual cultural unification and disappearance of traditional life styles. Chisinau, being a capital city with a general vector of modernization and globalization, is an interesting case for investigation, for it demonstrates a widely performed adaptation of traditional rural practices to the urban environment. The roots of this phenomenon can be found in history of the place, in social processes of urbanization and recent period of transition. From the other hand, ethnic rural culture contributes to the identification processes and construction of the country brand in the context of globalization. These are the reasons why traditional rural practices of speech and behavior, food and music preferences, holidays and representations find in Chisinau a less stressful environment for adaptation. Our empirical research (semi-structured interviews) showed, that Chisinau dwellers of rural origin mainly continue to manifest their ethnic identity through a range of possibilities, for example family and kin holidays.