Hristos a inviat!! Paste fericit!!!

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you all had a lovely Easter and were able to spend it with family and friends and didn't forget the true meaning of Easter :) My first Easter in Romania was wonderful! Easter is even bigger than Christmas, and like Christmas they have celebrations and traditions that are different and fabulous. To start out there is a mass cleaning, it is basically Spring cleaning. People in Romania clean their houses from top to bottom until they are spotless. Now you have to remember that the houses here are already very clean, but they do a super clean before Easter. I asked why this is so right around Easter and the explanation that I received was that if you greet Easter with a clean house then a nice Easter will ensue. I thought that was really beautiful and interesting.

So to go along with the tradition I decided to clean my apartment. While it wasn't as well cleaned as other places I was pretty proud of myself, and it took my quite some time. As many of you may know, I hate cleaning, I do not like to do it at all! If I am at a place of work I don't mind cleaning because I am getting paid for it, but at home I do not like it at all. So even though my place is still small, it took me about 4 hours to clean, not fun, but the end product was really nice :)

So the festivities begin here before Easter actually. It was raining unfortunately so it wasn't as interesting as it normally is I guess but I still thought that it was really interesting. For one thing they have a sort of bonfire in the fields. There are usually many of them, upwards to 20 or 30 I guess that you can see from the bridge in the center of town. These bonfires are started from tires. Yes you read it right tires, while the smell is not so pleasant and it is dark so you can't see the insane amount of black smoke. The really interesting part, and not so safe I am sure is the spinning of the tires. So some of the guys take a cable and tie it around a tire, then they stick this tire into the fire and wait for it to catch on fire, they usually wait until it is going really good. Then the proceed to drag it outside of the circle of people and spin the cable around their heads so that the flaming tire is flying in a circle around them. It is a super cool thing to see and I was very impressed by it and I am looking forward to seeing it again next year!!!

So then after the bonfires we headed to the church. There is like a midnight mass that happens and it is really quite beautiful. Everyone is gathered with candles in which they receive the light from inside the church, the priest comes out and does the blessing, then everyone proceeds to the cemetery to put their candles by their family plots. The really challenge is getting there without having your candle go out...needless to say I did not make it all the way there with a flame...I tried but it was still interesting to be part of that cultural experience and very beautiful as well.

So that brought us to Easter Sunday. I have to admit it was a little odd not to be getting up at 5 AM and heading to the Sunrise service at my church and seeing my Dad and sometimes brother off to help with the Easter breakfast and then going to the school gym to enjoy a nice breakfast with family and friends of my congregation but I had a nice substitute. I did not go to any church services as they were all held the night before, and I could not make it up that late. Some people stay up until around 4 in the morning...and I just could not do that. I went over to a family's house that I greatly enjoy spending time with and we had a lovely dinner along with Tory, the former volunteer that was here before me. We had lamb, sarmale, salata beof, beets with horseraddish, garlic, eggs, mamaliga, I tried racitor and delicious deserts along with wine, coffee, and of course tuica! So this racitor that I mentioned is something that I am not a fan of in the least but it is a traditional dish here especially for holidays. What it consists of is basically meat in a gelatin and I tried it and hated it the texture was terrible and it was extremely salty and I could not handle it. Fortunately since Tory was here before me there was not to much hope that I would like it because it is not a dish that Americans generally like because it is so different than anything that we have in the states. The salat beof is actually quite delicious though, it consists of mushrooms, carrots, potatoes, eggs, mayonnaise, mustard and garlic all combined together and it is very tasty! Also I had lamb for the first time, and it is yummy! I was a fan, it is sad that it has to be a little baby that we are consuming, but it may be even more sad that it is so tasty...not sure but I enjoyed it, especially with the garlic.

So they also have a game with the Easter eggs. You have to knock the Easter Eggs together and whoever has the uncracked egg wins and it is supposed to be good luck...sort of like the wishbone that we have. It was interesting and I won one side and lost the other side. I am hoping to win more next year! We shall see what happens!

So then I decided to go see some friends in Suceava yesterday, which was really nice and I actually witnessed another really interesting Easter tradition which is the bringing of the food to the cemetery the day after Easter. What it basically was, was that people would bring a picnic lunch to the cemetery and eat it there and I think that they may also leave some food there for the individuals that have passed. It is part of the Orthodox tradition and I wish I could have went into the cemetery to see it, but I was on a bus. It was very interesting to see the scores of people that were in the cemetery and all of the cars, it almost looked like it could have a been a funeral, but there were people at just about every plot, as a part of the Easter tradition.

So that brings me to the close of my first Easter in Romania. I may be a little bit late on my next post as well, as I am not sure how exciting this week is going to be as I am on vacation and I will be going out of town next week as well to a conference in Sibiu, a very beautiful and historical city in Romania. So it may be a bit, but don't worry I will post!! :)

I hope you all are doing well and that the Lord brought you a pleasant Easter and you were reminded of all the good things that are in your life. I am thankful everyday for all the blessings that I have, but more than anything I am thankful for the wonderful people that I have been blessed with (hint this is especially for you reading this blog!) I have so many wonderful friends and family and I am thankful for you each and everyday! I hope that Spring is coming to you as well, and that the sun is shining more and bringing pleasant weather. Take care and remember to smile today!! :)

Va pup
Va iubesc
Mi-a dor de voi!

Pana mai tarziu
~Sarah B.