Colindatorii Craciunului

Christmas carolers....that's what colindatorii craciunului means.  The collection of colinde is large and is often sung by groups walking from house to house.  We have our own group of young colindatori on their way to bring a home made wreath to our local church.  Parinte Ion (Father John) meets us at the door with a warm smile.  The children perform some colinde and we are invited inside.  The church in our village is rather poor.  You can see its walls are pretty sparse.  The priest digs into the candle money and gives each child one or two lei (the Moldovan money is leu).  This is customary when carolers come to your door.  You give them money or treats.  Next we go to visit our mayor, or primar.  The children pose for a group shot in the lobby before we go in to the mayor's office.  She is surprised to see us as this is an unscheduled visit (of course!)  She digs into the candy stash for the gradinita (kindergarten) and gives each child one or two "bomboane" (candies).   Our carolers wave to you as we head to our New Year's show.  You can see the prominent 2014 made from holiday garland.  Yes, Mos Craciun (Old Man Christmas) made another appearance with gifts of bomboane for all.  We leave you with a video of our colindatori singing a song about Flori Dalbe ( the flowers of frost).  May you have a wonderful Anul Nou and if you are making those year end tax deductible gifts, don't forget our project  #14261001 on the Peace Corps website.

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