Blaginilor Easter

The Orthodox church in Jeloboc.

Beautiful icons tell religious stories.

Hristos.

Maica Dumului

Jeloboc cemetery 

grave markers have been painted

Families gather at the grave sites.

Neighbors celebrate their families.

Julia's sisters and family gather.

The old guys wait on a bench.

The priest blesses the graves.

Wine is poured in the sign of the cross.

Deceased family members are named by the priest.

Auntie tries to spoil Liviu.

Grandma Iulia is a safe harbor.

Everyone love's the little guy.

I receive gifts of remembrance.

Other family are included in the sharing.

Mmmm,  little ones will play

Liviu

Ecaterina 

This is fun.

A family picnic in the cemetery,

Lot's of good food.

The priest stops for a bite of food.

You thought Easter was all over, done for another year.  Nope.  Not here in Moldova.  Today was Blaginilor Easter or Easter of the Blessed.  Another way of saying that is Easter of the Dead.  This is an Orthodox Christian tradition that has not carried over to our Western Christianity.  If there is one celebration that I would advocate imitating from our Eastern European neighbors, it is Blaginilor.  The Sunday after Easter the relatives of those buried in the church cemetery come to remember them in light of the hope of Resurrection. It's like a religious event, but also a very personal family reunion of the living and the dead.  One nice things is that everyone comes the week before and spruces up the graves of their family.  Weeds are removed, markers are repainted, some new crosses are installed just for the occasion.  Everyone comes to the cemetery on Sunday morning and places mementos on the graves.  Let's just say these are things that show our care and affection for their needs.  Bread, cups, a knife, candy, Easter eggs (colored red), hand towels, a glass of wine and a church candle in each one of these items.  The priest with a cantor comes to each grave site and will incense the grave, pray for the list of family members buried there, and finally pour some wine in the sign of the cross on each grave.  During the morning, while the priest is making his way from grave to grave, the people of the village are mixing it up with hugs and hand shakes and shots of wine to remember their past friends and neighbors buried here.  ( I must have taken at least twenty shots of wine in the two hours that we were there.)  After the priest has made his visit to your family grave sites, then you are free to share the items of the grave offerings with other relatives and friends.  You give them some candy or a cup or a towel and say "this is in remembrance of my father or mother or sister"  remember their souls in your prayers.  Then the blankets come out and spread on the ground.  Some families have a permanent bench or table and bench at their grave site for this special day.  Now we all enjoy a picnic meal that is full of good food items such as sarmale, placinta, carnati, brinsa, collaci, radici, rosie, castrovati, torta si mai multe pahare de vin sunt împărtășite.  (yes, many glasses of wine)  Many of the children are treated on this day by grandparents and uncles and aunts treating them with many candies and foods that they enjoy.  I think it has a serious challenge to Christmas as a special day for treats.  Hristos, a inviat.  Advederat inviat. (Christ is risen.  He is truly risen)  This is how we greet each other today and for the following weeks until the Easter season is over.  May your family be well, now and forever.

Easter Holidays

Easter Holidays.  We had gone to bed about 4 AM, but now it was 8 AM and time for breakfast.  Not just time for any breakfast, but time for Easter breakfast.   It should be noted that many Christians of the Orthodox variety observe a meatless and dairyless fast throughout the 40 days of Lent.  So breakfast on Easter Sunday is literally a breaking of the Great Fast.  Who cares if you only have gotten four hours of sleep, it’s time to get up and eat meat and eggs!  The table is set with every type of meat available, chicken racituri, cold cuts of salami and ham, cheese, duck, rabbit.  For a variety, there is salads of carrot and cabbage, tomatoes, radishes, cucumbers, pickles.  Home made bread and homemade sweet breads fill the table.  Red colored easter eggs are in a basket.  Most of these foods were probably blessed at the Easter vigil service last night.  Of course, the meal begins with a shot of serious spirits, maybe vodka or racqiu ( homemade whiskey).

The Easter holiday is simply the same meal repeated many times over in various places over the next three days.  The place of the meal is usually a different place each time.  It is at your relatives, or neighbors, or nanashi (godparents).  By the same meal, I mean plates of meat, salads, homemade bread, smoked fish, cheese, dyed eggs, bananas, oranges, chocolates.  And there is usually a bottle of homemade spirits that will be consumed, and then a bottle of homemade wine.  Usually the schedule of this meal is very loose.  It begins when people arrive.  They stay until their full.  And tomorrow you will go to their house to do the same all over again. 

During the meal important family information is exchanged.  Who has died, married, moved, had children?  What does the coming year look like?  Will we make it on our pensions?  Will we be better off joining the European Union?  Will the price of brinsa remain stable?  How much garlic do you put in your eggplant?  How long will your husband be away working in Moscow ?  Do you have a cemetery plot picked out?  May the end come quickly, we can’t afford any long suffering treatments. 

While people enjoy nibbling on a table full of good food, and enjoy sharing news of each other’s family, grandmothers play with their grandchildren bouncing them on their knee, young mothers enjoy having some adult company and try to be comfortable in their next trimester.  Men speak of cows and goats and the price of growing corn. 

The next meal.  That’s at someone else’s house.  But they are anxious to have you come and try some of the latest home made cognac that their son in law has brewed.  Happy Easter.  Hristos a inviat!  Advederat inviat.

Easter Liturgy

Easter 2014.  I had decided to attend the Easter vigil in my village church which is in Jeloboc.  It was beginning at 11 pm and would end about 3:30 AM.   As we assemble in the church I noticed that the bell tower now had a bell, and a beautiful wooden stairway to the bell tower.  This is something that has been added in the past year.  The Church itself  is 100 % more beautiful than the year before.  The wall which separates the congregation from the altar, Iconostasis ?  is very beautiful.. It has wonderful pictures of the Last Supper, the Evangelists, the Archangels, and the significant moments in the Gospels, Jesus and the  Mother of God.   I am overwhelmed at the beauty of the icons.  As we came into the church, the church yard was illuminated by white lights and colored lights that flashed on and off.  What a welcoming sight in the middle of the night as you approach the church for worship.

I enjoy the simple human interchange between people as the ceremony is about to begin.  The chief sacristan’s wife seems to be the person who sells candles for the service.  He comes out and says many plebian things to her.  How beautiful to see the lopsided male-female, husband-wife, relationship laid so bare before fellow parishioners.    Many of the people who have come to church have brought their baskets of easter food.  They are waiting for the priest to splash them with holy water after the service.  The church yard will also be filled with people who have come just at the right hour (3 am) to have their baskets blessed by the priest outside after the service. 

Everyone in the church has lit candles by icons and in their hands as they wait for the service to begin.  Now the priest says that everyone should extinguish their candles and join him outside for the beginning of the service.  I notice that there is a neighbor to the church that plays his radio very loud at this hour of the night.  I noticed this the year before, and I wonder if this person does this intentionally to  disturb the atmosphere of prayer for Christians or are they just having a good time because it is Easter holiday.  (This is one of the many cultural questions that go unanswered because I don’t know if I could ever pose the question correctly to my Moldovan friends.)  We read the Gospel of the first chapter of St John and light our candles from the New Light of Christ and enter the church. 

The Orthodox Liturgy is known for its lengthy prayers and readings as compared to the Roman Catholic version of the Easter Liturgy.   Even though we must say that the Roman liturgy takes a minimum of two hours to perform on Easter Vigil night.  Something that I have failed to understand about my Orthodox liturgy is the tradition of Holy Communion.  When I attend a liturgy, I always realize that the priest consecrates the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, but the people do not partake of the communion meal.  The priest brings the sacred presence of the Lord out to bless the people, but no one but the priest will take the bread and drink the wine….as instructed by the Lord at his Last Supper.  ?

Another confusing thing is the custom of the Orthodox to bring out a tray of bread pieces that were on the altar at the time of consecration.  After the service, many people come up to receive a personal blessing from the priest, maybe kiss a few icons, and leave taking a piece of bread.  Is this communion?, I dare not think so;  but what is the meaning of this symbol?

Well the liturgy was long.  I must remind my readers that the Orthodox do not have pews in their churches.  The worshiper must stand the entire time.  Sometimes during the reading of the Gospel, the people will take a kneeling position on the floor.  But otherwise the only position is standing.  So I felt very patient throughout the many prayers and readings of the Easter Vigil liturgy.  The cantor read a lengthy passage or letter of one of the early fathers of the Church.  And then at the end of the three hour service what did we have but a very long verbose, pious, letter from our bishop read by the priest before we were dismissed to celebrate our Lord’s resurrection.  May I remind you that the young no longer come to church.  We are only senior citizens and perhaps grandchildren whom we have coaxed into coming with us to experience the wonder of the spiritual life.  Any thoughts here?

I felt very tired and very blest to be part of this worship service in my village church.  My host mom and I walked down the road with our flash lights to find the way.  When we got home about 4 am, we had a go at our Easter foods, dyed eggs, carnati  (cold cuts), and a good shot of whiskey.

Good Friday

Good Friday-2014.   Good Friday is a day that never seems to have the proper celebration or remembrance in my mind.  Often the day in the US was just another work day.  It seems like one should be going to church on such an occasion.  Indeed, most catholic services on this day are held early or mid afternoon.  This makes it hard to attend for working people unless they asked for the day off in advance.  I knew of such a person in my former work setting and always admired her thoughtfulness.   The other strange thing in the US is that even though Good Friday is not a holiday in any sense since it is strictly of religious importance, many businesses close at noon.  Others remain open with the sense that everyone else has gone home, so why are we still sitting here. 

This year in Moldova I woke on Good Friday to a very bright sunny day.  It turned out to be an excellent Spring day with temperatures up in the 60’s.  I was not sure what to expect for breakfast as I was told that on Good Friday or Black Friday as it is called in Romanian there is no eating.  My religious tradition calls for fasting and abstinence on this day.  People my age are given a little leeway if needed.  To me that means no meat, and eat less than normal amount of food, and no eating between meals.  So I was surprised to find out that I had my usual hot cereal with raisins and coffee for breakfast.  To tell you the truth, I was a little hungry as I had skipped supper last night in order to go to the Holy Thursday Mass in Orhei.  Breaksfast and off to work I went.

When I arrived at work, most of the coworkers were sitting around the meeting table enjoying some friendly conversation.  Our one customer, client, benefactor  was a ten year old boy who has some type of down’s syndrome and is limited in his mental capacity.  He was patiently listening to the banter of the adults.  I think that he finds it entertaining to do that at times.  But soon he was in my office asking me to go outside and play ball.  That means kick the soccer ball around.  It’s 8:30 on a beautiful morning, why not? 

Soon another coworker arrives with a lot of fresh apples for eating.  My fellow soccer player is interested in that.  In we go and he takes one to eat as we play.  Outside we go again.  After eating one apple, he thinks a second would be good too.  Inside we go, and I am offered an apple myself.  Why not?  Apples are good for you, even during Post (Fasting).  I think of how hungry this poor little boy must be and how irresistible these apples are for him.  We go back out to play.  Soon he is bored with my banter and wants to invite the young woman social worker out to play with us.  In the meantime, I am counting my blessings to be outside in the warm sunshine on a beautiful Spring day.

The young boy was successful in coaxing the social worker outside.  Who wouldn’t want to come out, the center building inside was cold as heat has been off for several weeks now and the weather has not been consistently warm.  Not only her, but other coworkers come out along with a 2 year old toddler who is son of the medical assistant and comes to work with her regularly.  The women all stand together and enjoy their conversation occasionally kicking a ball that comes their way.  The 2 year old tries to interact but is mostly interested in a wheel chair that has arrived with a handicapped woman who came in this morning for a shower.  One of the coworkers now presents a bag of white chocolate candies and shares it all around.  It’s almost like eating pure sugar.  Can we include this as proper fasting for Black Friday?  My head is spinning from all the sugar and I try to escape this scene by sneaking back into the building. 

My soccer friend follows me back into the building and badgers me to come out and play ball.  I make excuses that I have to work on English lessons (play solitaire) or check my computer (emails).  My partner-boss Sergiu tells the lad that Domnul Oren (that’s me) is tired.  None of this avails and of course I return to the outdoors to kick the ball back and forth.  I try to connect this experience with the obvious importance of the Good Friday day.

The morning is soon gone and it is noon.  I can remember as a young boy attending catholic school that we were encouraged to keep quiet and not do anything “playful” during the hours of 12-3 as those were the hours Jesus hung on the cross.  Usually my work partner and I go to our house for a lunch break on work days between 12 and 1.   Noon came and Segiu didn’t seem like he was going home.  Instead he was outside planting flower seeds.  I thought to myself that “there is no lunch today, it’s Black Friday.”   Eventually he said to me, why don’t you go home now, it’s past twelve.  So I assumed that he was choosing to not eat, but the American guest was going to be fed lunch.  So I headed for the house, a fifteen minute walk.  The weather was beautiful and I said a little prayer on the way for the gift of such a lovely Spring day.  Even the dandelions were beautiful.

I arrived at the house and Iulia was outside hanging some table clothes and things on the line after washing them.  She saw me and said “What’s up?  Work over for today?”   I just said Segiu told me to come home.  (I wan’t sure if there was lunch coming or not.)   Some neighbors were over to borrow the portable clothes closet from our house.  I had some things in it, so I quickly removed them to my room and away they took the piece of furniture.  They must be expecting a lot of company for Easter.  Then Iulia asked me if I was hungry, and I said a little.  So she served me a bowl of bean soup and some good home made bread.  I said I didn’t think Sergiu was coming home for lunch and I would be going back as usual after lunch for the afternoon.  Next thing I know, Sergiu joins me at the table and he is dressed in his at home casual clothes.  He was having lunch too (?)  and work was over for today. 

I had left my laptop at work as I was expecting to have a normal Black Friday afternoon at work.  So after lunch I had to walk back to work and see if I could catch the “pascnic”  or caretaker to let me in to get my computer.  Luckily when I got there, I saw Anatole and he let me in to get my computer.  He was just getting set for his all night vigil at the center.   He didn’t know that he was starting at 1 today either, but thought that his normal 5 o’clock shift was the rule.  I asked how his tomatoes were growing as I remember him showing me his green house last year.  He said they were off to a good start and he asked if I might like a little wine before I went back home. (This is normal Moldovan hospitality) I said “de sigur”  or certainly,  after all it was Good Friday.  We took a quick walk to his house nearby and downed a few shots of white house wine and ate some fresh radishes from the garden and snacked a bit on Easter bun cake.  All in the spirit of “Paste”  or Easter.

Well I am looking forward to the rest of my Black Friday and Easter weekend.  We get the Monday after Easter off as well.   I am hoping that it will be a pleasant time of visitors and family enjoying each other’s company and good Moldovan food and hospitality.   Whatever “Post”  (fasting) means in Orthodox circles, I’m not sure;  I know that the spirit is willing but sometimes it gets distracted.  

Vacation to Romania-Part II

Bucuresti Train Station

Bridge in Bucuresti

Predeal   Romania

Transylvanian Alps

modern station design

stretching my legs in Brasov

BRASOV in white letters on mtn top

moving onto the central plains 

mountain off in the distance

getting closer

Sibiu  Romania

It's Springtime in Sibiu

story book streets

the roof has eyes

Main Square

Primeria and  Catholic Church

Evangelical Church

Romanian Orthodox Church

medieval town wall

checking for cannon balls

Hermannstadt clock

City Council Tower

view from Council Tower

Liar's Bridge

now tell the truth

Ursuline Church

baptism ceremony in Ursuline Church

returning to Bucuresti

Vacation in Romania, Part II  is all about a train trip to Sibiu, Romania.  We took the train from Bucuresti and it takes six hours to arrive in Sibiu.  As we leave the capital, we pass under a modern suspension style bridge.  About an hour out of  Bucuresti, the train begins to climb.  We are entering the Transylvania Alps.  The mountain peaks are awesome and snow capped.  The woodland forests come right down to our train tracks and rushing streams follow us at times.  As we pass through small villages, we can see gardens and houses.  Between towns we see herds of sheep and cows.  About another two hours and we are entering Brasov, a major city of the area.  I get off the train to stretch my legs here and check out what snacks and beverages are available.   Brasov has a lot of apartment buildings and busy streets.  It sits at the foot of a mountain peak and high up on the mountain top we can see the big white letters spelling BRASOV.  There is a trail there that one can walk up to the top.  But our train only stops for twenty minutes, so not enough time for that.  Now we continue through the mountain plains with the green fields running along our way and the mountains off in the distance.  We have turned west and are heading for Sibiu.  Sibiu was named the cultural capital of Romania in 2007 and is recognized as a World Unesco Site.  It has all the charm of a story book town.  It's culture combines many of the elements of Romania's past connection with the Hapsburg Empire and the Germanic influence.  An old name for Sibiu is Hermannstadt and we still find it on a town clock.  There are ruins of a medieval wall which used to surround the whole city.  The town square is a natural draw to all visitors.  It has many beautiful buildings and churches and towers.  One special place is the "liar's bridge" where it is said that if one would tell a lie on this bridge, it would surely fall down.  The City Council Tower is seven stories high and you can climb to the top.  We did.  It gives an excellent view of the old town center.  There are several museums in the city.  We enjoyed the Burkenthal Museum of European Masters.  Burkenthal was a governor of this area back in 1776 and had a pretty nice palace for a residence and he was a conscious collector of art which he left for the enjoyment of the citizens in Sibiu.   Among other enjoyments, the ice cream cones, placinta, and beer were memorable.  Not to overlook the 1 lei "mocachino" from the vending machine.  After two days, we boarded the train back to our starting point, Bucuresti.