January 7th Christmas Caroling

January 7th is the Feast of Christmas on the Orthodox calendar and it is a two day holiday here in Moldova.
The 7th is for celebrating and the 8th is for recovering.  A group of youth and adults from the village dressed in Moldovan folk outfits went around the village singing colindi to help families celebrate with traditional songs.  We even had our own caruta driver to carry us around the town.  Our first stop was the church where the Liturgy had already concluded but we added some extra holiday flair along with an appearance of Mos Craciun who gave out bags of treats to all the children. Usually Mos Craciun asks the children to recite a poem for him.  The caravan moved on to many houses and at each house we sang our special colindi and then were rewarded by our hosts with an offer of wine, or candies, or fruit.  At most houses, we stand outside and are also treated with holiday bread which is baked in a braided circle and called colat.  Some of our hosts invited us into their kitchen for a quick snack.  While the colindi are sung, some one of the colinditori usually rings a small bell, a clodita.  You can see us at many of our stops in the pictures above. There's a short video file inserted here.  If it works for you, it will give a little taste of what Moldovan colindi sound like.  Stay tuned for more adventures of the wondering colinditorii of Piatra-Jeloboc.