Easter is the biggest celebration in the Christian calendar. It is
\ncelebrated at the end of Lent, marking the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
\nEthnologist Florin-Ionu\u021b Filip Neac\u015fu told us more about the significance of
\nEaster celebrations for Orthodox Christians.<\/p>\n
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Easter is the most important religious holiday for Romanians and
\nfor Christians in Eastern Europe, which is predominantly
\nEastern-Orthodox. Unlike Western Christianity, where Christmas holds pride of
\nplace, in Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Greece but also in Syria, Palestine and
\nEgypt, Easter is the most important. In Romania, as early as the first two
\ncenturies A.D. the disciples of the original apostles reached Dobruja, then
\nstarted spreading the gospel to the rest of modern-day Romania. Therefore,
\nEaster became an important celebration. According to ethnographic and
\nhistoriographic studies, it seems Easter overlapped with certain celebrations
\nof spring. The essence of Christianity is the Resurrection of our Lord, making
\nEaster the biggest holiday in Europe and in the Eastern Mediterranean. Starting
\n1925, when the first Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church was appointed,
\nthe Easter mass has been celebrated at midnight, when Christians are given the Resurrection
\nlight.<\/p>\n
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Painting eggs and preparing traditional food are the main activities
\nin Romanian households around Easter. Maramure\u0219 is one of the areas where
\nEaster traditions are kept alive. Delia Suiogan with the North University of
\nBaia Mare told us more.<\/p>\n
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On Mondays, people put out their clothes to air, so the sun can
\nbreathe new life into them. The first three days of the week are therefore
\ndevoted to house cleaning activities. People would repair their wooden floors,
\npaint their walls and clean the house. Additionally, starting Thursdays, people
\nstart preparing food for Easter Sunday. On Friday, no kneading and baking is
\nallowed, therefore the dishes are usually prepared on Thursday. This is usually
\nthe day when people paint eggs, and they prepare food packages to give to the
\npoor. On this day, people celebrate their dead and make peace with their peers.
\nThe food given to the poor need not necessarily contain painted eggs, but even
\nraw eggs, particularly when we’re talking about very poor families, who have
\nnothing to put on the table for Easter. Black Friday, as it is usually called
\nin the traditional calendar, is a day of rest. It is a day devoted to
\nreflection, when people fast during the entire day and reflect on the sins
\ntaken away by Christ’s supreme sacrifice. On Saturdays, people return to their
\nhousehold chores, kneading the dough for pound cake or the sweet cheese Easter
\nCake known as Pasc\u0103. It is usually the house elders that do the kneading. The
\nEaster Cake is a mix of unleavened dough and sweet cheese. It is related to an
\nagrarian ritual, but it is also a dairy food, which makes the transfer of power
\nfrom the world of plants and animals to humans. Sacrificing lambs on Saturday
\nis symbolic of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross. People prepare stuffed lamb,
\nlamb meatloaf and lamb stew for Easter Sunday.<\/p>\n
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On this special occasion, in the old days people would never eat the
\nfood they prepared before it got a proper blessing. They would bring food in
\nbaskets at the Church so priests could bless all the food that would be eaten
\nat Easter Sunday. Therefore, this festive meal was steeped in symbolism and
\nrituals, as Florin-Ionu\u021b Filip Neac\u015fu told us. <\/p>\n
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In some areas of the country, people bring the dishes they have
\nprepared for Easter to church for blessing. These include red-painted eggs in
\nparticular, symbolizing life and resurrection. This is actually a carry-over
\nfrom earlier times, going back to the Celts and the Thracians. People would
\ncook a lot of food, including sour soup of lamb soup. It was customary in the
\nHebrew tradition to sacrifice lambs, sheep and goats for Easter. In
\netymological terms, Easter means passing in Hebrew and Christians
\nreinterpreted the word as a passage towards the Light of the Resurrection. In
\nBukovina, Bessarabia and Moldavia, as well as in Eastern Transylvania, apart
\nfrom Easter Cake and other traditional Easter dishes, such as lamb meatloaf,
\npeople also prepare the so-called Pasc\u0103, a pie or cake made with sweet cheese
\nand raisins, with a cross-shaped bread on top. In central and western
\nTransylvania as well as in Banat, people make a special Easter bread called
\npasc\u0103, which is blessed in Church and given to the people attending mass.<\/p>\n
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Another well-preserved tradition across various regions of Romania
\ncan be observed today in Maramure\u0219 and is related to the blessing of the Easter
\nbread and dishes. People here fast on Saturday night until Sunday morning.
\nDuring this interval they continue to eat fasting dishes, and eat sugar only
\non Sunday morning, when they return home with the baskets filled with blessed
\ndishes. The blessing ritual is very specific. People line up in front of the
\nchurch, carrying baskets with food adorned with handmade kitchen cloths, each a
\nsymbol of community identity. (VP)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A look at the some of the traditions still preserved in some areas of Romania<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":169881,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46216],"tags":[44295,31908,46243,46242],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-177269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sunday-show","tag-delia-suiogan","tag-easter-celebrations","tag-florin-ionut-filip-neacsu","tag-traditions-in-the-old-calendar"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n