Paşte Fericit! (Happy Easter)

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Written Monday April 9, 2007

Yesterday was the Orthodox celebration of Easter which I think this year lines up with the Roman Catholic and also Protestant celebration of Easter. Usually the Orthodox celebration of Easter is different so for the next two years you’ll probably be hearing Happy Easter from me a little early. Although my gazda family has never gone to church with me before, Saturday night we stayed up until midnight and brought candles to church to have them lit and bring them home. The priest came outside on a wooden platform built outside the church and the people stood around crossing themselves occasionally (like they do on the bus every time we drive past a church.)

I’m told the service usually lasts three hours and you stand the whole time – usual in the Orthodox church, people spend the whole service standing. It was kind of strange for me to think of people staying up late to go to church at midnight for three hours. It reminded me a little of going to the midnight showing of Return of the King. But we didn’t stay for the entire church service. The church, or outside of the church before midnight was very crowded. When the time came there was a lot of pushing and making your way through the crowd to get your candle lit, or just sticking it in someone else’s flame to light it. I’m surprised more people don’t get set on fire. An old woman did bump me and sort of lose her candle between me and my jacket. I gasped and jumped and was generally quite flustered. I probably overreacted but I was wearing rayon and I know how flammable that is.

Yesterday after a late breakfast Lumi announced that we were going on a visit at one and today “families would all eat lunch together.” We got in the car with a bouquet of flowers and drove to another bloc in Ploieşti where we were greeted warmly with kisses on both cheeks from the woman and a kiss on my hand by the old man. I had no idea who they were but apparently we were having dinner with them. I was surprised to realize they already knew I was a vegetarian.

The conversation went very fast and I wasn’t always able to follow all of it but I could tell when it was about me, my family, my friends in the Peace Corps, the job I’ll have in Deva, the jobs some of my friends will be doing, the project I’m working on next weekend for practicum with Casa Eva, a list of things that I will eat…

I jumped in whenever I could to attempt to clarify points about myself which I’m not sure I did successfully in my very slow Romanian with I’m sure some incorrect grammar. In general though I got the sense that everyone was impressed with all the things I was able to say correctly. There was some joking that if I drank more palinka I would speak better Romanian.

Ţuica (TSWEEKA) is a common drink – I think it’s the national drink. It’s plum wine twice distilled into Plum brandy. Palinka is Transylvanian Ţuica that is distilled one more time, (that’s three) making it about 87% alcohol. And it tastes like it. As the amount of Palinka in my glass decreased the amount of mineral water I added to it increased. Faced with all this overwhelming hospitality I decided to test the tradition that if you empty your glass, it will be refilled. It is true. Luckily I switched to white wine. Don’t worry I didn’t embarrass myself or the U.S.

I’m proud to say I contributed to the conversation – and spoke more than Tina. I don’t know if that’s because she isn’t welcomed to participate because she’s a kid, or because she was watching the TV that was on in the corner, but I spoke almost no English and was able to communicate I think pretty effectively.

Through conversation I learned that these people are Lumi’s in-laws. The mother and father of her late husband. Pictures were passed around of her niece, their granddaughter who is a child model at the age of 6.

When we sat down there was the traditional Easter dish, drob (the internal organs of a lamb, wrapped in the stomach and baked. It looks like greenish brown meatloaf due to the fistfuls of parsley in it.) grilled fish, bread, zacusca (it’s called pinjur if you buy it at Trader Joe’s and it’s very common here – roasted eggplant, peppers, tomatoes and garlic spread on bread. I eat it for breakfast almost everyday but this was homemade as opposed to from a jar. I was encouraged to eat it all so there wouldn’t be leftovers), cooked pinto beans with garlic and parsley, salad made of shredded celery root, mayonnaise, olives and radishes, a plate of whole tomatoes and radishes (what Romanian meal is complete without whole raw tomatoes?) and boiled eggs.

The Easter tradition here with the eggs is to color them – many people dye the majority of the eggs red, although there are other colors or prominently display the red ones to represent the blood of Christ. On Easter Sunday you take an egg in your hand, pointy side up and someone takes their egg and says “Christos înviat” (Christ Resurrected) to which you reply “Adeverat înviat” (The resurrection is true). Then they knock the pointy side of their egg against your egg. The point is to try and break the other person’s egg without breaking your own. When your egg is broken you peel and eat it.

The only eggs we celebrated with were dyed solid colors, but there are the more elaborately painted Easter eggs here that I would have thought of as Ukrainian Easter eggs at home. The tradition extends into Romania. You can buy the elaborately painted blown egg shells or wooden eggs at the Palm Sunday craft market in Bucharest if you’re into souvenirs but what many people do is to paint hard boiled eggs and then save one every year. If it breaks and is rotten you’ll have bad luck for a year, but if it breaks and is dried up and not rotten you’re luck will be good. Best just to not let them break. My professor Simona has one from when she was a kid.

Above listed with the food are the things that I ate including a small piece of grilled fish (the fish here is fishier tasting than I’m used to and I’ve accepted that people even in the US believe vegetarians eat fish. To contradict them requires too much energy.) I was glad that something else that looked like fish in clear gelatin had some other kind of meat in it because I wasn’t welcomed to try it. There was also sarmale – cabbage rolls stuffed with rice, beef and pork and served with sour cream. I think they’re my favorite Romanian dish when I have them without meat, served this time with a relish of pickled peppers, and also lamb coirba – the Romanian sour soup that can be made with any kind of meat – or no meat at all.

After all this, I thought the cozonac – traditional Easter sweat bread and I can’t remember the name of the other bread with cheese and raisins was desert. But then came out a huge plate of lamb that even I had to comment looked perfect (Lumi agreed “like a picture in a magazine”) and a salad made of spinach, parsley, tomatoes and radishes. Green salad is not something I’ve seen a lot of in Romania. Most “salads” involve some kind of mayo and are similar to potato salad. But especially since we arrived at the end of winter our choice of fresh vegetables has been limited – mostly to tomatoes and cucumbers. There is always imported produce in the big supermarkets but a lot of people would rather wait until spring and summer and stick with Romanian grown vegetables from the local piaţa.

Then there was Torte (cake – there’s a lot of controversy in class as to how Americans think the names of Romanian deserts should translate) with fresh cream and sour cherries, Turkish coffees with fresh cream, more wine and just when you thought you were done for sure – fruit salad with fresh cream! After all this, Lumi, Tina and I went home to rest and “siesta.” I followed my personal Easter Tradition of listening to the Highlights from Jesus Christ Superstar up to my yearly quota.

Today we went for a long drive to a forested park near a lake. It was nice to be out of doors on a spring day and I was looking forward to a walk in the woods. Lumi said she hadn’t been there in three years. Apparently it’s a very popular spot because there were a lot of people there today picnicking and listening to music. Because this was the park you didn’t have to pay to get into people just drive their cars into the woods and tailgate more than picnic. When the trash cans overflow they leave their trash on the ground. This has started to seem sadly typical in a country where the local government isn’t always organized enough to collect trash and the idea of littering hasn’t become socially stigmatized. Lumi was pretty upset that the forest was so dirty and full of garbage and there were no flowers out. It really made me appreciate our state parks and campgrounds back home.

The other thing was there were no real trails to walk on, we just took a couple of short walks down the potholed pavement roads and had to quickly dodge any oncoming cars going faster than anyone should down such roads. Afterward we visited an Orthodox convent to pray and light candles and then the Catholic church to pray for Lumi’s mother who was Catholic. Her mother passed away two years ago a few days after Easter and then her husband died a month later, so this is a difficult time of year for her.

Today the Catholic church was closed because I think a mass was in session so we just stood outside for a few minutes and honored her mother in silence. Even though it’s still a beautiful but cool sunny day outside I’m taking advantage of my chance to be lazy and am typing this with the door to the balcony open in my room. I would like to spend more time outside but I don’t really want to go anywhere and I have a lot of reading and writing I want to do so I’ll sign off for now. Here’s hoping that in the year’s to come I’ll be able to describe Romanian Eater traditions more accurately and in better detail.

Tina & Lumi day after Easter

The Bucharest Craft fair last weekend
Woman selling painted eggshells and wooden eggs at the Bucharest craft fair
The family
The table
Me and the family on Easter after Lunch