Celebrating Easter the Romanian way

In a country like Romania, the visitor must be prepared for celebrations mixing hundred-year-old traditions, copious traditional food and drinks, a feel-good atmosphere, loud television shows, sometimes open-air spectacles and a lot of family time. To celebrate like a true Romanian or know what to expect when in the country, read on. BR has prepared an Easter guide to help the non-resident understand the celebration and choose from a wide range of activities on the day.

Corina Dumitrescu

Rural Romania, with Bukovina as its main point of attraction, is perhaps the best place to discover the traditions that give a celebration with strong religious roots its sacred aura. However, many of these can also be observed in an urban context. An estimated 80-90 percent of Romanians are Orthodox and many of the traditions described here are of Orthodox origins.

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Easter traditions, in an eggshell

The celebration of Easter begins with fasting, which occurs in stages, explains Vlad Manoliu Furnica, ethnologist at the Romanian Peasant Museum, on the museum’s website. At first, people give up dairy products (“Lasata secului de branza”) and (“Lasata secului de carne”), says Furnica. At the start of Lent, 40 days before Easter, fasting begins, during which adherents eat mostly vegan foods, without no meat or dairy products. A traditional Romanian saying encapsulates the philosophy: “Fasting lengthens a human’s life, when he or she is healthy and at his or her house,” notes Furnica.

One week before Easter, another notable Christian holiday takes place – Palm Sunday or “Floriile” (“Flower Sunday”), a day when people with flower names are celebrated. On this day, continues Furnica, “willow branches are taken to church, in order to be sanctified, and then they are placed in front of icons and above doors. They are used throughout the year to ward off evil spirits, as well as in adverse circumstances. When hail beats against windows, branches are put on the roof of a house to protect it from damage.” Another interesting belief is connected to the weather – it has been passed on from generation to generation that the way the weather is on Palm Sunday is the very way it will be at Easter.

A major Easter tradition in Romania is the painting of eggs in a multitude of colors on the Thursday before Easter (also known as the Holy Thursday), although red was previously solely used, since it symbolized Christ’s blood. Decorating eggs is regarded as an art and these eggs, called “oua incondeiate”, especially ones from the Bukovina region, are sold for quite high prices around the world, since they are manually painted with a type of thin and round stick called chisita, made of beech wood.

The Great Saturday precedes Easter Sunday. It is on this night that large numbers of Christians go to local churches to attend the service of the most important Orthodox celebration of the year: Resurrection Night. A little before midnight, all the lights in the Church are turned off. As soon as midnight strikes, the priest sings “Come receive the light” (“Veniti de luati lumina”). At that point he comes out of the altar with a lit candle and “gives the light” to the whole congregation (one member passes it to the next).

Afterwards, the priest sings “Christ is risen” (“Christos a inviat“), following which the entire congregation begins to sing as well, while making the sign of the cross with their candles. On Easter Day, eggs are cracked between two people, one saying “Christ is risen”, and the other one answering “Indeed he is risen” (“Adevarat a inviat!”). It is also a tradition in Romania to eat “pasca” or the special Easter cake, baked on Great Thursday, a pie made of yeast dough with a sweet cottage cheese filling. Lamb meat is also traditionally served on Easter Day, since lambs are usually associated with Christ: the main dishes are roast lamb and “drob de mile” (the Romanian lamb version of the Scottish haggis) made of minced organs (heart, liver, lungs) wrapped and roasted.

This year, Orthodox, Catholic and the Jewish celebration of Passover will occur on the same day (or in the same period, as Passover this year falls in the 19-26 range). Professor Mihai Dinu of the Faculty of Letters at the University of Bucharest explains: “The date is the same for the Orthodox and Roman Catholics only when no full moon occurs between March 21 (the vernal equinox calculated according to the Gregorian calendar) and April 4 (the spring equinox calculated according to the Julian calendar).”

An American in Romania’s Easter experience

Sam R, an American who has lived in Romania for over seven years, speaks of his local experience of Easter, amusingly remarking on the focus put on food and also observing the importance of spending this celebration with the family: “An enormous amount of food (some of it special to the holidays) is cooked and all the family spends the entire day together. And all the shops and stores are closed and usually it’s just a very peaceful, beautiful holiday in Romania.”

In his home country, Sam says that Christmas is usually the big holiday, and Easter just a pretext for children to receive sweets: “Easter is mostly a holiday for children in America, with lots of candy and toys distributed and of course the Easter egg hunts which are still pretty common.” Sam also mentions the advantage of living in Cluj, a place that is home to many Catholics: “Hungarians and Romanians celebrate Easter on two different weeks, so you sort of get two Easters in a year, and it’s always nice seeing the processions and ceremonies and comparing and contrasting them.”

He also remarks that Easter gives an opportunity for solitary shopping in Romania: “My personal Easter ‘tradition’ in Romania is to go to the local corner store the Monday after Easter Sunday as usually I’m the only customer in there. This is because all the Romanians have spent literally every penny on all the food beforehand and have no money left.” However, many Romanians choosenot to shop on this day because they already have provisions for many days ahead.

Romanians’ top five Easter destinations at home*:

Valea Prahovei

Maramures

Bran Moeciu area

Bukovina

Marginimea Sibiului

*according to information from ANAT (the National Agency of Tourism Agencies in Romania)

Foreigners’ top Easter destinations in Romania*:

Valea Prahovei

Bukovina

Maramures

*according to information from ANAT (the National Agency of Tourism Agencies in Romania)

Romanians’ top five Easter destinations abroad*

Bulgaria

Greece

Turkey

Spain

Israel, a trend observed in recent years

*according to a price-quality ratio classification developed by ANAT

Easter tips

When cracking Easter eggs, the “cracker” says “Christ is risen” and the other person “Indeed he is risen”.

Reaching Romanians at work around Easter may be difficult: some may not be available from the Friday before (April 22) until the next Wednesday (April 20), since the first and second days of Easter are public holidays (but only Monday is a legal day off)

Besides Easter eggs, other traditional dishes are “pasca” and “drob de miel”

On the Friday before Easter, some Orthodox Christians abstain from eating all day, to ward off diseases throughout the year

On Saturday at midnight, Orthodox Christians go to church to receive the holy light brought from Jerusalem

Places of Worship in Bucharest

• Some Catholic churches in Bucharest

Baratia Church, I.C. Bratianu Bd. 27, Sector 3 – Unirii area

Italian Church, Nicolae Balcescu Bd. 28, Sector 1 – Universitate area

Roman-Catholic Church Saint Anton, Magnoliei Str. 113, Sector 2 – Colentina area

Roman-Catholic Cathedral St. Joseph, General Berthelot Str. 19, Sector 1 – Cismigiu Park area

Sacré Coeur Romanc-Catholic Church (the French Church), Capitan Demetriade Str. 3, Sector 1 – Aviatorilor area

Roman-Catholic Church Saints Apostles Peter and Paul, Pechea Str. 16, Sector 1 – Baneasa area

• Some Orthodox churches in Bucharest

Alba Church (Biserica Alba/White Church), Victoriei Bd. 110, sector 1 – Victoriei area

Curtea Veche Church, Franceza Str. 33, Sector 3 – Victoriei area

Kretzulescu Church, Calea Victoriei 47 – Victoriei area

Casin Monastery Church, Marasti Bd. 16, sector 1 – Arcul de Triumf area

Olari Church, Olari Str. 8A, sector 2 – Universitate area

St. Sylvester Church, Silvestru Str, 36, sector 2 – Calea Mosilor area

Stravropoleos Church, Postei Str. 6, Sector 3 – Unirii/Universitate area

• Some Jewish temples in Bcuharest

Grand Synagogue (Sinagoga Mare), Adamache Str. 11 – Unirii area

Esua Tova Synagogue, Take Ionescu 9, Sector 1 – Piata Amzei area

Coral Temple, Sf. Vineri Str. 9-11, Sector 3 – Unirii area

Holy Union Temple, Mamulari Str. 3, Sector 3 – Uniri area

Credinta Temple, Vasile Toneanu Str. 48, Sector 3 – Vitan area

• Protestant, neo-protestant and Anglican churches in Bucharest

Anglican Church, Arthur Verona Str. 2A – Piata Romana area

Lutheran Church (services in Romanian and Hungarian), Badea CârÅ£an Str. 10, Sector 2 – Stefan cel Mare area

Evangelical Church, Luterana (services in German) Str. 2, Sector 1 – Cismigiu area

Reformed Church I Calvineum, Luterana Str. 13 bis, Sector1 – Cismigiu area

Adventist Church Foisor, Vasile Stroescu Str. 13, Sector 2 – Foisorul de Foc area

Baptist Church Betania, Popa Rusu Str. 22, Sector 2 – Universitate area

Penticostal Church Vestea Buna, Popa Nan Str. 106, Sector 3 – Calea Calarasilor area

corina.dumitrescu@business-review.ro