POTD 32: Paștele Blajiniilor

Paștele Blajiniilor was my favorite Moldovan holiday that I got to celebrate here, from the priest blessing the graves to the raising of the alms to the heavens. I’ll never forget this holiday to honor deceased loved ones.

Paștele Blajinilor

By far, one of the coolest Moldovan holidays. Paștele Blajinilor, which translates to Memorial Easter or Easter of the Dead. My host family was away for this holiday, so Kerry invited me to celebrate in one of her neighboring villages. And I’m so glad she did.

We started off by visiting Kerry’s partner teacher, Valentina, in the village Baimaclia. We ate and drink a little before we walked to the village’s cemetery together. Even though many people were attending the church service that was happening at the same time, the cemetery was filled with families from all over the village. They were there with food and wine to honor the loved ones, just picnicking throughout the grounds.

Each grave was decorated with foods, candies, cups, glasses, towels, candles, and other small household items. As you visit friends, they tell you about their loved one. The local priest went around the yard blessing the graves.

When church service was over, loud bells rung out. At this time, everyone gathered around their loved ones’ grave and lifted the alms up as a symbol of raising them to the heavens. Then, the people gave the items that had been on the graves away to others. When you use one of the given items, you’re to think of loved one the item represented. I received candy and food along with a mug and hand towel. Although multiple people gave me gifts, they all were in memory of the same person: Maria E. Borzin.

At this point, a lot of families started heading home. And those remaining walked around with wine or beer to share in honor of their loved one.

Victory Day

Today, I had the day off from school, so I went to Chișinău to celebrate Victory Day. There was a concert and mini parades. And because of the history with Soviet Union, there were some small political protests as well. Some Moldovans see this celebration as too much patriotism towards Russia, while others counter and think of it as the end of WWII. Either way, the protests were peaceful that I was safe to be in Chișinău. And since there were celebrations all over Chișinău, it was no trouble having a good time.

I used this as a chance to see one of the WWII monuments. There was dancing and music. And there was an eternal flame in the middle of the monument where children kept throwing coins in.

I will say this for Moldovans: they take every holiday seriously. How many holidays in America do we just celebrate by not going to work without reflecting on the significance of that day? I’m going to miss actually celebrating every holiday once I leave.

Teacher's Day

Today, my school celebrated World Teacher’s Day. It is quite a lovely thing to see the students honoring their teachers. Back in the States, we had Teacher Appreciation week, which seemed to be sponsored by the parents and school systems. Here, the students take the initiative to thank their teachers. It’s wonderful to see the students show their teachers they care.

This year, the day began with a little assembly where a group of students thanked all the teachers. They presented each teacher (including me) with a rose and a certificate thanking the teacher for their hard work and dedication. The students even wrote my certificate in English.

The rest of the day had shorter lessons so we could finish the day by noon. During the lessons, the students would come to the teacher to give them gifts and thank them for being their teacher. At the end of the day, all the teachers walked out of the building with their hands full of flowers, kitchenware, and other miscellaneous gifts.

Once the lessons were over, the administration had a small masă for the teachers, where they thanked the teachers for their hard work and dedication. Overall, it was a really touching day honoring the teachers!

Hram

September 19 is hram (town’s day) for Criuleni. And since I didn’t have school, I was able to celebrate with the rest of the town. Hram in Criuleni was basically a small carnival. During the day, there were lots of carnivals-type rides for the children, such as a moon-bounce and bumper cars. And there were a couple venders, selling things like glow sticks and yo-yos. But the celebration really began in the evening. There was a concert, featuring lots of singers and dancing. The audience often broke out into hora circles, including yours truly.

It was lots of fun. I ran into a lot of students, who were all surprised to see me dancing the hora. I left around midnight, but I could hear the music back at my house, and it sounded like it continued until 3 or 4 in the morning. One thing is for sure: Moldovan’s know how to party. 

The Day of Tricolors

Today is a celebration of the flag and its colors, blue, yellow, and red. Apparently, this is a very new holiday; April 27 was named “the day of tricolor” in 2010. During the first lesson, the school had an assembly to celebrate the flag. And then students returned to their homeroom, where their teacher explained the significance of the Moldovan flag.

And because I’m a nerdy, I found this interesting. The flag has three colors arranged vertically: blue, yellow, and red. Blue represents the sky and peace. Yellow represents the sun and wheat. And red represents the blood of those who died for Moldova.

The coat of arms is printed in the center. The coat of arms is an eagle holding a shield. The eagle represents progress, and the shield is a symbol of defense for the nation. The upper part of the shield is red and the lower part is blue with an auroch’s head in the middle. The auroch’s head is a historical symbol in Moldova representing the continuance of Moldova as a nation. There is an eight-pointed star between the horns, which represents purity. On the right of the auroch’s head is a five-petal rose, and on the left is a crescent moon that represents eternity. The eagle holds a cross in its beak, which represents Christianity. In its right claw, it carries a green olive-tree branch, which represents eternal victory. And in its left claw, it carries a scepter, which represents strength.

Girls Rule, Boys Drool

Today is another holiday; it’s International Women’s Day. I was surprised to learn about this international holiday because I don’t remember hearing about it back in the States. However, based on the way it is celebrated here, Women’s Day is a close equivalent to Mother’s Day. I think I like it here better because every woman is celebrated, not just mothers.

Many traditions here on Women’s Day are very similar to USA Mother’s Day. The men give the women in their lives flowers and small gifts. It is stressed that the men get something for any woman important in their life: mothers, wives, girlfriends, daughters, colleagues, etc. Women also show appreciation for the important women in their lives with small gifts or flowers as well.

I celebrated with my host family, but it wasn’t anything huge. My host dad cooked a meal for my host mom and me. He also bought some flowers for the kitchen. Like I said, it wasn’t huge, but it was nice to celebrate together. I know some other volunteers’ families had huge masăs with lots of guests. And many men volunteers had to bring lots of flowers to work to pass out to their female colleagues. My school has a masă, but they celebrated yesterday and I was in Chișinău for a PC training, so I missed it. But it seems that no matter how one’s celebrates Women’s Day, appreciation for women is shown. Yay for women!

Marțișor

Marțișor: the first day of spring. Today is a celebration of the rebirth of life after the hard winter. And Moldovans celebrate by giving loved ones marțișors. “Marțișor” literally means ‘little March’, and they are symbols of serenity and happiness. They are small pins with red and white thread sewn together. Some have flowers, others have something crocheted out of the red/white thread. Here is a picture of some of the marțișors I received.

The receiver of a marțișor wears it until the end of March. When March is over, the receiver puts his/her marțișors onto a blossoming tree as a way to acknowledge the onset of spring. Someone who gave me a marțișor also told me that putting the marțișor on a tree would guarantee me many healthy children in the future.

There is a legend behind marțișor. An old Romanian legend says that once in a fight with Winter Witch who didn’t want to give up its place, the beautiful Lady Spring cut her finger and a few drops of her blood fell on the snow. There, the snow melted and a snowdrop flower grew. In such a way, the spring won the winter.

Old New Year

I didn’t miss it!! I was able to celebrate with my host family. Parascovia made a huge masă, and Roman barbequed some sausages. They invited several friends over to celebrate. As the guests arrived, they threw coins and rice on the floor as a symbol of good luck and lots of money in the coming year. Basically, we ate and we ate and we ate. I would eat and be full, and Parascovia would bring more food. I would eat again and be stuffed, and Parascovia would bring more food. So basically, there was a lot of food.

I talked with the guests as best I could, and they asked me about America. By the end of the masă, everyone had determined that I needed to find a Moldovan man to marry and remain in Moldova to continue working. I’m pretty sure this was meant as a compliment.

After the meal, Parascovia gave each guest a colac with a lit candle along with a handmade napkin and wished the person a happy and wonderful year. Colac is a braided-bread in the shape of a circle. It symbolizes “hospitality” and it’s used in a lot celebrations.

After this holiday season and several family celebrations, I think I can sum up most holidays and celebrations as everyone eating until they burst.

Alone Upstairs

Camilla is leaving tomorrow, so tonight we celebrated with a goodbye masă. Parascovia invited several women who work with Camilla. Parascovia prepared lots of foods and Roman barbequed some chicken. Parascovia asked me if I knew how to make margaritas, and I told her I did. So she asked me to make it. But the only thing that was the same about these margaritas is that I used margarita mix. It was made with vodka, lemons, sugar, and mix. Not exactly the same creature that I’m used to, but it got the job done. Plus, I was happy to have something besides Cognac for a change. We ate, we celebrated, we ate, we talked, we ate, we played billiards, we ate. It was a really good send-off for Camilla.

I will miss her. She was much better at Romanian than I, and she knew some English. So she was able to help me out of a couple jams every once in a while. And it’s nice to have someone else in the house around my age. Plus it was much easier to tell Roman “no more drinking” when we were together. I guess I’ll have to stand up to him alone now.

Crăciun

Moldovan Christmas. In Moldova, they celebrate Christmas at the old date, on January 7. Some families celebrate on December 25, but very few. For me, December 25 was no different than any other Sunday. In fact, my host family wasn’t even home most of the day because they were working. I must admit, it made Christmas kind of depressing at first. But I was able to talk to everyone in my family later that day, which made it better.

Anyways, about Moldova Christmas. So I accidently missed it. It wasn’t until this morning that I realized I missed the celebration. Apparently, late at night on the January 6, Moldovans attend a midnight church service. I couldn’t understand if it started before midnight or at midnight, but the idea is that they are in church for the beginning of Christmas day. The service lasts about three hours, and everyone is standing the whole time. After the church service, everyone returns home and celebrates with a large masă. Many people are going to bed around 6am. I didn’t understand my host mom when she was inviting me, and I ended up sleeping through this whole celebration. Oops.

Presents are not usually exchanged on Christmas. Gift exchange usually happens at midnight on New Year’s Day. My tutor says this is because during Soviet times, the Soviet Union wanted to take focus away from Christmas, so they changed the traditions. In fact, the biggest holiday celebration is New Year’s. And I missed this celebration as well because I was traveling then. I was hoping to experience the holidays here.

So I’ve missed two holidays so far. But never fear; I have one more chance. Moldova also celebrates Old New Year on January 14. I am going to make sure to be present for this!

Holiday Spirit

So the holiday season is starting to make me miss home. When Thanksgiving rolled around, no one celebrates it here, so there wasn’t a constant reminder that I’m not home for Thanksgiving. So Thanksgiving came and went without causing me too much homesickness. 

But Christmas is a different story. Christmas here is celebrated on Old Christmas, January 7. And so far, it’s not nearly as commercial as it is in USA. I only started seeing Christmas decorations for sell about two weeks ago, and I only started seeing decorations put up last weekend. The nice thing about this is that I wasn’t being reminded that it’s Christmas time since October. But now that the decorations are starting to be displayed, it does make me miss home. However, Moldova once again aims to make me happy. Wednesday was Roman’s 60th birthday, so we had a celebration. We had dinner at the only restaurant in my village with lots of my host family’s friends. We ate, we drank, we talk, we danced. It was a lot of fun. Plus, I got a picture of my host parents. It’s not the picture I was hoping for, but I think it captures them perfectly: Roman causing trouble and Parascovia scolding him. I love this picture of them.

My host family: sitting are my host mom, Parascovia, and my host dad, Roman.  My host brother standing; he lives in Spain and he was visiting for Roman's birthday.

Additionally, there was a school Christmas concert this week. Last weekend, some eighth grade girls asked me to sing with them in school concert. I said that I would, and we sang “Jingle Bell Rock” together on Thursday. The girls were very impressed that I had the words memorized by our second rehearsal, but I reminded them that I have been singing along with this song since I was a child. 

The school concert was various musical performances by the students. Many singers, some dancing, and a pair of students played instruments. Now, I have song in choirs and preformed many times, but I have never felt like a rock star until this performance. When we were introduced, and the MCs mentioned that I would be singing with the students, the school cheered very loudly. Many students pulled out their cameras to record the performance, and the entire audience was clapping the whole time. I don’t know if our performance deserved this praise, but it sure felt nice.

Me with my partner teacher, Svetlana, and the four girls who sang "Jingle Bell Rock" with me. Notice the silly American wearing her coat because she can't handle the Moldovan winter.

And then tonight, my host mom prepared a mini Christmas Eve celebration. She put together a dinner, and it was nice to sit together in honor of Christmas. The cool thing, too, was that the dinner kind of reminded me of traditional Christmas Eve dinner with my family. Christmas this year is not the same by any means, but different is not all bad. I miss my family, friends, and home, but I’m looking forward to learning about Christmas celebration here in Moldova.

Meșterul Manole

Today in Criuleni, there was a celebration called Meșterul Manole. It is an international folklore festival, with groups from Lithuania, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, and Başchiria dressed in authentic folkware. This year is a particularly important celebration because it is the 20th year of independence for Moldova.

There were a lot of venders selling all kinds of things: paintings, beaded jewelry, pieces of lace knitting and crochet, woodworks, and other kinds of handmade crafts. It was all very impressive. Doamna Parascovia had a booth as well; she was selling her knittings.

In addition to the venders, there was a lot of dancing, which was my favorite part. Each ethnic group did a performance of some kind on the stage. I often found myself bopping along to the music before realizing that people might notice me. But it didn’t matter because there were many people who danced to the music in the middle of the square. I really enjoyed hearing the music and watching the dancing. 

I wanted to know what the festival was named after, so I looked up the legend of Meșterul Manole. There are some differences between different sites, but this seems to be what I saw the most.

In Romanian mythology, Meşterul Manole (roughly meaning “the master builder Manole”) was the chief architect of the Curtea de Argeş Monastery in Wallachia. The myth of the cathedral's construction is expressed in the folk poem Monastirea Argeşului ("The Monastery on the Argeş River"). 

Negru Voda wanted to build the most beautiful monastery in the country so he hired Master Manole, the best mason of those times, along with his 9 men. Some mysterious curse made that everything Manole and his masons were building in day-time, was doomed to fall down by night. Because the walls of the monastery were always crumbling, the prince threatened him and his assistants with death. 

Manole prayed to God for help in order to continue his work. His plea resulted in a vision in which he was told that, in order to build the most beautiful monastery, he had to wall in someone very beloved by him or by his masons. He told his masons about it and they agreed that the first wife who came there on the following morning should be the victim. The other masons warned their families, so Manole`s wife, Ana (who was pregnant) came first. 

A well-known fragment of the poem depicts the struggle the oblivious Ana took in order to reach the construction site. A devoted wife, she aimed to show up in time with her husband's meal. Manole would have been watching her from atop the walls, begging God to present her with all possible challenges. While God paradoxically listened, and unleashed all sorts of small-scale disasters, Ana kept on walking. She was sent by the destiny and built alive, with her unborn baby. She implored Manole to let her go, but he kept his promise. Thus the beautiful monastery was built and the curse vanished. 

When Manole and his masons told the prince that they could always build an even greater building, Radu Negru had them stranded on the roof so that they could not build something to match it. The action forced Manole and his team to build themselves wings out of shingles (the only material available to them) and attempt to fly off to safety. One by one, they all fell to the ground. A spring of clear water, called after Manole, is said mark the spot where Manole fell.