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.