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.

POTD 33: Cemeteries

I remember the first time I saw/visited a Moldovan cemetery. I couldn’t get over how different it looked with the cast iron cross or marble gravestones with craved pictures of the deceased or the picnic tables everywhere. I loved seeing something similar to our culture (burying the dead) being practiced so differently.

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.

Honoring Loved Ones In Moldova

Tonight, I went to the Cojusna cemetery with my host mother and sister. It was at the top of one of the hills, and it looked very different than US cemeteries. For each grave, there is an iron cross instead of a gravestone. The simpler graves have just the person’s name, birth date, and death date. But some people have very elaborate graves, with marble memorials in addition to the iron cross. 

There are also small picnic tables throughout the cemetery. It seems that families come to honor their loved ones and use the tables to have meals in honor of their loved ones. And it doesn’t look like there is much of a groundkeeper because the grass doesn’t look like it has ever been cut.

It was my host mom’s mother’s birthday. We walked to the grave, and set all of the stuff we brought on the table beside her grave. They began to remove some of the shrubbery that had grown on her grave. Then, my host mom poured a glass of wine to pass around to each person to make a cheer in honor of their loved one.

My mother pulled out some candles and lit them, and we placed them in the grave. My family then passed around a pastry, two cookies that were basically giant flavored marshmallows, and 4 plain cookies. I didn’t really know what to do at this point because I thought them might be put on the grave or something. But they were for us to eat in honor of my mom’s mother. So I joined my family and had the giant marshmallows. And like my family, I took the rest home to be eaten later.