Easter In Romania: Sarbatoarea Invierii Domnului (Google-translate it!)

I don't have any pictures to share, but I thought I'd say a word about Easter in Romania.  It's really quite interesting.

Easter here is like Christmas and New Years combined at home.  Church services start on Friday, and the bells ring throughout the afternoon.  Most people go to church briefly on Friday, and Saturday is spent preparing an elaborate feast for that evening and Sunday.

On Saturday, the big moment is at midnight, but most people show up at the church at eight o'clock or so.  If you want to get inside, however, you had better plan on arriving around two o'clock.  Notice I didn't say "get a seat inside," just "get inside" -- there are no seats in a Romanian Orthodox church (which is what perhaps 95% of the people belong to).

Prior to going to church, most of the food will have been prepared, except the eggs, which have been boiled but which will be dyed just before the family leaves for the church.

At midnight the celebrations start in earnest.  The bells ring, and people head to the cemetery to visit relatives' gravesites and celebrate their resurrection.

Teenagers are allowed to stay out and party throughout the evening, though of course excessive carousing is frowned upon.  (I was told that this tradition of letting the young people stay out and party started during Communist days, when there were so few outlets for the young people and so few ways for them to have fun.)

I am watching the TV now, at 11:36pm Romanian time, and the major stations all have live coverage of the scene in front of various Orthodox holy places, including Patriaria Romana, Catedrala St. Josif, and the basilica in Moscova, in split screen.  It's like the New Year's Eve countdown, where they show you the scene at Times Square and elsewhere in the world as people wait for the clock to strike midnight.

After the gravesite visit, the family returns home to crack open the eggs.  The person whose egg has the strongest shell will live the longest, so the family makes sure a child gets that egg.  They eat the bread, the name of which I've forgotten, but which is kind of a babka.

Sunday it's back to church and then back home for more eating and celebrating.

The whole weekend shows you the centrality of religion and family in the lives of most Romanians, and it's very interesting, and touching . . .

11:47pm and counting . . .