At 2 minutes to midnight on Saturday an eerie silence engulfs Bucuresti. Earlier on in the evening all the restaurants and bars closed by 10.30. The streets are deserted. Even the omnipresent cars with their noisy claxons are conspicuous by their absence. These are unique moments in this crazy city.
In the still night air two distinct elements mix, the deep chanting of the priests and the heavy scent of incense. Across the city outside the many Orthodox churches crowds stand in silence. The insides are full to the brim. Then at midnight the priest appears at the door way holding the candle symbolising the light of Easter.
He declares "Hristos a înviat!" Christ is risen!
And the crowd roars back "Adevărat a înviat!" Truly Christ is risen!
Then the light from the priest's candle is passed from person to person.
And if you are not outside on the streets or in a church, then you can watch the events on television. Virtually every Romanian TV channel had live broadcasts of the midnight services from Bucuresti, Constanta (on the Black Sea), Iasi (by the Moldovan border) and Bistrita (in the northern region of Maremures near the Ukraine).
With Midnight Mass drawing to a close, and in some churches the service will go on until 3.00 in the morning, Easter celebrations can now begin. Down the streets candles wend their way back home. Waiting in the houses is cozanac, a sweet bread with nuts, pasca, a sweet cheese pie with raisins, and of course wine, brandy and plum tuica. The 40 day fast (called Post) is over at last. Finally meat, animal products, eggs, milk, cheese can be eaten. And in the next 24 hours huge amounts will be consumed.
Across the country for the last few days in the village market places lambs and sheep have been arriving. There they are slaughtered, hung up and sold, sometimes whole or cut up. This is the meat for Resurrection Sunday. But during Holy Week the ovens have been on continuously as the wives have been baking to ensure there is enough food to feed an African nation for a month. You think we eat a huge amount an Christmas? Come to Romania and watch the experts at Easter!
And so the biggest festival of the year is in full swing. All through Sunday as you meet people on the streets you are greeted with:
"Hristos a înviat!"
and you must answer:
"Adevărat a înviat!"
Red coloured hard boiled eggs are cracked together and then eaten once the red shell has been removed. On Easter Saturday Tibi and I spent a couple of hours boiling and then colouring the eggs - not just red ones for us but multi-coloured glitter eggs!
And everywhere you go the air is full of the aroma of cooking food: miel din cuptor (lamb in the oven), mici la gratar (Romanian skinless sausages on the grill) and delicious sweet cakes.
Like in the UK, the Monday after Easter Sunday is a holiday. I am convinced this is to allow everyone to:
- sleep, as they have been celebrating for over 24 hours non stop,
- be sick, as they have been eating and drinking continuously,
- rest, as the hangovers combined with the upset stomachs have limited their relaxation.
For me, the strangest element is all this without the sight of one single chocolate egg. And thank goodness for that, just the sniff of a Cadbury's creme egg at this moment could have dire results for my already overloaded stomach!
All the best.
Andrew x
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