Today is Easter Sunday in the east where the Julian calendar is still used. This will be our first time trying to do Easter or any service in an Orthodox church. Everyone is a bit nervous.
We got up this morning but have not had good communications as to what is going on today. We are not sure what time church is, where to go or what to do, if we are going with someone or not, when or where lunch is, etc. This is not making us any more confident.
We got up and realized that we just didn’t know when we should go to church. We thought that there was a service at ten and eleven thirty. Or was it noon. We really did not know. We quickly realized by nine thirty that the village was totally full of cars, every single person was either in a black suit or a cocktail dress with five inch heels minimum and that people were coming and going constantly and there was no way to tell when a service started or stopped at all. And, of course, times are not posted or anything, you just have to know.
This got very stressful, very quickly. We’ve never seen this many people in town. People were pouring in from the cities as everyone goes out to the country to see family for Easter.
We were totally unsure what to do until around eleven suddenly the family that we rent from came walking across our front yard to fetch us! No one was dressed. Well, I was and basically ready to go but Dominica and the girls were in pajamas and not even slightly ready to go to church. We asked when we should go and they said “now” but that they would wait for us in front of the church. So they raced to get ready and as soon as they could be, which was easily twenty minutes, we went to the front of the church.
We ended up just standing out front for the entire service. They forgot to meet us out front and we were never confident as to when it would be okay to go in. The service was just one continuous thing from early in the morning until nearly one in the afternoon. Very confusing. And tons of people were standing around outside the entire time that we were there so it was not even clear what they were doing. It was probably for the best, though, as the church was packed and Dominica was incredibly nervous about having to sit with the girls and having to have me be sat somewhere else without her.
It was an awkward hour standing outside, but I think that it worked out well. At one point the priest came outside as part of some ceremony and I managed to make eye contact while standing with the locals and holding Luciana and I got the wink and nod so he knew that we had made the effort to be there at least.
After the service we ran back to the house to drop off anything that we did not need and grabbed the Texas Sheet Cake that Dominica had baked for today and walked with the girl who orchestrates things for the house in English for her parents to her grandmother’s house. We have not met her in person previously because she lives in southern Italy but had come in for Easter to see family.
Her grandmother’s home was towards the end of town that Dominica has never seen and on a side road that I had not taken before. It wasn’t a long walk, but it was warm today. Very warm and very sunny. Not what we have been seeing for some time.
We had a very nice lunch sitting out with the family. It was so nice that they invited us to spend their Easter holiday with them, especially as we speak no Romanian and most of them speak little or no English. They daughter was stuck translating for the whole time. But we all had a very nice time. They made a lot of vegetarian food for us, as well. We got to experience the traditional Romanian Easter.
They also made for us a ton of painted Easter Eggs, somewhat like kids do back in the US. But the processes that they use here are different and they like soak them in a dye or something and the colours are solid and very vibrant. They taught us the local game that they play here called chocking or chalking (we have no idea, it’s a Romanian word describing the sound that two eggs hitting each other make) where you battle with eggs and whoever crushes the other person’s egg wins the egg. The girls thought that this was great fun and wanted to play it all day!
The sun really took a toll on us during lunch. My eyes were in terrible pain from the sun being in them for a very long time and I could barely keep them open (note: I’m writing this update on Thursday morning, four whole days later and my eyes are still soar) and my head got terribly sunburnt (note again: still very burnt). We walked back to the house and had a few hours to ourselves before the evening activities in the village began.
Around six a sudden congregation of the village happened at the village municipal building. Everyone from around the village went there and just stood in the street and talked while all of the kids ran around with their Easter eggs chocking. The girls thought that this was awesome and all of the kids in the village made eggs for them. It is a tradition to give each other eggs and everyone was anxious to give eggs to them. It was awesome.
We could not stay long, though. Liesl ended up being way too tired and not being able to handle everything so Dominica ended up taking her back home. I stayed with Luciana so that she could play on the playground for a while yet. I was there at least another half an hour, maybe an hour, after Dominica and Liesl left. Dominica appreciated getting to leave as people around people really wears her out in general and the whole day had been rough for her already and she was just tired.
Once we were home it was getting late and the sun was going down. So time for all of us to just relax at home. It was a great day and a really great cultural experience for everyone.