EASTER IN ROMANIA

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EASTER IN ROMANIA
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THE GREAT THURSDAY

• Great ThursdayThe Thursday before the Easter is
  called the Great Thursday, the Thursday of
  sufferings or the black Thursday.According
  to the Romanian tradition, skies, graves, doors
  of heaven and hell open this day. The dead return
  to pass the Easter near the loved ones. They will
  remain at their old houses until the Saturday
  before the Rusalii, when pies and bowls are doled
  for their souls. It is believed that the spirits
  sit on the roofs or in the yards. As it is still
  quite cold, fires must be lighted in the morning
  and in the evening, so that the dead could have
  light and heat. The fires are lighted for every
  soul or it is only lighten a fire for all the
  dead souls. The brushwood can only be gathered by
  children, pure girls and old women, a day before
  and only by hand (they must not be cut). On the
  way home they must not be let down and will be
  placed on a fence or on another object until
  morning, when the fire will be lighted.Chairs
  with blankets are also put near the fire, as it
  is believed that some souls will sit on chairs
  and other will sit on the ground. Girls and women
  carry water buckets to the graves or to the fire,
  for the dead that will sit there.Most of the
  women paint the eggs on the Great Thursday. In
  Walachia the eggs are painted on Wednesday and
  taken to the church on Thursday. They are let
  there until the Easter, as it is believed that
  they wont alter. In other regions, twelve red
  painted eggs are taken to the church until the
  Easter and they are buried then at the village
  boundaries, so that the hail wouldnt come upon
  it.

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The Flowers Day ( Florii)

• A week before the Easter, the Flowers Day
  (Romanian Florii) is celebrated. This was
  initially dedicated to the Roman goddess Flora,
  but then it was celebrated in the memory of the
  Jesus entrance to Jerusalem.This day is the
  celebration of the nature revival, when the
  willows, the fruit trees and the flowers bloom.
  The willow plays a very important role in the
  rituals.The legend goes that, while Jesus was
  crucified, His mother left, crying, in the search
  of her son, wearing iron boots and a steel rod.
  On her journey she arrived at a river and asked a
  willow to help her cross it. As the willow made a
  bridge for her, Mary put a blessing on it,
  stating that its wood could not be transformed
  into coal and that its branches would be taken to
  church every year.That is why, on this day
  people bring flowers and willow branches to the
  church, for being sanctified by the priest. With
  the willow branches, symbol of spring and
  fertility, cows and little children are touched,
  in order to grow and bloom as the willow. The
  holy branches are then placed near the icons or
  above the door and are used throughout the year
  as a medicine or for protection against the
  natural disasters.It is also believed that the
  people who wear the willow branches as a belt
  will not suffer of loin aches who eats three
  catkins will not suffer of throat aches.

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Great Friday

• The Friday before the Easter is called the Great
  Friday. Also named the Friday of sufferings, it
  is the day when Jesus was crucified. People dont
  eat on this day, as it is believed that doing
  that they will be healthy and they will know
  theyll dye three days before.The tradition
  recommends that you step on a piece of iron when
  you wake up, in order to be protected from
  bruises. If you bathe in the river before the sun
  rises, you wont suffer from bone illness. In
  Bucovina it is said that who bathes three times
  in a cold river will be healthy all year
  long.People go to church to confess.Bread may
  not be baked, the earth may not be ploughed and
  trees may not be planted, as they wont fruit.

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EASTER IN ROMANIA

• The Easter is the most important celebration of
  the Romanian people and it is preceded by
  numerous preparations and rituals. Its a must
  for the people to have a clean house and have all
  the ritual foods ready. This is why the cleaning
  starts on Great Thursday. Men, who are usually
  working in the field or at the forest, will
  remain home starting with this day and will take
  out the thrash, fix the fence, cut wood, bring
  water, butcher the lambs. Women are the ones that
  paint and decorate the eggs, do the laundry and
  generally clean the house.Because its a good
  thing to have a new piece of clothing on the
  Easter, girls and young wives start to sew shirts
  for them and also for their parents, brothers,
  husbands or children, with about two weeks in
  advance.

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EASTER TRADITIONS

• Saturday night, when all the cleaning and
  preparations in the house are done, the steak,
  the pies and the cakes are put on the table, in
  the clean room.Before going to the church,
  people wash themselves in a bowl with water,
  where red painted eggs and silver and golden
  coins were also put. They believe that this way
  they will be as glowing and healthy as the eggs
  and they will be clean and will have more money,
  due to the silver and golden coins.After they
  clean and dress the new clothes, the people take
  a bowl with pasca, eggs and steak and go to the
  church, where the aliments will be sanctified.
  Only the ill old men and little children remain
  at home, as it is said that who can go to the
  church on Easter night, but he doesnt do it,
  will get ill.A fire is lighted near the church
  and it will be kept for all the three Easter
  days. In some regions, when the roosters announce
  the midnight, the man who watches the fire shuts
  with his rifle, calling the people to the church.
  The bells are also ringed at midnight.People
  hold lighted candles during the religious mass
  and only put them out when they return home,
  after they enter the house and make crosses.
  These Easter candles are kept for the times of
  danger, when they will have a protective
  function.

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EASTER BREAKFAST

• At home, people first taste the anaphora and
  then sit to the table. They first eat some of the
  sanctified aliments and only then the rest. In
  some regions, rabbit or fish meat is first eaten,
  believing that these animals will confer to the
  people some of their agility. The shepherds and
  the other persons who are away from home on
  Easter day eat willow or apple tree buds instead
  of anaphora. Theres the custom of knocking the
  eggs. It is believed that those who knock their
  eggs will see each other on the other world,
  after death. In the first day of Easter, eggs are
  only knocked with the top. On Monday they can be
  knocked top to the bottom and on the next days
  they can be knocked any way. The first ones to
  knock their eggs are the parents, one to the
  other, then the children to the parents and then
  the other relatives and friends. According to the
  tradition, the one whose egg cracks first is
  weaker and he will die quicker. He must give his
  egg to the winner otherwise he will eat its egg
  rotten on the other world.Eggs are knocked
  until the third Easter day, until the Ispas or
  until the Great Sunday.

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EASTER EGGS
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PAINTED EASTER EGGS

• The eggs are painted starting with Thursday.
  Initially the only accepted color was red, but in
  time other colors were also applied yellow,
  green, blue and even black.In the villages the
  paint is still obtained from plants.The eggs
  are usually first painted yellow, because the
  other colors will look better when applied over
  it. Blue painted eggs are an exception.In
  Banat, the first painted egg is called a try.
  In the Easter morning its shared between the
  children residing in that house.The yellow
  eggs, also called galbineala, galbinare,
  galbinete sau galbinele (in Romanian galben
  means yellow) are painted with an extract of
  wild apple tree bark and leaves, different kinds
  of willow or onion leaves.Red eggs, also called
  rosele, rusele or rosetele (in Romanian
  rosu means red) are colored with a paint
  obtained from red alder tree bark, cinnamon,
  oregano or amber.The paint for the green eggs,
  also called verdete (in Romanian verde means
  green) is obtained from pasque flower,
  sunflower seeds or nettles.The blue eggs, also
  called albastrele (in Romanian albastru means
  blue) are painted with an extract of sunflower,
  pasque flower and woods. These are boiled in
  borsch, in which bluestone had been put. These
  eggs are not first painted yellow, like the
  others, being directly obtained from white,
  unpainted eggs.The black eggs are also called
  negrele or negrete (in Romanian negru means
  black) and remind of the Jesus sufferings on
  the cross. The paint is obtained from woods,
  black alder and nut tree bark. These eggs are
  obtained from eggs first painted yellow and then
  red.

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PAINTED EASTER EGGS
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DECORATED EASTER EGGS

• The most interesting traditional eggs are the
  decorated eggs (in Romanian they are called oua
  incondeiate, oua impiestrite, oua
  inchiestrite). Special instruments are used for
  decorating them. These take the form of very thin
  and round sticks and are called chisita
  (bijara), matuf (motoc) or festeleu. The
  festeleu is a sharp stick made of beech wood.
  At one end it has linen or cotton little pieces.
  The festeleu is soaked in melted wax. In
  contact with the surface of the egg, little dots
  will appear. The most used decorative motifs
  for these eggs are the lost path (on which the
  souls of the dead walk toward the judgment), the
  cross, the fir or oak leaf. In Walachia the saw
  and the plough are also drawn and in Moldavia the
  lightning and the fork. Various plants, animals
  and kinds of crosses are also drawn.

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DECORATED EASTER EGGS
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TRADITIONAL FOOD FOR EASTER

• Pasca, a special Easter cake, is baked on Great
  Thursday, but especially on Saturday, so it
  wouldnt alter until Easter. It has a round shape
  (reminding little Jesus diapers) or a
  rectangular one (the shape of His grave). In some
  regions pasca is also baked on St. George
  Day.A legend from Bucovina goes that the
  pasca has been done from the times when Jesus
  was traveling to the world together with his
  apostles. They remained a night at a peasant
  house and when they left, he put food in their
  bags. The apostles asked Jesus when the Easter is
  and He replied that the Easter would be when they
  would find corn bread in their bags. Looking in
  the bags, they noticed the peasant had given them
  exactly corn bread, so that they knew it was
  Easter time.The pasca can be simple, with
  jagged margins, or it can have dough braids. The
  middle braid is cross-shaped, reminding of Jesus
  crucifixion. This is called a cross pasca. The
  simple pasca is for the family, while the
  cross pasca is taken to the church, in order to
  be sanctified. Small pasca (pascute) are
  baked for the little children.Among the
  ingredients are pot cheese, egg yolk, raisins and
  sometimes sugar and cinnamon.

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Easter cake with cottage cheese

• Sweet bread dough (regular or Russian). Filling
  (more or less in quantity according to taste) 1
  lb/500 g cottage cheese, 4 oz/100 g raisins, 3-4
  eggs, 1 tablespoon butter, sugar to taste, a
  little grated lemon peel, salt
• Mix the ingredients for filling to obtain a
  homogenuous paste. Roll a pencil thick sheet out
  of the sweet bread dough. Place in a baking pan.
  From another piece of dough form a long, finger
  thick roll and arrange it around the sheet,
  sticking to the walls of the pan. Place the
  filling within, without covering the roll on the
  edges. Make two more such dough rolls and place
  them over the filling in an X shape. After the
  cake has risen a bit in a warm place, use a
  little egg wash over the dough rolls. Set in the
  oven to bake. Remove from the pan when it is
  cold.

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cozonaci
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COZONACI

• 2 lbs/1 kg flour, 10 oz/300 g sugar, 1 1/2 cups
  milk, 6 eggs, 2 oz/50 g yeast, 7 oz/200 g butter,
  2 tablespoons oil, vanilla stick, salt, egg for
  washing the dough, grease for the pans
• Make a starter from yeast and a teaspoon of
  sugar. Mix until the consistency of sour cream,
  add 2-3 tablespoons tepid milk, a little flour
  and mix well sprinkle some flour on top, cover
  and let sit in a warm place to rise. Boil the
  milk with the vanilla stick (cut in very small
  pieces) and leave it on the side of the range,
  covered, to keep warm. Mix the yolks with the
  sugar and salt, then slowly pour the tepid milk,
  stirring continuously. Place the risen starter in
  a large bowl and pour, stirring continuously, the
  yolk-milk mixture and some flour, a little at a
  time. Then add 3 whipped egg whites. When you
  finish this step, start kneading. Knead, adding
  melted butter combined with oil, a little at a
  time, until the dough starts to easily come off
  your palms. Cover with a cloth and then something
  thicker (like a blanket). Leave in a warm place
  to triple in bulk. If during kneading the dough
  seems too hard, you may add a little milk. If, on
  the contrary, the dough seems too soft, you may
  add a little flour. When the dough has risen
  well, take a piece of it, place on the floured
  work surface, give it the desired shape (round,
  oval, braided, etc.) and place in the baking pan
  previously greased with butter. Let rise some
  more in the pan in a warm place. Wash with egg
  and bake at medium heat. Take out of the pan as
  soon as it is done, place on a cloth and let
  cool.