A Few Things about Easter!
Hello everyone and everydoggy! Easter time is almost here! And the Easter Bunny is preparing with lots and lots of gifts! You all know about Easter and if you don’t celebrate it you surely heard about it. In Romania, Easter (Paşte) is the biggest and the fundamental holiday of the Orthodox Church. The people prepare for the Night of Resurrection by keeping a Great Lent (they don’t eat anything that contains meat or other animal products– eggs, milk, cheese… they become vegetarians for a few weeks). Weird humans!
The best things about Easter are the EGGS! They paint the eggs! Oh yes they do! They make them red, green, yellow… every color! And they have other eggs (they can’t be eaten) painted with wax and beautiful designs. My human says that these eggs are prepared in a very special way and the secrets are known only by few people. I’ll put a photo with a few of these eggs… they are called “ouă încondeiate”. The red eggs are very important for Easter.
On the Great and Holy Saturday in all the churches in the country the light is turned off (you will see why); only a flame is struck in the church’s altar (a flame that comes from Jerusalem); at midnight the priest lights his candle and then he lights the candles held by his assistants, who then go to light candles held by the people that came for the celebration. After that the priest and all the people process around the church building, holding their lit candles. And they sing “Christ is risen from the dead, Trampling down death by death, And upon those in the tombs, Bestowing life!” It is very important that in the morning of Easter every house has a candle lightened from the church.
And now about the eggs! People take the painted eggs and one of them says “Christ is risen!” and the other one responses “Truly He is risen!” and the first one hits the egg of the other person with his own egg. The eggs are given to friends and family as an Easter greeting.
I’ll tell you more about the Easter traditions in my next post!
Now I’ll go to find out if I can play with one of those Easter decorations.
Pug hugs!
The best things about Easter are the EGGS! They paint the eggs! Oh yes they do! They make them red, green, yellow… every color! And they have other eggs (they can’t be eaten) painted with wax and beautiful designs. My human says that these eggs are prepared in a very special way and the secrets are known only by few people. I’ll put a photo with a few of these eggs… they are called “ouă încondeiate”. The red eggs are very important for Easter.
On the Great and Holy Saturday in all the churches in the country the light is turned off (you will see why); only a flame is struck in the church’s altar (a flame that comes from Jerusalem); at midnight the priest lights his candle and then he lights the candles held by his assistants, who then go to light candles held by the people that came for the celebration. After that the priest and all the people process around the church building, holding their lit candles. And they sing “Christ is risen from the dead, Trampling down death by death, And upon those in the tombs, Bestowing life!” It is very important that in the morning of Easter every house has a candle lightened from the church.
And now about the eggs! People take the painted eggs and one of them says “Christ is risen!” and the other one responses “Truly He is risen!” and the first one hits the egg of the other person with his own egg. The eggs are given to friends and family as an Easter greeting.
I’ll tell you more about the Easter traditions in my next post!
Now I’ll go to find out if I can play with one of those Easter decorations.
Pug hugs!
5 comments:
Wow, Ronin! Those eggs are beautiful :) How did you ever resist jumping on top of them and chewing them up? That's what I would have done, but you're older and wiser than me! Haha!
Thanks for telling us all about Easter in Romania. All that happens here is people come and knock on your door constantly and give you flyers for their church. Very annoying.
Puggy kisses
Suki
I enjoyed hearing about Easter in Romania. Our church service is similar to yours with the candle lit service to mark the resurection and the life.
I haven't seen too many Easter decorations out yet but I know they are coming. Mom keeps talking about the whole family coming over for dinner on Sunday. Yea, company!
Those sure are pretty eggs Ronin. We don't understand why you can't eat them though. We're with Suki, we would want to jump on them and chew them up!
Wow! Pimp my Easter!
Wow. Easter sounds really fun in Romania. It's not so involved here in the USA. Sure, the People go to church, but there is no egg hitting or candle lighting or anything fun like that. The People could learn a thing or two about Easter here in the States, eh? Thanks for sharing!
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