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Easter celebrations, the most important religious holiday in Romania
The Orthodox Easter celebration is by far the most important religious holiday in Romania, a country where around 86 % out of 20 million people of the population is Christian Orthodox.
Some popular customs and traditions, mainly preserved in the countryside, in the rural areas, are though observed by the city dwellers as well.
The folk tradition says that having a clean house and all the cooking ritual ready before Easter is a must. This is why the cleaning starts on Great/Maundy Thursday. The villagers would strictly observe Easter traditions and preparations, with men, who are usually working, staying home on Thursday and taking out the thrash, fixing the fence, cutting wood, bringing water and butchering the lambs. Women are the ones who would paint and decorate the eggs, do the laundry and generally clean the house.
Because it’s a good thing to have a new piece of clothing on Easter day, girls and young wives used to sew shirts for them and also for their parents, brothers, husbands or children, with about two weeks in advance. Nowadays people use to buy new clothes.
In some parts of Romania, mainly in Bukovina, in northern Romania, there is a special egg paintingtradition, namely using different geometrical and floral motifs. The process involves various paints and wax. The egg painting ritual is still preserved, but only a few people know the art of decorating the eggs. The eggs are painted on Thursday, with the custom directly hinting to the Passion of Christ and to his sacrifice on Calvary. After he had been crucified, Jesus’ mother, Mary, came to mourn her son and laid down under the cross a basket with eggs that run red from the Jesus’ bleeding injuries.
Initially the only accepted color was red, but other colors were gradually accepted in modern times: yellow, orange, green, blue, violet and even black. In some villages in Romania the paint is still obtained from plants.