Christmas is a season
Greetings again from Moldova. I am happy/sad/glad to report that the holiday "season" in Moldova is close to finished. After this Saturday and Sunday (Orthodox New Years-- also called, New Years old style) we will be back to our regularly scheduled programming. Not that I didn't enjoy the season-- it definitely was a fabulous way to meet my neighbors, members of the community and learn about some pretty cool traditions. Here's a good opportunity to share some insights, stories and pictures (I'm at the PC headquarters for a meeting, and have some fast internet service).
The 'season started out with the Feast of St. Nicholas, on December 19th. This is the day when children leave their shoes out for St. Nick to fill with candy. Needless to say, the children at the center this day were overly hyper. Also in Moldova, what's fair is fair-- if you have small feet, you get less candy, live with it. I thought that was an entertaining tidbit I got from one of my coworkers, who was explaining to me that her daughter was upset that her brother has received more candy than she had. Her advice to her daughter-- grow up. Mike (my sitemate) and I celebrated this day by going to a masa. A masa is like a family party or celebration, if that celebration would be focused only on eating and sitting around the table. (Seriously, Moldovan holidays kick even thanksgiving's ass). The masa was at the gym teacher's house (we know him because we are both coaching basketball teams this winter, Mike with the boys and me with the girls). Anyway, th
is teacher's name is Nicolaie, so not only was it an important celebration, but also his namesake's feastday-- extra special. These things are always fun to go to, except for the experience of Moldovan's insistence. I dont know whetehr they think we don't know how to take care of ourselves, don't know how to eat correctly, are shy or maybe a combination of all the above-- however, it gets really annoying having food and drink shoved down your throat all the time. If people would just relax, I would have a better time. Beleive me, if I am hungry, I will eat (the food is good, but it is cooked with a lot of oil and I can only eat so much before my stomach starts hurting. Some of the food isn't so good. Pictured above is the "chicken jelly" I have mentioned before. Yummy. It is fun to go to these dinners because they provide you a chacne to get to know Moldovan culture, and to meet with people on a more intimate level-- people here are very hospitabile, this family took Mike and I into their homes no holds bar. We finished the wonderful celebration by trying to explain a particular American holiday that they had never heard of-- Groundhog's Day. It was very amusing with our limited vocabulary, although we did communicate the idea of the shadow through handpuppets and a small ad-libbed skit.
Then came the Christmas concert at my Children's center. It was really fun, the kids recited poems and songs. I played "O Christmas Tree" ... or in Romanian, "O Brad Fru
mos" on a keyboard we borrowed. And the kids were surprised by "gifts" collected for them from other, older children of the village. Yes these gifts were used, but lovingly. And it was just a really nice gesture. My problem with this concert was that the kids who didn't have good voices (we are talking about 7 - 14 year olds), were told not to sing because it wouldn't sound "frumos"). No joke. Oye. Santa, or Mos Craciun also came to our party which was a big suprise. I like Santa here, he carries a walking stick with him-- which I
was confused about at first, but it is because Santa is really old... really really old. Why didn't I think of that? It just makes sense. (Although Santa here can be a questionable character
. While in Chisinau for American Christmas, I walked through the "christmas village"-- a block of Santas, Christmas songs etc-- it was really nice, except never before in my life have I seen people dressed like Santa smoking cigarettes and drinking beer. My childhood ached). I actually had a funny misunderstanding about Christmas. Santa, like I said, is Mos Craciun, which I thought literally translated into Santa Claus. It does not. Mos means old man, and 
Craciun means Christmas, obviously. 
Anyway, I heard the kids at my center, both in their conversations and in their play, mention someone called Mos Neag. (Neagru in Romanian is black-- and we all know the historical literary pairings of black with evil for fictional characters, I don't need to explain that). Anyway, knowing this, I was under the impression that this "Mos Neag" fellow was like a bad santa. I imagined that he had dressed in black instead of red, and took away gifts-- maybe like a kind of grinch. In our play games, I told the kids to "look out! Mos Neag is coming!" and they stared at me blankly. When I finially understood the meaning of the word-- Mos Neag is just a polite/or not so polite way to say old man... everything came into clarity. But it was an interesting confusion. (In the pictures above are me and my two co-workers, teachers at the school-- not my partner, me and a few kids -- they had to get super dressed up for the concert, I guess it was fun though, santa or mos craciun, and the kids getting ready for the concert)
is teacher's name is Nicolaie, so not only was it an important celebration, but also his namesake's feastday-- extra special. These things are always fun to go to, except for the experience of Moldovan's insistence. I dont know whetehr they think we don't know how to take care of ourselves, don't know how to eat correctly, are shy or maybe a combination of all the above-- however, it gets really annoying having food and drink shoved down your throat all the time. If people would just relax, I would have a better time. Beleive me, if I am hungry, I will eat (the food is good, but it is cooked with a lot of oil and I can only eat so much before my stomach starts hurting. Some of the food isn't so good. Pictured above is the "chicken jelly" I have mentioned before. Yummy. It is fun to go to these dinners because they provide you a chacne to get to know Moldovan culture, and to meet with people on a more intimate level-- people here are very hospitabile, this family took Mike and I into their homes no holds bar. We finished the wonderful celebration by trying to explain a particular American holiday that they had never heard of-- Groundhog's Day. It was very amusing with our limited vocabulary, although we did communicate the idea of the shadow through handpuppets and a small ad-libbed skit.Then came the Christmas concert at my Children's center. It was really fun, the kids recited poems and songs. I played "O Christmas Tree" ... or in Romanian, "O Brad Fru
mos" on a keyboard we borrowed. And the kids were surprised by "gifts" collected for them from other, older children of the village. Yes these gifts were used, but lovingly. And it was just a really nice gesture. My problem with this concert was that the kids who didn't have good voices (we are talking about 7 - 14 year olds), were told not to sing because it wouldn't sound "frumos"). No joke. Oye. Santa, or Mos Craciun also came to our party which was a big suprise. I like Santa here, he carries a walking stick with him-- which I
was confused about at first, but it is because Santa is really old... really really old. Why didn't I think of that? It just makes sense. (Although Santa here can be a questionable character
. While in Chisinau for American Christmas, I walked through the "christmas village"-- a block of Santas, Christmas songs etc-- it was really nice, except never before in my life have I seen people dressed like Santa smoking cigarettes and drinking beer. My childhood ached). I actually had a funny misunderstanding about Christmas. Santa, like I said, is Mos Craciun, which I thought literally translated into Santa Claus. It does not. Mos means old man, and 
Craciun means Christmas, obviously. 
Anyway, I heard the kids at my center, both in their conversations and in their play, mention someone called Mos Neag. (Neagru in Romanian is black-- and we all know the historical literary pairings of black with evil for fictional characters, I don't need to explain that). Anyway, knowing this, I was under the impression that this "Mos Neag" fellow was like a bad santa. I imagined that he had dressed in black instead of red, and took away gifts-- maybe like a kind of grinch. In our play games, I told the kids to "look out! Mos Neag is coming!" and they stared at me blankly. When I finially understood the meaning of the word-- Mos Neag is just a polite/or not so polite way to say old man... everything came into clarity. But it was an interesting confusion. (In the pictures above are me and my two co-workers, teachers at the school-- not my partner, me and a few kids -- they had to get super dressed up for the concert, I guess it was fun though, santa or mos craciun, and the kids getting ready for the concert)For Moldovan Christmas, our family did not really celebrate because it was the 3 year anniversary of the father's death. Instead, they had a big feast called praznic. In Moldova, for the first 7 years after someone dies, on the day that that person died, you get together with family and friends and have a huge meal in their honor. You talk about them, laugh, drink. The tone is very upbeat (I was expecting something sad). There is also a church ceremony and a graveyard ceremony-- but I didn't go to them, I was too busy helping out in the kitchen with the rest o
f the women. Seriously, people had been cooking for 3 straight days to make food for one. Well actually there were two meals on the anniversary, one for guests and then a second for family, somehow I ended up eating at both. Here is a picture of the table, so you can see it really was a feast (this is even without all the hot dishes yet!). Anyway, besides the feast, east guest leaves with what one would call a "goodie bag" full of bread (circular bread is a tradition), candy, candles, matches and a towel. I haven't gotten a good answer to this, but I am told
they are gifts for the soul of the dead person. Also, for a few days our small family turned really really big. Everyone came from all over Moldova-- and slept there. So there were some tight conditions for a while, but I am glad to have met so many people. Again, I must say, Moldovan Hospitality is amazing. Also, instead of cooking a lot-- we know I'm not that great in the kitchen, one of my jobs instead 
of working in the kitchen was to entertain my three year old host neice. She was adorable and her favorite thigns do to were play with my hair (seriously curly h
air here is not that common), and pretend to be talking on a cell phone using my alarm clock. The day was long, and I could tell a taxing process for my host mothe, but it was definitely an experieince.
f the women. Seriously, people had been cooking for 3 straight days to make food for one. Well actually there were two meals on the anniversary, one for guests and then a second for family, somehow I ended up eating at both. Here is a picture of the table, so you can see it really was a feast (this is even without all the hot dishes yet!). Anyway, besides the feast, east guest leaves with what one would call a "goodie bag" full of bread (circular bread is a tradition), candy, candles, matches and a towel. I haven't gotten a good answer to this, but I am told
they are gifts for the soul of the dead person. Also, for a few days our small family turned really really big. Everyone came from all over Moldova-- and slept there. So there were some tight conditions for a while, but I am glad to have met so many people. Again, I must say, Moldovan Hospitality is amazing. Also, instead of cooking a lot-- we know I'm not that great in the kitchen, one of my jobs instead 
of working in the kitchen was to entertain my three year old host neice. She was adorable and her favorite thigns do to were play with my hair (seriously curly h
air here is not that common), and pretend to be talking on a cell phone using my alarm clock. The day was long, and I could tell a taxing process for my host mothe, but it was definitely an experieince. Other than that, things for Christmas went pretty smoothly. It wasn't that big of a public celebration, more of a family one-- and I did enjoy missing the commercialism of presents. No gifts were exchanged in my family, except I gave my host mother a scarf I knit, and my host brother gave my mother a candle. My host nephew and his friend were overjoyed by the advent calander I gave them (thanks to Ms. Katie D'Aco). I tried to explain that they could only eat o
ne chocolate a day, but that concept didn't go over well because by the time we got it, we were two weeks away from Orthodox Christmas, so we did some catch up eating... and after that I couldn't get them to go one day at a time
. Also, pictured here is our primaria, or mayor's office, decorated for Christmas. Pretty classy if you ask me (Note to Mike's Mom: This is where Mike works). I liked it a lot, wheras, I didn't like how gaudy the lights in Chisinau around the Christmas village were.
ne chocolate a day, but that concept didn't go over well because by the time we got it, we were two weeks away from Orthodox Christmas, so we did some catch up eating... and after that I couldn't get them to go one day at a time
. Also, pictured here is our primaria, or mayor's office, decorated for Christmas. Pretty classy if you ask me (Note to Mike's Mom: This is where Mike works). I liked it a lot, wheras, I didn't like how gaudy the lights in Chisinau around the Christmas village were. I think my favorite Moldovan holiday tradation so far has been the caroling. All of the kids carol both on Christmas eve and on both new years eves. There are actually different words for the type of caroling you do for christmas and the type you do for new years (and of course, different songs). But it's interesting that the verbs are different too. Anyway for new years, the kids visit on new year's eve and sing, but they have hoes and tools for the field with them. The songs are about working, etc. And they do little dance things etc to mimic getting the fields ready for the year (note: clearly this comes from Moldova's strong agriculture backgroudn). On New years day they come once again, but with seed. and they throw it! So that you will have good crops in the new year. Fun huh? I liked it.
Anyway, I will be away from site for a week or so starting now-- we have a week more of technical and language training. It will be good to see everyone, but it is weird that we are being taken from site right when I feel like I am starting to get productive. I promise that after I get back to site I will take some pictures and write about life at my new "home". Until then.
This entry was posted
on Saturday, January 13, 2007 at 6:34 AM.
