Easter in

Romania and
England

Roşca Georgiana
Easter in Romania
 Easter is celebrated with
great zeal and enthusiasm
throughout the world. On the
occasion of Easter, the Christian
community presents in every nook
and corner of the world celebrates
this day as the day of the
resurrection of Jesus Christ after
crucifixion. The celebration of Easter
is marked by morning services at the
church and feasting and party in the
evening. In almost all the countries
around the world, the festivities of
Easter are more or less the same.
However, certain specific traditions
of the place make the Easter at a
particular country stand a little
different from the other. Here in this
article we have explored the Easter
celebrations in Romania.
Easter in Romania is celebrated
according to the rituals of the Eastern
Orthodox Church. The Easter entire
season consists of Flowers Saturday
(Lazarus’ Saturday), Palm Day (Flowers
Day), Great Thursday, Great Friday,
Easter, The Small Fountain and Good
People’s Easter. Each of these has small
interesting rituals. The Easter
celebration goes on for a long week and
finally wraps with Good People’s Easter
celebrated in honour of the ancient
spirits.
 The Friday before the Easter
is called the Great Friday or
the Friday of sufferings, as it
is the day when Jesus was
crucified. On Saturday, people
go to church for the midnight
mass, taking with them a bowl
of Pasca, eggs and steak,
where these aliments are
blessed by the clergy. On
returning home from the mass,
people first eat some of the
sanctified aliments and only
then the rest.
 Starting with Holy Thursday, people start
painting eggs in a multitude of colours. The
predominant colour is red, but other colours
are also applied - yellow, green, blue and even
black. Decorated eggs or 'ouă încondeiate' are
an integral part of Easter celebration in
Romania. The eggs are decorated using a type
of thin and round sticks called chişiţă made of
beech wood.
The special Easter cake, known as Pasca, is baked on Great
Thursday. The Pasca can have a round shape (reminding
little Jesus' diapers) or a rectangular one (the shape of his
grave). The shells of the eggs used for the Pasca are thrown
in a river. This action stems from the ancient belief that the
shells are taken by the river to the country of the Good
People, announcing them the Easter has came.
In some regions (Bucovina, Transylvania), there is a tradition called "the wetting".
On Monday morning, the boys take a bucket of water and go to the houses of the
unmarried girls. If they found them sleeping, the boys throw water on them. As it
is believed that those girls will marry soon, they reward the boys who had wetted
them by giving them the most beautiful decorated eggs and Pasca or cake.
However, all the Easter traditions span around the historical fact that Jesus
Christ, the Son of God is alive.
Why Two
Dates?
The Eastern Church and Western Church have separate dates for Easter.
Occasionally, Easter falls on the same Sunday (in 2010 and 2011, we
celebrated together), but usually the celebrations are separated by a week or
two. This means that in any given year, you might find Roman Catholic
Hungarians in the area celebrating Easter one Sunday, while the Orthodox
Romanians might be celebrating a week or two later. In 2005, the dates were
spread very far apart: the Western churches celebrated on March 27 and the
Orthodox churches on May 1.
Romanian evangelicals go with the majority of Romanians
and choose to celebrate with the Orthodox. But Romanian
evangelical churches in the West (in the United States or
Great Britain) generally celebrate together with the
majority of Christians in their area.
Why the different dates? Both
the Eastern and Western
churches claim to celebrate
Easter on “the first Sunday after
the first full moon on or after the
vernal equinox.” The problem is
that Western church uses the
Gregorian calendar to establish
this Sunday, while the Eastern
Church uses the older, Julian
calendar. When the different
definitions of “vernal equinox”
and “full moon” are taken into
consideration, it is no wonder
that the two church traditions do
not come to a mutual
understanding.
Furthermore, the Orthodox Church always places
Easter after the Jewish Passover, which means that
the date may sometimes be the first Sunday in May.
Easter observance in the Western Church often
precedes the Passover by weeks.
Easter in England
The celebration of Easter in England began well before the arrival of
Christianity. In the Pre-Christian Era, the festival was observed in honour of
the Anglo Saxon Goddess - Eostre. Today, in England, the festivities of
Easter begin with Lent, which falls on Ash Wednesday, and lasts for 40 days.
Easter celebration in England is a low-key affair, as people prefer religious
observations as compared to joyous merriment. Easter is an occasion for
sober worship and quiet family gatherings without the extravagance that
accompanies festivals like Christmas. Nevertheless, spring time celebrations
are gleefully observed in rural land of the country. Easter eggs, games,
feasting and fun activities all are part of the festivities, even though the main
celebrations are seen in churches of the country.
Easter
Celebration
In England
Palm Sunday
The celebration of Easter in England commences a week
before the day, to be specific, on Palm Sunday. The name
has its origin in the Roman times, when it was a customary
to welcome royalty by waving the branches of palm tree.
According to the legends, Jesus arrived in Jerusalem on
Palm Sunday and therefore, people welcomed him by laying
a carpet of palm branches in the streets and holding one in
each of their hands, to wave them to the lord. Even today,
people in England go in parades on Palm Sunday, by
carrying the palm branches. The palm branches are often
made into garlands and crosses, to use them to decorate
the church.
Morris Dance
In many parts of England, professional troupes of
dancers perform Morris Dance on Easter Sunday. These
troupes of dancers, almost exclusively male, perform
old spring dances to frighten away the veil spirits of
winter. The dancers clad themselves in beautiful white
shorts, red sashes, black trousers and straw hats, with
lots of flowers and streamers. Red and green ribbons
and little bells are tied onto the dancers, to complete the
look.
Easter In Villages
English villages, with their quaint
charm, provide the perfect
backdrop for witnessing
traditional Easter traditions of
England. During the ceremonious
occasion of Easter, the village
church would be bedecked with
fresh flowers. Traditional Easter
egg hunts are organized in the
villages, wherein the Easter
Bunny hides Easter eggs for the
local children to find. The village
bakery would offer fragrant hot
cross buns, warm from the oven,
and Simnel cakes, with home
made 'marzipan' (a paste made
with almond and sugar, generally
used as icing for cakes and
pastries).
 The
meaning
of Easter
The meaning of Easter is Jesus Christ's victory over
death. His resurrection symbolizes the eternal life that
is granted to all who believe in Him. The meaning of
Easter also symbolizes the complete verification of all
that Jesus preached and taught during His three-year
ministry. If He had not risen from the dead, if He had
merely died and not been resurrected, He would have
been considered just another teacher or Rabbi.
However, His resurrection changed all that and gave
final and irrefutable proof that He was really the Son of
God and that He had conquered death once and for all.
However, Easter did not always
symbolize Christ's resurrection from the
dead and the meaning of Easter was
quite different than what Christians
celebrate today. The feast day of Easter
was originally a pagan celebration of
renewal and rebirth. Celebrated in the
early spring, it honoured the pagan
Saxon goddess Eastre. When the early
missionaries converted the Saxons to
Christianity, the holiday, since it fell
around the same time as the traditional
memorial of Christ's resurrection from
the dead, was merged with the pagan
celebration, and became know as
Easter. The meaning of Easter was also
changed to reflect its new Christian
orientation.
Today, the meaning of Easter, for million
of Christians, is that of honouring and
recognizing Jesus Christ's resurrection from
the dead, and His glorious promises of
eternal life for all who believe in Him.