Easter in Moldova

My first Easter spent here in Moldova has come and gone and I have experienced many new traditions and got a much deserved vacation from teaching. On Friday, I got home from school at 9am since I only teach first period on Fridays, and the house was filled with the smell of delicious bread. My host mom had been up since 4am making the different types of bread that are tradition here for Easter. I got a sample plate of the breads at lunch time and it was very delectable. You can’t beat the taste of freshly baked bread!

bread table

On Saturday, I spent the day dyeing eggs in the garden with my host sister and my host aunt who was visiting from Italy. It was the first day in months that I can truly say was a sunny day. I took breaks from dyeing and just close my eyes and felt the warm rays on my face, like a lizard perched on a rock, taking in the sun…..or Bebe, my dog, when she lies in the sun by the sliding glass door. It felt so nice.

dyeing eggs with my host sister, Valeria

When I asked what our plans were for Easter, I was told that we would head to church at 11:30pm and return after 4am. Apparently at 4am, after the church services are over, the priest will bless your basket of bread, eggs and food that you bring with you and once it is blessed, you are free to go home and this blessed food will be eaten on Easter morning. I took a little nap after dinner and tried to get some rest since I knew that I would have a long night ahead of me. My host parents didn’t go to church; it was just my host sister and my host aunt and I who went.

There werent a lot of people at the church when we arrived, and the service started at midnight. The service began with candle lighting that spread throughout the church and everyone helped light their neighbor’s candles. (My host dad had told me earlier in the week that a lit candle was flown from Jerusalem to Moldova and that all the churches had lit a candle from this candle, which I thought, was pretty cool). After all the candles had been lit, we all went outside and walked around the church building, in the brisk night air for four times, then we returned inside the church for the rest of the service. There was a lot of praying and a choir of women who sang throughout the night. At first I didn’t think I was going to be able to make it, standing in the church for four hours….yeah, that’s right, STANDING. They don’t have pews in the churches here so everyone stands but there are a few chairs for the elderly and man did I start to envy the babas (elderly women) in the chairs around 1:30am. My back started hurting and it began to get increasingly warm in the church as more and more people arrived, so we decided to go outside to get some fresh air. My host aunt asked if I wanted to go home, and I told her no. I was determined to get through this….and plus, if we left, we wouldn’t have any blessed food to eat on Easter and I didn’t want to be the one to blame for that.

lined up and waiting for blessing

The closer it got to four in the morning, the more people started arriving. I wish I had a head count because it seemed like the whole village was there in this tiny little church. I saw a lot of my students from school and talked to them and then before we knew it, it was time. The church bells rang and it was four o’clock in the morning and everyone grabbed their baskets of food and rushed outside on the lawn of the church. My host aunt found a spot to stand and everyone had formed a circle outside the church. They then carefully placed their baskets of food out on the lawn on towels and arranged the food as they pleased and put the candles next to it and waited for the priest to come out and bless the food. When the priest came out of the church, there was a procession with a large cross and the women singing followed. First there was a large basket that two men carried around to everyone and people placed money in the basket. After this, the priest used tree branches which looked like a small broom and dipped them into holy water and then blessed the food and the people with the water. I didn’t expect to get doused with holy water but it was fun and my host sister seemed to take the brunt of the dousing. After everyone had been blessed, another large basket came around and everyone put some bread and/or food into the basket and this would be donated to those who cannot make it to church for whatever reason, whether they be poor or elderly, so everyone in the village could eat the blessed bread/food on Easter. This really touched me. My host aunt had a plastic bag filled with bread/food that my family donated and the family standing next to me cut a huge chunk out of one of their large circle loaves of bread to donate. I liked seeing how each family had a different basket of bread, decorated how they felt and there weren’t two that looked alike.


walking home from church at 4am, cold but happy


We arrived home around 4:45am, very tired and immediately went to bed. I woke up at 7am because I had to catch a bus at 8am (I decided to go to the LDS church in Chisinau for Easter services since my host family would be visiting their family in another village). I was still kind of groggy after my 2 hours of sleep. I first washed my face with two eggs, which is an Easter custom here in Moldova. One egg is a plain egg and one is dyed red and there was also some coins in the bowl of water that the eggs were in. This is a symbol of abundance, health and luck for the year to come. After this, I ate breakfast with my host mom and dad since my host sister and aunt were still asleep. I expected to have a big Easter dinner, like back in the states, but here we had a big Easter breakfast. I first drank a shot of holy water that was from a monastery nearby and then we ate the bread that was blessed at the church, along with hard boiled eggs, chicken, lamb, salads, cheese and veggies. The greeting here in Moldova on Easter is “Hristos a Inviat!” (Christ has risen!) and the response is “Adeverat a Inviat!” (He truly has risen!). My host father greeted me this way when I sat down to breakfast and when I responded correctly, he smiled and it felt like I had passed the test.


eggs to wash face with



bottle of holy water



hard boiled eggs



dyed eggs, candy and blessed bread

2011 International Writing Olympics

Daniel and I with his award certificate

The I.W.O. is a creative writing competition that was created by Peace Corps volunteers in Armenia a few years back and currently has extended to include 11 Peace Corps countries from all over the world, including Moldova, the Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Albania, Georgia, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Mongolia.


This is only the second year being held here in Moldova and I was very excited to have the opportunity for my students to participate. It is offered to students from 6th form all the way up to the university level and each form/grade was given three writing prompts and they get to choose which one they like best.

I posted a sign about when the event was going to be held and offered two different days that they could come, in case one day was better than the other. I went out and bought 25 little notebooks and was hoping I would get some students to show up. Some of my students seemed a little worried, they had to write an essay, in English….which sounded difficult, but I told them that the essays would be judged by creativity solely and not grammar or spelling mistakes. This seemed to ease some of their worries.

The first day of the competition, I only got a few students that showed up, but I would have been happy even if just one had shown up. I figured that the 10 students total who decided by their own free will to participate in an essay writing competition in English was a huge success for me, and next year, there would be more students.

I later turned in the essays to Peace Corps where they were to be judged by a group of volunteers and Peace Corps staff. I then received an email stating that one of my students in the 6th form had received 2nd place in the essay competition! How exciting! At school the next day, I told my student that he had placed in the competition and now was invited to a reception at the Peace Corps office in Chisinau on April 18th to receive his award and meet the other students who had placed. He was very excited about this, and since it was on a Monday, we both got to miss a day of school to attend.

I couldn’t have been happier for my student, Daniel. He is the first student at my school to have caught my attention because of his love of the English language and his eagerness to learn. He is also pretty darn cute! He always tells me that he loves America and is always happy to talk to me in English and ask me questions about music, family and friends. He also told me that I was his new favorite teacher when I first started the school year, which made me smile.

Opening the door to Peace Corps

So the day of the event, I met Daniel at school and we then caught a taxi to the bus station in our raion center, which is only a few minutes away by car. Normally the 2 hour bus/rutiera ride to Chisinau is boring one, and I usually just listen to my iPod and/or nod off and fall asleep but sitting with Daniel, there was no time for that. He asked me tons of questions about my life back in California and places where I had traveled to and I think it was the most interesting rutiera ride to Chisinau thus far. A lot of people stared at us because we were speaking English the whole trip but I didn’t mind. When we arrived at the bus station in Chisinau, we had a little bit of time to kill so I suggested we go to the piaţa (open air market) because I needed to buy a few things. He offered to help me buy things at the piaţa from the vendors, and was a little surprised when  he saw me talk to them without a problem. He was very anxious to get to Peace Corps and kept asking me where the office was and I assured him that it was just around the corner. I thought it was cute when we got to the building and I asked him to pose for a picture before we went in and he told me that he “had emotions,” which when translated properly from Romanian means he was excited.

Walking into Peace Corps

I took a lot of pictures of him at Peace Corps, gave him a tour, and he met a lot of volunteers and other students who participated in the competition and had placed just like him. After the wonderful reception, we went to MallDOVA, which is the shopping mall in Chisinau where we had lunch at Mc Donald’s, did a little bit of shopping and then came back to our village, after a long, exciting day. I know Daniel had a fun day and loved every minute of it and it made me smile and remember why I left my home for 2 years to come to Moldova…..for moments like this.

JFK and Daniel

Learning how to play Connect Four in the PC lounge



Lunch at MallDOVA