Happy Holidays!

December 28, 2006


Happy Holidays everyone! Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah etc. and have a healthy, prosperous New Year!
The holiday season in Moldova is just getting underway- they use the old Orthodox calendar instead of the Gregorian one most of us use in the U.S. The fist holiday celebrated here is New Years on December 31st. New Years is celebrated similarly to the way Christmas is celebrated in the U.S. Each family has a “yulke”, which is a version of our Christmas tree, decorated with ornaments, shiny metalic garland, and lights. On New Years Eve, the Russian “Det Mosorose” accompanied by his granddaughter, “Sneguchka” (translated as “Grandfather Frost” and “Snowgirl”) visit each home and leave presents for the children under the yulke. The family has a big meal; ours will be lamb, with lots of champagne, hommade wine, and cognac after midnight on the 31st and then also during the day on January 1st. January 7th is Christmas Day, which is more of a religious holiday than New Years which is secular. Altar boys carol from house to house during the day and are greeted into the home with candy and money. A huge meal is eaten together in the afternoon, again with champagne, wine and cognac. The next day the process is repeated, but at another realtives house. The following day there is another big meal at yet another relatives house in the early afternoon and then another later at home with immediate family. Christmas is therefore celebrated three days in a row, which I believe has something to do with the three days the three wisemen visited Christ? After Christmas, January 14th is “Starie Novie God” or “Old New Years”. Again celebrated with another huge meal. January 21st is “Babushka’s Day” and there are three or four name days celebrated inbetween. So, the whole month of January is basically one big holiday! Noone goes to work and schools are closed. From what I’ve been told, noone really works the first week in February in order to nurse hangovers and rest from the last month of partying :)
Since Christmas is celebrated here on January 7th, I was not expecting to have any type of celebration for American Christmas on December 25th. In the days leading up to December 25th my host mother started asking me questions about how we celebrated Christmas in the United States and the type of traditions upheld in my family. I happily told her about Santa Claus and how after church my family put out a plate of cookies and hot chocolate for Him and carrotts for his reindeer every Christmas Eve. I told her that we opened presents Christmas morning that Santa had left under our Christmas tree, which we had cut down in the woods around Thanksgiving (although more recently I think my family has bought them from Home Depot), After opening presents, we have a big turkey dinner with family around 2:00 P.M. with all the trimmings.
I decided that a few of these traditions could be performed in Moldova with my family, specifically because I have a 4 year-old host nephew, Gosha, who would love Santa Claus. I told him on December 24th (Christmas Eve) that if he behaved and ate all of his dinner (he hardly ever finishes his food) that maybe the American Det Morose called Santa Claus might visit and leave him presents while he slept. My parents had sent me Christmas presents from the U.S. for my host family and a stocking for me, which I “regifted” filled with candy, fruit and a stuffed black lab that looks like Pepper for Gosha. I wrapped a few books about Keene and Mt. Monadnock in the snowman wrapping paper that my mom had wrapped gifts for me in and placed them all, along with a cute suffed calf my Grandmother had made for Gosha under the yulke. Christmas morning I work up to Gosha shaking me and telling me that American Det Morose had came and left him presents. He dragged me to the yulke and showed me the presents and, to my surprise, Santa had even left a present for me- a carved wooden box that is a traditional Moldovan handicraft and a wooden Moldovan Christmas ornament! Since it was a work day, I made him wait until my host mother, Anna, came home for lunch to open the presents. Anna came home around 1:00 P.M. and went to prepare lunch, as always. Around 2:00 P.M. she called us for lunch. I walked into the kitchen and saw a huge spread: A roasted turkey, five different salads, pickled vegetables, bread, baked potatoes, olives and feta, dolmathes, baskets of candy and champagne, wine, and cognac!!! She had been listening to everything I had said we did in the United States and had reconstructed it for me! I have no idea where she found them, but she even had festive Santa napkins on the table. I couldn’t believe it- I had only been living with them for a month, but they made me feel just like part of the family. Their thoughtfulness brought tears to my eyes. During dinner, it began to snow furiously outside. Gosha and I ran outside and played in the 1st snow ot the year, which had come just in time to make my first Moldovan Christmas a white one.

As always, I hope all is finds you and your family happy and healthy!

Take care,
Anastasia

Anastasia Kolivas, PCV
Corpul Pacii
Str. Grigore Ureche #12
Chisinau 2001
Republic Moldova