Easter Sunday (Number 1)

I say Easter Sunday number 1 because here in Romania the majority of people here have not celebrated Easter yet. Orthodox Easter is April 27th which is when our Church here will celebrate Easter. Hungarians and Germans celebrated Easter on March 23rd. Let me tell you a little bit about how we spent March 23rd. At 7 am I climbed the stairs to the German Church on the hill for the sunrise service. This church is over 700 years old and has a crypt underneath of it. The service was all in German but it didn't matter- it was still beautiful. At first we all stood in a circle around the inside of the church while music was sung and the pipe organ was played. Then we slowly filed down into this small little crpyt where there were candles on the floor. It was so peaceful and really helped to picture what Christ's tomb might have been like. After a small service we each took a candle and walked back up into the church. We stood in a circle again and sang joyful music to celebrate the resurrection. Afterwards everyone was invited to the Lutheran priest's home for Easter breakfast. Breakfast was simple but beautiful. In America everything is pastel colors for Easter but here it is bright colors. At each place at the table was a bright red egg and the whole table was decorated in bright yellow, red, and orange. The red dyed egg is to symbolize the blood of Christ. It was really a blessing to be included in the German celebration of Easter.

Nolan and Liam knew that it was Easter in America and so expected that the Easter Bunny would come and leave some Easter eggs outside in the yard. I found a couple of eggs at the store and hid them in the backyard. The boys really had fun looking for them and were perfectly content to only get two eggs each.

After church we went out to Saes with Emil, Liana, Lian, and Andre for a gratar (grilling). I have really come to appreciate Romanian "gratar"s because they are so much simpler than grilling out in America. When we got to Saes we worked out in garden cleaning up dead branches and raking up all the dead stuff from the previous year. This all gets put in a big pile and burned. Once it is burned down enough the grate is put over the coals and the meat is cooked. Along with the sausage and cremwurst we ate some radishes and apples. The boys had a lot of fun. Nolan helped Emil and his cousin haul wood for over an hour. Emil calls Nolan "harnic" or hardworking. I can't say Liam is the same. He would rather just play.- Karen