24 hour party people (part 2)

In may the celebrations continued, although with a considerably less religious character this time.

May 1: Labour Day

After 1989 the meaning of International Labour day in Romania has dissappeared. Now people are usually enjoying this day with beer and mici, preferably in the mountains. And so did we. Egija, Ruth, Raul and me climbed up towards the fortress of neighbouring town Siria (for those who know Romanian literature, the birthplace of writer Ion Slavici), where we met mentor Bogdan Calin and enjoyed a splendid view over Romania's western plains. Of course we had our share in the traditional menu as mentioned above, but I can assure anyone that managed to cut down my consumption of alcohol...

May 2: Day of Youth

A good lesson in Romanian planning. On this day we organized several competitions for the local youth: Chess, Remy and Backgammon in the youth center, and football near the edge of the village. During the day, hardly anyone showed up in the center. Only when we had lost all hope –and the football tournament had ended, the kids entered the center to play games. Not according to any scheme, but just to have fun.

The closure of the day was a concert in the local cultural house. Due to an accident it started one-and-a-half hours later, but surprisingly this didn’t affect the amount of spectators. In between the Romanian popular music and a supposedly humoristic act making fun of all the gypsy clichés (the ones present in the room were the ones laughing the most) there was a small award ceremony. For the first time I noticed a rivalry between the Romanian and the Roma kids. Every participant received a diploma and a t-shirt. Everything in orange – you may draw your own conclusions.

May 5: Men’s day

The 8^th of march is international women’s day. According to a survey most Romanians believe they don’t have enough holidays. That’s why one of the biggest beer brands here started a campaign to make the 5^th of may national men’s day. What started as pure marketing now becomes more and more serious. To be honest: I didn’t do anything special this day.

May 9: Day of Europe

Most of the children here have relatives working abroad. And yet, Europe is something very abstract, even despite the fact that you can see the yellow stars on every official building. In the days before the 9^th of may we visited the highest grades of the primary school to give a presentation about Europe. After all, we’re European volunteers. And no, the Unites States are not in Europe.

On the day itself we were invited at the local kindergarten to attend their special event. Not all the flags were drawn correctly, but it’s the thought that counts. Their songs, poems and dances were adorable.

In the youth center we organized a quiz, following the ‘Ren-je-rot’ (who knows the international name?!) formula. After our experience of one week earlier, we feared that no one would show up, but in the end fifteen kids participated in the activities. Especially the goodies (propaganda?) provided through the information office of the European Parliament proved to be a great success. We closed the day with another infamous Villa party in Arad.

May 10: Nunta (wedding)

This was as well the Day of Ecological Action in Timişoara. With the volunteers who survived the night before we went there to participate in a cleaning action. It’s hardly worth mentioning it: since we managed to get lost in the probably-not-so-complicated tram network of the city we arrived in time at the park to see a lot of garbage bags already being full. The Romanian expression for this: a se duce pe apa sămbătei.

In the evening I experienced my probably biggest cultural shock so far. The son of one the George’s was going to marry and Ruth, Egija and me were invited for the party. After spending a day in very international company we ended up in a very local happening. Three hundred guests were sitting at long tables in the cultural house (see also Second day of Easter and Day of Youth). Arriving at 10, we were just in time for the first course of a meal which would last until 3 am, when the wedding cake arrived. In between the courses there were drinks, more drinks, familiar and new faces, and – despite the lack of space – a lot of dancing. On popular Romanian music of course. After half past three we were allowed to leave, but not without experiencing the situation of giving a, for Romanian standards, very modest wedding present to a pair we didn’t know at all. Still, we received our souvenir: a box of cookies and a can of beer. Timisoreana.

May 17: Disco in Şiria

A full week without any special occasions or parties. We had to celebrate this. The kind kindergarten teacher took us to the local disco in her town. It sounds much worse than it actually was. One can actually get used to manele when they play other music as well. The way people dress and behave was simply amusing. (Or is it just me getting old?) Beer was still cheap. Plenty of space outside. There was only one odd thing. Orange posters all over the place and every hour the orange party song. As I wrote before – sometimes it’s difficult to keep things separate here.

memories of a Romanian safari

On wednesday two bears entered a house in Brasov. In the street where I used to work four years ago. It certainly brings back memories:

24 hour party people

How to describe the end of april and the beginning of may? A simple 'party time' wouldn't do justice to all the subtle differences, the traditions and the paradoxes. An overview of several days of Romanian celebrations, festivities, holidays and utter bacchanals. Part 1: April

April 20: Palm Sunday & Floriile
As I previously wrote, the Sunday before (Orthodox) Easter, marks the start of the Holy Week. Everyone in the village seemed to be present during the service, to collect a blessed branch and to celebrate Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Especially with the elections coming up it might be important to be seen, although not necessarily during the whole mass. For me as an atheist it is interesting to observe how people are experiencing Church. It's a bit like more things here: you'll pick the most important parts and leave the rest.
The rest of the day was filled with flowers. People with a flower in their name celebrated their second birthday. This meant that my host, Florin, was having a barbecue. A good opportunity to get acquainted with the family, the friends, the mayor... and the homemade drinks.




April 23: St. George Day
The integration course continued. The mayor, whom I've met a few days earlier, is called George. Because of this, and maybe because of the fact that the elections are coming up, he invited all the Georges in the village for a party with wine, beer, ţuica and mici, in the city hall. My name isn't George, but I still had the chance to meet several of them. And to discover the pitfalls of the local (strong) wine.




April 24: Queensday reception organised by the Dutch consulate in Timisoara
Is there a bigger contrast possible than the one between a party on the countryside and a diplomatic reception in the local museum of arts? Maybe there is. With Dutch colleague Theo I experienced a small culture shock, when we entered the entrance hall, slightly underdressed. The vast majority of the people present seemed to belong to the Romanian upper class. The biggest shock however came at the buffet: suddenly no one was able to form a proper queue anymore.

April 25: Holy Friday
The preparations for Easter intensified. In Arad we received orange Easter bunnies. Orange is the colour of the PD-L (Partidul Democrat Liberal), the party of a lot of people around me. Another sign that politics and celebrations sometimes cannot be separated. Fortunately there was no sign of this when I attended the mass in neighbouring village Ghioroc. Since this was the commemoration of the crucifixion the priest was dressed in black. Almost the complete service consisted of singing prayers, with mentor Bogdan Calin as one of the singers.







April 26: Resurrection Night
I never experienced a proper countdown towards Easter before. Until this Saturday. In the morning we went with several boys to home for disabled people in Lipova, to give them Easter presents. After that we spent the day painting eggs and my colleagues Egija and Ruth received rabbits as a gift from Raul, our coordinator. At 11 pm we were ready to go to Church. In Romania this night is at least as big as Christmas eve, a night when everyone goes to church, no matter how religious one is. And yes, the church was crowded. During the service the priest changed his black dress for a white one – to symbolize the resurrection of Christ. Just as the night before people lighted candles and circled the church three times. Most of the people left the service after this to go to their traditional Easter meal: lamb, cheese, onion, ham, wine & ţuica and of course the freshly painted eggs.




April 27: first day of Easter
More eggs for breakfast. Hristos a inviat. Adevarat a inviat. (Christ has risen. Indeed He has risen) For this traditional question and answering ritual you need two eggs and two people. With your egg you have to crush the other one. And don't make the mistake to answer Adevarat a intrat (Indeed he entered)...
Despite the tuica and wine we did manage to get up in time for another mass. It was lighter, more cheerful this time. A special place was reserved for the children. The end of the service was more earthly, when the priest underlined the importance of the recently bought minivan: it enables the children of Covasint to see more than just their village. The rest of the day was dedicated –once more- to a traditional lunch and the recovering of it. And no, the Easter bunny didn’t forget us.

April 28: second day of Easter
Did I mention the eggs? This day we ended with a plastic bag, completely filled with coloured eggs and cozonac. It’s a tradition here to spend Easter monday on the cemetery, to commemorate dead relatives. People brought food and drinks and these were blessed by the priest. After that the commemoration/celebration started: a lot of families invited us to join them and we just had to accept the food. And the drinks. This was actually the first occasion were we noticed some differences between Roma and Romanians and between different Roma groups. As I wrote before, the Roma from Covasint like to show their wealth – and this doesn’t stop at the cemetery. There were also the poor Roma – probably from other villages- who were attracted by the hospitality of the families and the free cake and eggs.
With a filled stomach we visited the Easter Ball in the local cultural house. We actually contributed to the decoration of the party through our photo exhibition. An interesting sample of the village population gathered to move on traditional Romanian music. This is where our traditional dance course turned out to be quite useful. Some of them really did their best to dress up, others just showed up in a training suit. Oh, and did I mention the alcohol?








April 30: (Queensday) / EVS volunteers Villa party.
Forget Queensday. After one day of relative rest we moved to a different world: the one of international volunteers in Arad. The garden of Babel I found in Lunca Muresului moved to a villa in Arad. Fifteen volunteers from every corner of Europe are staying there during there project. It became the epicentre of parties, conflicts and other social gatherings for all the millennium center volunteers. On this day two volunteers (Fleur from Amsterdam and Sara from Spain) celebrated their birthday. Did I mention… Never mind. This was the only party in the row without certain traditions or etiquette to observed.