Eastern Orthodox New Year

According to the Eastern Orthodox calendar, I am obliged to wish you all a new year greeting. That makes today New Year's eve and tomorrow the start of the new year, marked on Saint Vasile's Day. The boys in this photo are my frisbee mates during the spring and summer. Tonight they came to wish us a happy new year in the same style as the boys in the short film from last year--by reciting one the poems that have memorized. It's called "urătura" (oo-ra-toora), and as you can see from last year, it's more of a chant really, and always accompanied by a bell. Also, as I mentioned before, this tradition resembles Halloween a bit, in the sense that after the children recite the appropriate greeting, the host/hostess dishes out candy, money, and loaves of celebratory bread (colac). They even come ready with bags to stow all the goods.

I read up on what all this sing-song is about in National Traditions (Capcelea Valeriu, 1998. Chisinau, Moldova: Evrica 70, 74.), which I received on my birthday. Below is what I learned, translated and summarized for your reading pleasure. If it sounds like an abundance of idyllic notions, it is. But imagine it full of rolling 'r' sounds and rapid-fire diphthongs and you have the Romanian language.

"The urătura is a new year's greeting extolling the homemakers, farmers, and livestock keepers. It is a greeting for those that love work, and for those that provide for the rest of us. It glorifies the work of the country people, who are charged with caring for the sanctity of the land. It is to celebrate him with  sweat on his forehead as he ensures us rich fruits and an abundance of everything. 


Modern verses may also include wishes for success in the recipient's village, and for those born in the coming year. The urătura always ends with a verse for the good of humankind, for everyone to have rich fruits, and to be happy and healthy in the new year."

Tomorrow morning, the children will come again. This part of the Moldovan New Year's celebration is called, "the sowing" (may the agrarian tradition continue as long as the soil will support it!). The children will recite another poem, and throw grain on our threshold as they do. Tomorrow's "sowing" may go something like the poem Capcelea included in my book:

To snow
To rain, 
To morning dew drops,
And for wheat to bud,
Rich with fruit!
To bring us hope
While passing through danger.
So children will grow,
And flower for many years
Like apples,
Like pears,
In the middle of summer
And in springtime.
Strong like stone,
Quick like an arrow,
Strong like iron,
Hot like steal.
To this year and many to come!


I'm sure most children will come deliver lines like this because their mothers compel them. But unlike why I can't tell you why fruitcake is an American Christmas item, I can tell you why the tradition of "the sowing" began, at least, according to Capcelea.

"In the old days, it was considered that children needed to learn how to plant the seeds necessary for bread--the source of life and joy--to love the animals, and now how to grow them." 


So how about a verse for the animals too?

For the lives of oxen and cattle
And your life also
To this year and many to come
With good health!
To be everything well!

New Year's Fundraising

It’s not quite caroling, and it’s not quite serenading. The youth wrote the script themselves and each of us took about four lines from the poem. We marched around town and relayed our messages of good will to the institutions and businesses in our community. The poem also told a little bit about what the youth council is and what they do before asking for donations to support the youth in 2010. Here, the youth are shown with the mayor and vice mayor of our town. Along with their monetary donation, the mayor's office gave us candy, cookies, and the traditional bread too. We visited almost all the public institutions in our town, as well as many shops and private institutions. Despite the economic crisis, this year the youth raised more than ever through this activity.

La Multi Ani!

New Year’s is one of the biggest holidays of the year for Moldovans and I am so glad I stayed at site to spend it with my host family. Maria’s sister and 80 year-old mother were also here. I looked out my bedroom window and instantly recognized Maria’s mother opening our gate despite never having met her.
Most of New Year’s Eve Maria and I were in the kitchen preparing the masa (meals tend to be the most important parts of celebrations). As a new year’s gift (though, admittedly slightly selfish on behalf of my pallet) I prepared a fresh fruit salad. Maria’s mom had never tasted kiwi nor pomegranate. I know that the true value of that imported fruit is really in the carbon emissions to get it here, but the look on Doamna Luba’s face as she tasted her first kiwi at the age of 80 was worth almost every single banut.

I’ve mentioned before on the blog that I have the funniest host Mom in Moldova because she dances with kitchen utensils in the kitchen, right? Well, now I know where she gets it. Right as we were finishing our meal, a song came on the radio that must have particularly appealed to Doamna Luba because her hands went up in the air, swaying side to side as she hummed along to the tune and let out one of completely Moldovanca “eeeeeeee ya ya ya!”

One of my most memorable New Year’s ever.

Despite the fact that we were all awake at mid-night (because the phone, my cell phone, and both of Maria’s cell phones were ringing off the hook with New Year’s greetings), we did not open the champagne until the next morning at 10 o’clock, aka, midnight Pacific Coast Time!

I would be cutting the story short if I didn’t relay Doamna Luba’s toast here. She started off sending best wishes to my family, but then the last part became truly Moldovan…

“Many years with good health to Melissa’s family in America. You have o fata frumoasa and this year we are going to marry her off!”

La mulți ani! Sanatate! Bucoroș! Rabdare! Relezare!