The following are strictly personal views/observations and in no way reflect the views of the Peace Corp nor the federal government of the United States.

There are approximately 10 holidays a month in Moldova. Not all are celebrated per se, but all are recognized to some degree. Some examples of types of holidays here: Grandmothers Day, Womens Day, Childrens Day, Saint Maria’s Day, Day of the Dead, Martisoral, New Years, Orthodox New Years, Romanian Language Day, Independence Day, Victory Day, Hram/Village Anniversary (often celebrated for your own village as well as every village within a 30km radius), Fire Day, Saint Andrew’s Day, First Day of School, Saint John’s Day, Baptism Day, Post (Eastern Orthodox version of Lint), Pre-Post, Post-Post.

Most often holiday recognition consists simply of not performing arduous tasks or doing certain types of work and consuming alcohol during the afternoon and evening hours. The only problem I have come across with the no work rule is that apparently the only type of work that is considered scandalous to do on a holiday is laundry. It is not permitted for laundry to be done the day of a holiday, the day before a holiday and the day after a holiday. Thus, two or three weeks a month laundry can only be done three or four days out of the seven days of the week. Fortunately though there is some flexibility in the laundry washing rules. Clothes can be rinsed and/or hung out on the line as well as collected from the line on a holiday they simply can not be soaped during the holiday non-work period. It is rumored that if you break the no laundry soaping on a holiday rule then God will break your legs.

Below I have detailed some of the more memorable Moldovan holidays.

This summer, approximately the third week of July, was Ziua de Foc, which translates into Fire Day. This sounds like a holiday meant for arsonists, but it actually is just the opposite. On fire day, fire must not be created, thus no cooking, no heating water, etc. Everyone just sits around, watches television and eats cold leftovers from the previous day.

Ziua de Sfintal Andre, or Saint Andrew’s Day, is in the first half of the month of December. The night before the actual holiday the boys in the village steal the gate of the girl that they have affection for. Then the next day the girls with stolen gates must find their gates’ captor and retrieve their gate. During the night while the boys are out stealing gates, the girls stay at home doing witchcraft, all of which pertains to ascertaining who will be your husband and/or making a man marry you. Some of the preferred witchcraft rituals: take the hair from your hairbrush and sleep with it under your pillow thereby inducing dreams of your future husband. Or place different objects on the floor in a room, and then bring a live chicken into the room. Whatever object the chicken goes to, that tells you something about your future husband, for example if the chicken approaches the money, then your husband will be rich. Lastly, if you sleep with the dirty socks of the boy you like then he will become your husband.

Christmas in Moldova is a unique holiday, and much less of an event than the standard American Christmas. Eastern Orthodox Christmas is on January 7th. I was expecting a huge blowout holiday, considering how excited Moldovans get about birthdays I assumed that the birthday of Christ would be the ultimate birthday, but that was a completely incorrect assumption. At a Moldovan Christmas there is limited gift giving, no Christmas trees, in fact in private homes there is no decorating done at all. Christmas festivities principally consist of drinking mass quantities of wine and cognac, and then going around to other peoples’ houses and singing Christmas carols. Then the day after the Christmas festivities everyone lies around the house and climbs out from under their hangovers.

Sfintal Vasile and Orthodox New Year’s, is the weekend after Orthodox Christmas. These two holidays are celebrated together by young people going door to door, similar to the caroling at Christmas, and giving well wishes. For example, the well wish presented to me by my students went something like: “We wish you to get married someday, have fruitful loins which produce strong boys and beautiful girls, to have much of the money, and not to get old fast.” After the toast the well wishers are invited in for candy and wine, and then when they depart they are given money, about 10 lei apiece (10 lei = 90 cents).

Pastile or Easter, is celebrated at the same time as Easter in America, so a randomly selected Sunday in April. Easter preparation requires the dyeing of uncooked and cooked eggs, however, all the eggs must be colored red. It is considered a sin to dye an egg a cheerful pastel hue. The Easter celebration in Moldova consists of going to the cemetery in the afternoon and then going to church for six consecutive hours at night, approximately 6:00pm to 12:00am. After church everyone returns home, cracks the uncooked dyed red eggs, and then smears the contents of the uncooked eggs onto their face. It is imperative that the egg is not washed off the face until the next morning.

Ziua Mortilor or Day of the Dead is celebrated on the Monday a week after Easter. This day everyone goes to the cemetery in homage to their deceased predecessors. They cover the grave in a towel and on the towel they put out bowls filled with candy, cookies, cooked red eggs, and clatite (crepes). They also take small tree branches and string candy and cookies on the tree branch, the tree branches covered in edibles are then placed in the ground around the grave. Once the temporary monument of consumables is in place the ingestion of alcohol begins. Visitors to the cemetery stalk from grave to grave brandishing a bottle of cognac or wine and a glass, give mournful toasts, and systematically get everyone present inebriated. After about two hours of alcohol consumption, when the alcohol supply is exhausted, people take the bowls of consumables and give them to each other with a standard well wish, that loosely translates to : ‘I give you this bowl of cookies/candy to help ease the suffering you feel from the loss of your forebears.’ However, when this toast was given to me by an intoxicated Moldovan speaking a slurred mixture of Romanian and Russian it sounded like this: ‘Alksdfgoi sdkffdied dckffsdiohs uiortijocxvbkj nfdgjiofds jfdgu!’ After the exchange of dishware and cookie/candy varietals everyone gathers their respective towel and departs for home to take a nap.

The following are strictly personal views/observations and in no way reflect the views of the Peace Corp nor the federal government of the United States.

Moldavians paint the bottom three feet of tree trunk white on all the trees located in neighborhood zones.

The paint used is not high quality sealant but a thin white wash which is applied in several coats to achieve a white tone.

I have asked many people in Moldova what the purpose of the white paint is and I have found that there are three standards answers to this question:

Answer one: “I have no idea, we just do it.” (I have a feeling this is the correct answer)

Answer two: “To protect the tree from bugs.” (I question the validity of this answer
considering bugs can gain access to trees through one of the many feet above the bottom three painted feet; additionally, the paint doesn’t seal the tree it just colors it thus I think bugs can bore through the paint)

Answer three: “Its more beautiful with the bottom painted white.” (I think they are
attempting to attain a look similar to that of birch trees; however, I don’t understand why they do not simply plant birches)

They take tree painting so seriously that they paint white the bottom three feet of other things in the vicinity of trees. For example, if there is a telephone pole near a tree, they paint the bottom of the telephone pole white for the sake of homogeneity.

The following are strictly personal views/observations and in no way reflect the views of the Peace Corp nor the federal government of the United States.

Random Thoughts From Moldova - Part 5

- Worst Things Packed to Bring to Peace Corps Moldova
8) Flip flops (fall apart in about one week on the rough terrain)
7) Hair Conditioner (when showering on a bi-monthly basis, conditioner is
unnecessary)
6) Dryer sheets (dryers don’t exist here)
5) Iron (I never iron anything)
4) Shorts
3) Lotion (when showering on a bi-monthly basis, dry skin is not an issue)
2) Makeup
1) High heeled shoes (tough to operate in the mud)

- In America when we first meet someone or notice someone on the street we look at their face. In Moldova when locals meet someone or notice someone on the street the first thing they look at is their shoes. This shows the priority and importance placed on shoes in Moldova.

- Things I Miss Most
8) Spicy food
7) People being nice to me on a regular basis
6) Rectangular fiber filled pillows (here there are only square down filled pillows)
5) Movie theaters that show movies in English and American television shows
that haven’t been dubbed into Russian (somehow the Wayans brothers lose the
small amount of entertainment value they have when dubbed into a foreign
language)
4) Shower curtain
3) Private transportation
2) Avocadoes
1) Indoor toilet (they exist here but in small numbers)

- In Moldova everyone plays Russian pool and Russian cards. Russian pool and Russian cards are not the same as American pool and American cards. Russian pool involves nine balls; however, the game played with the nine balls is not the same as the game nine ball as we know it in America. Also in Russian pool all the balls are solid and white. I personally could not deduce the objective of Russian pool. Similarly, Russian card decks involve fewer cards than American cards and yet again, I could not deduce how Russian card games are played. I’m not sure if the Russians have simplified or complicated these games with the reduction in balls and cards.

- I have noticed that the majority of people in Moldova like to speak at all times at the top decibel attainable by a human voice. It is very difficult as a foreigner to distinguish solely by intonation if they are giving you a friendly greeting or saying something slanderous about your mother. I often think that my host family is having a tremendous verbal tussle when in actuality they are just discussing the weather.

- I have found there are a few advantages to living in a country where you do not speak the language fluently. One advantage is that when someone is speaking at length about some subject you find monotonous you can easily remove yourself from the conversation by telling them in a thick accent that you don’t really understand what they are saying. The other advantage is that when someone makes a request for you to do something you don’t want to do you can give a totally inapt response and they, without getting offended, desist in their request. I have found that among the most effective inappropriate responses are: “No thanks I am going to eat a hot dog at the bus station,” “I am not sure where the closest toilet is,” and “I like pickles.”