and well kept and inspirational 
as was the midnight Easter luminaria service which we attended. As it is the custom for women to cover their heads when entering the church we had to scrounge around the house for a head cloth... here is the result... hmmmm.....
The midnight luminaria service was held both inside the church out out.
The flame from Jerusalem was brought into the front of the church and people nearly ran to the altar with such excitement to light their own candles off of that flame... beautiful chants and songs were sung... we walked around the church perimeter serveral times and somehow I got separated from Vanny and Drea, but I stood alone amidst the sea of Romanian and thoroughly enjoyed the service. It is traditional to stand for the entire service which can go on for up to 3 or 4 hours I understand...The next morning we ate with Drea's Granny. Granny brought out the red eggs - dyed red because Mary Magdalene brought eggs to the base of the cross and the blood from Jesus' feet dripped onto the white eggs..
You are to rub one red
egg and one 
white egg on each cheek
... for beauty of spirit or something, and then it is traditional to do this "egg crack" 
game with the first meal of the day on Easter.I really liked this tradition - fun for all You just start tapping the ends of your eggs with others in the room and when both of your ends are broken you're out! Vanny was the eventual winner as you see the two of us here tapping our eggs.The next Sunday and Monday is another holiday which is the time when everyone goes to the cemetery with food and wine and they eat and
drink in memory of those who have died. It seemed a little creepy to me at first, but everyone in town is theredoing the same thing... people are happy and talk about their mutual friends that have gone before them...and it is a great time to get together and remember loved ones. Here is a picture of a typical cemetery.
drink in memory of those who have died. It seemed a little creepy to me at first, but everyone in town is theredoing the same thing... people are happy and talk about their mutual friends that have gone before them...and it is a great time to get together and remember loved ones. Here is a picture of a typical cemetery.Here is an example of the tulips in bloom along the public sidewalk in Stefan Voda.. it's beautiful with gardens everywhere!!!
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