Little Easter, Part 2

The stirring conclusion of Little Easter, Part 1!

Still waiting for the priest to come and bless us!

Once we received word the priest was on his way, everyone stuck candles into the food and lit them.

The cross bearer, a little older than they usually are in the States...

Get ready for some serious holy water.

Priest #2, doing his holy thing.

These priests take the holy water sprinkling very seriously. They get as much water as they can on their branches, and then they wind up and let it rip.

These people are recovering after getting hit with a blast of holy water.

I attended this ceremony with one of the European volunteer's host family. They were very friendly and gracious. This is a family grave. You can see the little pan with incense in it. (I snagged the shot while it was still burning.) They put flowers all over the grave and pour some water on it. It's sort of like the rapper tradition of pouring out a 40 for the deceased. Check out the little candy someone has left on the cross.

You can see people enjoying their post-holy-water meal. It's very much like the Day of the Dead in Mexico as Mary Beth has described it to me. People give food to each other in honor of the deceased. I, for one, appreciated all the wine I drank in honor of their grandmother. Thanks, babushka, where ever you are!

A close up of the Little Easter meal. The liquid in the Gura bottle is homemade white wine. You can see some dyed eggs in the bowl behind the bottle. The cakes are special Easter cakes called "Paskha" (пасха: which is the same word as Easter, actually). They stuck the candles in the cakes for extra holiness.

The family I was with put out a real spread. We had dolma and cutlets and candy and lots of cake. It was quite delicious. I got to talk to many of the family members and it was quite a lot of fun. Comrat is really small, so you always run into people you know. One of the family's kids had a friend studying at a high school in Tempe. I had heard that there was a kid from Comrat in Tempe, and now I have confirmation! I've gotta find this kid.

I decided that I like this holiday. People weren't sad, they were just happy to be generous in the memory of their loved ones. Having been to a few All Souls Day services, I can definitely say this compared favorably! It seems like a healthy way to remember the dead by symbolically sharing a family meal with them. As they partied in life, so we party with them in death.