As Easter Sunday is a time to be spent with the family, Easter Monday is a time to visit friends and family.
Starting in the morning, boys and men go to their friends' and family members' houses armed with a bottle of perfume. On this day they go to "water" the flowers from each house (i.e. the women and girls of that family) so that they "grow" beautiful and perfumed as flowers. When they enter the house they have to say a short poemto get permission to "water" the "flowers" of the house:
"I am a small gardener
I have a perfume bottle in my pocket
I have heard there's a withering flower in this house
May I water her?"
Of course, the poem has a certain rhythm and rhyme in Romanian.
Then, after he "waters" the "flowers", the child gets paid by the "flowers": a painted egg and some money. If the "gardener" is a teenager (16 or more), and there is a teenage girl in the house, she pins a spring flower (a blue or white hyacinth or another spring flower) on his jacket. If the "gardener" is an adult, he gets a painted egg and he is invited to join the host at the Easter table.
The table is then laden with rich foods: painted eggs, roast stuffed lamb, meat balls, schnitzel, boiled smoked ham with horseradish sauce, different types of salads, sarmale (stuffed cabbage rolls), sheep cheese or other types of cheese, fresh spring radish and onion, and many others. For desert they are served with COZONAC (a special Romanian Easter cake filled with a cream made of shredded nuts, sugar and raisins, or with poppy seeds filling) and other cakes and cookies prepared by the women in the family for this occasion, (or bought if they have no time to bake.) Everything is washed with tzuika, wine and beer, or other drinks, according to what the hosts have prepared.
And everyone has a great time together!
HAPPY EASTER!!!!!
Daniela Buda
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