Today is Memorial Easter in Moldova, a public holiday. It is observed on the eighth day after Orthodox Easter, which means it always falls on a Monday. Called ‘Paştele Blăjinilor’ in Romanian, this holiday is also known as the Easter of the Dead or Memorial Day and Parent’s Day. The origins of this festival are pagan rather than Christian with its roots based on an ancestor festival.
On Memorial Easter, families go to church and then on to the cemetery. There, the family graves are cleaned and a meal is eaten with some food intentionally let to fall on the ground as an offering to dead relatives.
In pagan times, families would have left eggs on the graves of the dead, symbolizing rebirth. When Christianity arrived in the region, rather than suppress the older traditions, the church simply absorbed the rituals into Christian festivals. The egg was an easy one as the date of spring for the ancestor worship festival fell close to Easter and the use of the egg as a symbol of rebirth fitted well with the Easter message of resurrection.
Today is the birthday, in 1942 of American singer, songwriter, actress, and filmmaker Barbra Streisand who had the 1974 US No.1 single ‘The Way We Were’, and the 1980 UK & US No.1 single ‘Woman In Love’. She is among a small group of entertainers who have been honored with an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award. Films include, Funny Girl, The Owl and the Pussycat, The Way We Were, and A Star Is Born. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWoQW-b6Ph8
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