Christmas Day

Pentru Pasari (For the Birds)

Pentru Pasari
(For the Birds)

Many of you know that Nancy and I take enjoyment from the many birds that come to our winter feeders in Virginia. My mother was famous for her dedication to donating suet and sunflower seed and mixed thistles to the birds in her yard and I have inherited a portion of that impulse. Here in Romania the creatures have no institutional memory of coming to a feeder for a winter handout. So I’m sure they, along with our neighbors, are given cause to wonder about us Americans when they examine my set up.

My homemade bird feeder is hanging in a rose bush outside our apartment window. It’s not far from the main entrance door to the block and in a high traffic area, but there is good protection for the birds from the wandering cats. I created the feeder out of a plastic Pepsi bottle adding a chop stick for landing spots. It’s a funny looking thing but it serves to keep the seeds dry. It’s taken a week for the first bird to venture up to taste the cracked corn and seed I’ve placed there.

I’ve not seen a bird feeder in Romania though Nancy tells me of another hand made one at her office. For food I’ve mixed some cracked corn meal and a small sunflower type seed together. These are meant for human consumption, but the birds don’t seem to mind, now that they’ve found it. As of now the only variety that ventures to the feeder are a pair similar to the black and white chickadees that are common in Virginia but the Romanian version is more colorful with a buff yellow breast. Nancy says they are called ‘tits’ and that might be true, but I know a good pair of tits when I see them, and these birds don’t qualify as such. I haven’t succeeded in getting a good picture of the tits yet, but if anyone would happen to have one (picture I mean) it would be appreciated if you would share it.

So far they only come in the morning and do not linger, but I suspect as the word gets out that free food is available, we’ll see many more.



I am posting this on Christmas day and as many of you have inquired about Romanian customs for Christmas, I’ve also posted another entry below.

Piata Unirii in Winter

Romanian Christmas

Romanian Christmas

Christmas is celebrated on December 25th in Romania. There is an interesting difference between St. Nicolas, Mos Nicolai and Santa Claus, Mos Craciun, or Father Christmas. Mos Nicolai comes early in December and gives a small gift only to children. Mos Craciun is more like our traditional Santa. You can see him on selected street corners with a bell and donation pot. I’m not sure if he is affiliated with the Salvation Army or not. Everyone gets a Christmas tree and stuffs it into their apartments, but not before Christmas Eve. Everyone gets and gives presents, but not to the excess that we do in America. It’s a good perspective, not overdone.

We are not experts on the Romanian Christmas celebrations. We have a hard time reading the signs posted on the announcement columns and church doors. It’s not because our Romanian is so bad, but because the signs are often in Hungarian or German. We’ve been to an Hungarian version of River Dance, without the production values, that appeared to us to be a fund raiser for an orphanage or day camp. We’ve been to the annual concert of the local music high school – the choir better than the orchestra. We’ve been to a free Christmas Eve performance of the nutcracker – the orchestra excellent. We attended two church services today at the same church, one in Hungarian and one in German. No telling what else we missed because of our language failings.

The Gypsy band was out parading yesterday drumming up donations. They consisted of an accordion, a saxophone, a drum, and a fellow dressed up as a big bird, though not yellow. We toasted our traditional bread, the Cozonac. It is like a fruit cake but with bread instead of cake, and really pretty good, although I don’t know if it’s suppose to be put in a toaster. Ours was store bought instead of homemade. We listened to the neighborhood boys come sing carols for us, but we didn’t know how much to pay them. It’s something like Halloween for them. We missed our American traditions of Pecan Turtles – made by Tim, Pumpkin Bread & Nancy Pratt Candy – made by Nancy, but we did make raspberry chocolate truffles.

From the pictures taken on Christmas Day you can tell we’ve had a white Christmas. I’ve taken the job of being in charge of keeping the stairs to our apartment swept of snow. I do it as a way to meet the neighbors and to wish them Craciun Fericit. I wish it to you as well.

The Main Square in Sibiu

The Church in Sibiu

Sibiu

Sibiu

For eight days Nancy and I attended what Peace Corps calls In Service Training. It was held in the interesting city of Sibiu, one of a handful of the German cities of Transylvania. Sibiu’s center city, its old town, is still largely intact, which is unusual for a city in Romania. Most others have some remnant of the older structures, but Communism dictated that cement block apartments replace more architecturally interesting structures.

Sibiu is currently undergoing a reconstruction, but this time, it’s received European Union monies to redo and resurface many of the historic squares and buildings. It has been selected by some commission or other to be the Cultural Center of Europe in 2007. There is a problem in that there are only two hotels in the city of about 100,000 people, and only three good restaurants, but the place is proud of its designation.

Nancy and I and a few other volunteers attended a symphony concert the first night of our stay and heard a marvelous selection of Von Weber, Schumann and Schubert in an elegant new concert hall erected over and around parts of the ancient walls of the city. On Sunday we went to the German Lutheran church for Sunday service. The sermon was given with conviction and eloquence but was in German, and so was over heads. The church was built in the thirteenth century as a Catholic cathedral with vaulted ceilings and stone columns. The floor paving blocks have been worn by the passing of so many feet in the last 700 years into curving troughs between the pews.

It was a bigger crowd of us that trekked out in the cold December air to hear a Christmas concert at the church later that evening. While we were disappointed that the fine organ was not used, the setting seemed quite appropriate for the recorders and choir of the teenagers of the congregation. It put us all in the proper mood as the cathedral echoed with the resonance of the season.

The IST training is a chance for the bunch of us that came over last spring as Romania 20 to get together and judge our progress. It is interesting that Nancy and I have become something of experts at goings on and cultural activities beginning at 7:30 or before, but after that hour, the group turns to others for advice.