Flowers for Easter

Flowers for Easter

I saw a statistic the other day that indicated that Romanians spend a higher percentage of their income for food than do any other European country. I thought that surprising because, except for meat, food is not that expensive and people are not overweight. While it might reflect the low amount of income that people earn I was surprised by the data. I would not have been surprised if it had indicated that Romanians spend a higher percentage of their income on flowers than anywhere else.

The flowers are sometimes just simple snowdrops, sometimes bunches of daffodils or daisies, but often they are elaborate floral bouquets. Roses and especially lilies are the favorites. There are flower stands at every market and almost every street corner. Nearly all of the blooms must be imported for I have seen few sizable greenhouses in the country. Albert Bela – I have spoken of him and his daughters before – has a small operation that sells both cut flowers and bedding plants in Luna de Sus and judging from his continual growth and improvements, he must be doing well.

Easter is Sunday. So is next Sunday. It depends on whether you are Orthodox or not. In the United States Easter is the 16th this year. In Romania we can celebrate it twice. It is an important date, with the holiday taken on either Friday or Monday or both. I understand that the rule is you can’t claim to be Protestant one week and suddenly convert to Ortodox the next, though.

And the Easter flowers are out. Women and girls walk with a spring bouquet in their hands. Young gentleman carry a fancy arrangements as they head home after work. For my part I’ve planted pansies along the little strip in front of our apartment. We live on the first floor of our block and it’s our understanding that the first floor apartment has the obligation to work on the flower bed. That’s not a problem for me. I only wish that I had more space to plant. I saw Clematis vines in the market and if I had found the variety that we planted years ago at our entrance in Elkton, I wouldn’t have been able to resist.

As it is, I’ve planted the pansies and three starts of strawberry plants. Impatiens will come later, after the danger of frost. The neighbor commented that the children would take all the strawberries from my three small plants and I replied that I planted them there for the children. Sort of my Easter gift, except that it will be next year before they bare any worthwhile fruit. They will ripen after Easter, of course, but if we have two Easters next year, why not three? I’ll proclaim my own if and when the strawberries ripen.