The Watering

Paşte, Peste, Peşte

Last weekend Nancy and I were invited back out to a small village east of Aiud. This is the same spot where last fall we made jars and jars of the traditional Romanian food Zacusca. This time around we went to share the Easter weekend and tour the surrounding countryside.

The Romanian term for Easter is Paşte. The Romanian term for fish is peşte and the term for more than is peste. Confused? It is pretty simple actually, but only if you can remember things. I’ve been frustrated by my inability to remember. But this is a posting about our weekend and a description should include the strange tradition of watering the women.

It is a Hungarian tradition started centuries ago and modified by the coming of perfume in spray bottles. It is still common in the villages where ethnic Hungarians are plentiful. Almost like halloween, young boys go from house to house on the day after Easter with a bag in hand and a spray bottle of cheap perfume in the other. Whenever they come upon a female of any age – the spray bottles come out and the woman is coated in yucky smelling liquid. The boys then are thanked for this by a gift of money and a dyed hard boiled egg. Older boys and men and even old men join in the house to house watering. Their gift is a glass of wine or ţuica, the powerful Romanian plum brandy, instead of money.

By the time most of the gentlemen came to the home where we were staying, they had been to most of the other houses in the village and had been enjoying many glasses of ţuica. The younger lads were much cuter. I’ve included a picture of a trio of boys, one reciting the obligatory poem that is said prior to the spraying.

Most Hungarians are either Roman Catholic or Protestant. Nearly all Romanians are Orthodox. This year, both eastern and western churches celebrated Easter on the same day. Many years it is actually two holidays as the church calendars do not align.

The day before the watering, on Easter, we had ridden back into the mountains of that region to an isolated series of villages where the steeped ridge thatch roof was still in use. Near the village of Kismet in Alba county, which is about 60 km from Cluj, the road was dirt and the mountains steep. Our hosts asked if Americans would recognize the area as Romania. We suggested many Americans assume that this is how most Romanians still live. Truth is, only in this isolated village have we seen the thatch roof. Most Romanians live in cities or towns with access to nearly all the supplies of a modern life.