Easter in Romania

Easter is the most important holiday for christian people in Romania. Next weekend Romanian people celebrate Easter. They start to prepare for Easter 45 days before it when people stop eating meat, eggs and milk. While people prepare their bodies and souls for this holiday, they clean the houses and wash everything; these habits mean everybody and everything must be clean and pure.
Great Week starts on Sunday before Easter when people go to church to celebrate Flowers Sunday. This habit means Jesus's entry into Jerusalem and people touting him putting flowers on the ground, so Romanian People take blessed flowers from church, bring them home to bless the house and the people.
Great Thursday is the day when Romanian people go to church to eat Holly Bread and drink Holly Wine as Jesus did at Last Supper. Also in this day people paint eggs in the Romanian traditional manner. Red eggs were the norm due to the color’s association with Christ’s blood. On Great Friday Romanian women cook traditional food with lamb and make traditional sweets as Easter Bread and Pasca (cake made with cheese and raisins).
On Saturday before midnight people go to church where lights are dimmed and the candlelight, borne by the priest, is passed among the members of the congregation, who hold unlit candles. These candles may be taken home as a reminder of the service and to spread the holiness of the candles to their own homes. Only after this service people could eat meat.
Sunday or Easter Day people celebrate with their families and friends, enjoy eating all the traditional foods and especially playing the popular game knocking eggs together end-to-end. Monday is the second day of Easter, when people meet together having a BBQ and still celebrating the Holiday.