Christmas on December 25 is also celebrated by about 20,000 Catholics who live in the Republic of Moldova. Unlike other years, this year the faithful will not give Christmas wafers called “oplatki” to each other in churches, a tradition borrowed from Poland, given the COVID-19 pandemic, IPN reports.
On the eve, the Catholic parishioners go to churches to take part in a religious ceremony. At the start of the procession, the bishop puts the statute of baby Jesus in the manger improvised in the church so as to stage the birth of the Savior. At the end, the faithful are congratulated in different languages.
“It is an old Italian tradition, dating from St. Francis. We make a kind of manger with straw where Jesus was born, with statues representing Joseph and Maria, with shepherds, sheep and angels, with three camels and the Magi from the East,” Anton Coșa, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Chisinau, stated for IPN.
Four services will be given at the Roman Catholic Cathedral “Divine Providence” in Chisinau in different languages on Christmas. Anton Coșa called on the parishioners to try and solve the problems caused by the pandemic with confidence and hope and to pray as not only the medicines or vaccines will help solve the problems.
A liturgy will be held at the Roman Catholic Cathedral “Divine Providence” in the evening of December 31 to thank God for what he offered to the Christians during the year. “The bells will be rung at midnight and those who live close will be invited to a short prayer for a better year,” stated the bishop.
In Moldova there are 20 Catholic churches.
