The Roman-Catholics of Moldova blessed red painted eggs and paschal cakes to celebrate the return to life of Jesus Christ. The vicar of the Chisinau parish “Divine Providence” Vasile Cohanovschi has told IPN that all their Easter traditions and customs are similar to those of the Orthodox Christians, including the theological significance of this feast. Everyone celebrates the same Resurrection and greet each other by saying “Jesus has Risen!” .
The Easter liturgy starts on the eve, when the sun goes down, and is called the Easter Vigil. The lights in the church are turned off in order to remind the people about the quietness and darkness of graves. Outside, a group of priests light the paschal candle from which the parishioners take ‘light’ and go inside the church. According to the Catholic tradition, the paschal candle made from natural wax symbolized the Resurrected Christ.
On the Resurrection night, the Roman-Catholics listen to Gospel readings and the bishop’s message. They take the communion. Afterward, there are baptized the catechumens – elderly people who haven’t been baptized yet.
The Roman-Catholics take eggs, paschal cakes and other typical foods with them to church. These are blessed by the bishop after each of the three services held in Polish, Russian and Romanian.
This year, all the Christians celebrate Easter on the same day, this being a calendar coincidence. In Moldova there are over 20,000 Roman-Catholics.
