Celebrating Women's Day

I feel special....

Today is Women's Day in Moldova. I received a phone call today wishing me a happy holiday and many blessings. When I went to the market today, I had several people wish me a happy holiday. I received flowers from my fellow team members. I received chocolates from another friend.

Information about Women's Day from a friend's blog:

IWD(International Women's Day) is now an official holiday in Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. The tradition sees men honoring their mothers, wives, girlfriends, colleagues, etc with flowers and small gifts. In some countries IWD has the equivalent status of Mother's Day where children give small presents to their mothers and grandmothers.

Annually on 8 March, thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate their achievements. While there are many large-scale initiatives, a rich and diverse fabric of local activity connects women from all around the world ranging from political rallies, business conferences, government activities and networking events through to local women's craft markets, theatric performances, fashion parades and more.

WOMEN'S DAY IS A BIG DEAL HERE. This isn't a holiday for moms only. This isn't Valentine's Day. This is a separate holiday. This is for all ladies. The flower markets were jam-packed. There was at least one flower per couple walking down the street. The girl was holding the flower(s) or they were both holding flowers probably because they were taking flowers to their moms.

Tonight I went to youth group. They had some special skits,songs, and games. During one game there were three boys who had to go around and give compliments to girls. If the girl liked the compliment, then she would sign a piece of paper. The boy with the most signatures won the game. So, one boy came up and said to me in Romanian, "You are like a very pretty flower." How nice. I signed his paper. I don't think he won the game, but it was a nice compliment!! (Why don't we have this holiday in America??)It felt kind of like I was 15 again and we were doing a special Valentines Day service at youth group or something. It was really funny.

After youth group I went to a nice restaurant with a few other girls. We tried to go to this fantastic Italian restaurant that has great pizza and good dessert, but they were too crowded. At the second restaurant we had to wait several minutes for a table to open it. Everyone was out celebrating and the places were packed with people. Overall, It was a very fun and special day.

The Coming of spring and joy

Here's a picture of my two pins:




Tomorrow, March 1st marks the first day of spring in Moldova. This will be celebrated by "Martisor." People wear these red and white pins on the left side of the chest beginning on the first day of March. It is common to give these pins as gifts. Exchanging them with friends is a sign of friendship, respect, appreciation, and love. I have had two very sweet friends each give me one, so I will proudly wear mine starting tomorrow.

You can read more about this tradition here: http://www.marisha.net/martisor.htm

and here: http://www.haverford.edu/newsletter/march05/moldova.htm

and here: http://www.moldova.org/pagini/eng/59/

It's really a fascinating and interesting tradition.

Harvest!

Harvest Time! In the churches here they celebrate the fruit of harvests and crops. They decorate the church with all kinds of fruits and vegetables. Then, there is a HUGE meal... Lots of interesting foods. I wish I had some pics of the foods that were part of the celebration. I'm not sure what everything was that I tasted, but it was all edible and some of it was even tasty. Some of the churches give away the food to residents of the community. The best way to describe all of this is to say that it's kind of like our Thanksgiving celebration. Yay!