Orthodox Easter in Bucharest

 
I landed in Romania less than two weeks before Orthodox Easter and knew that I wanted to attend an Easter service. I grew up going to Catholic mass regularly but had never attended an Orthodox church service so the opportunity to check out Easter mass at a Romanian Orthodox church sounded too interesting for me to pass up. Mihaela recommended that I go to the Church of St. Eleutherius as it was a beautiful church and a short walk from the dorm. She also informed me of a massive candle lighting ceremony that occurred during the midnight Easter service.
The Friday and Saturday leading up to Easter and to some extent the Monday following it turned out to be included in my Romanian Easter experience. Many of the restaurants nearby the dorm closed for the entire Easter weekend. Several times during this weekend I found myself eating at the only places open in the area, the McDonald’s and KFC in the nearby mall.
After eating a quick dinner at the mall McDonald’s, I arrived at the Church of St. Eleutherius with a few others at about 11:00 pm for the midnight Orthodox Easter service. We took some stairs to an upper balcony from which we could watch the service from a healthy distance. I had noticed that candles were being sold at the entrance to the church and remembered what I had been told about the candle lighting at midnight, so I quickly went back to the main level of the church to buy a candle for the service. Back in my seat, I had some time to take in my surroundings before mass started. Immediately apparent upon entering the church were the colorful painted walls. Now looking more closely I could see that the walls were made up of many scenes from the bible. I was able to recognize several of these scenes such as the creation scene, the birth of Jesus, and when Jesus talked to the Samaritan woman at a well. They made the interior of the church beautiful and likely reminded worshipers of the various events of the bible. Besides the walls, I was drawn to the events happening on the ground level of the church. Worshippers milled about the center of the church and performed various tasks. Some people walked up to the front of the church and kissed all the major icons set up there. Other people formed two lines. In one line they waited to kiss what looked like a metal book or icon. In the other line people lit small candles and then went up to the iconostasis (a wall of icons that separates the main part of the church from the sanctuary with the alter) and waited patiently for a priest come through a curtained off opening in it and receive their lit candles. This all looked chaotic and random to me at first. People performed these rituals when they entered the church and did so even when mass was in progress.
At about midnight the lights were turned off and people gathered near the front of the church. Priests then entered from the divider with large candles and began to light everyone’s candles. All the candles in the church were quickly lit (including mine when a woman came up to the balcony with her lit candle). The priests then went outside (and out of my view) and announced to a crowd that Jesus has risen. After some singing/chanting the priests and many worshipers came back inside the church. Then everyone began singing while the priests stood around the alter which was now visible behind the iconostasis. This continued for the rest of the mass.
The service ended up lasting for around 4 hours and I was exhausted when I left the church holding my still lit candle at four in the morning. I had assumed that the mass would be much quicker when I originally decided to sit through the entire thing, but I am still glad that I stayed for the entire mass. When I first entered the church, I did not know how mass worked at an Orthodox church, so I looked it up on my phone while waiting for the start of the mass and candle lighting. It turns out that the main elements of an Orthodox mass are the same as in a Catholic mass. As I watched the mass I recognized many of these elements that were the same between Catholic and Orthodox masses. It was a cool experience to witnessing such a new and confusing service while at the same time recognizing things from the masses I would go to while growing up.
Attending the midnight Easter service at a Romanian Orthodox church was a beautiful, long, both interesting and boring, and worthwhile cultural experience. It left me wanting to investigate more of the many churches in Bucharest and I decided to focus my final speech for Mihaela’s class on my personal reflections and experiences with the Romanian Orthodox church. In addition, seeing all the similarities between Catholic and Orthodox masses made me want to experience a Catholic mass again so the next Sunday I ended up attending a service at the main Catholic church in Bucharest. I am grateful that I took the opportunity to go to an Easter service and learn about an important holiday for Romanians.