Pomeni (Moldova)

Pomeni 🇲🇩 🇷🇴 🇺🇦
Location: Moldova and Romania
Definition: Literally ‘handouts’, parcels of food gifted at the cemetery during ‘Easter of the Blessed Ones’ in memory of dead relatives
Keywords: Moldova – Romania – Ukraine – Europe – Funeral – Religion – Orthodox Christianity – Paganism – Easter – Occult – Gift
Author: Gian Marco Moisé
Affiliation: Dublin City University, Ireland

By Gian Marco Moisé, Dublin City University, Ireland

Pomeni, literally ‘handouts’, are parcels including a painted hard-boiled egg, colaci (round braids of bread), candy, a small cotton towel, a candle and matches, wrapped in a plastic bag. In Moldova and Romania, the bundle is gifted to visitors at the cemetery during paștele blajinilor, the day of remembering the dead, literally the ‘Easter of the Blessed Ones’. When gifting pomeni, people will say: ‘For the soul of’ (pentru sufletul) followed by the name of the relative they wish to remember. To this the recipient responds ‘bodaproste’, an abbreviation of the Russian ‘bogda prostit’, ‘may God forgive’.

Arrangements for paștele blajinilor are similar to those of the Orthodox Easter celebration. Ghosts of the ancestors are believed to roam the cemeteries and consume the meals prepared by their relatives, and leftovers are never brought back home. Wine is sometimes poured on the tombstones. According to one interpretation, the wine will get the devil drunk and spare the souls of relatives, according to another, the wine allows the deceased to celebrate (Sofronia 2021). Moldovan tombs often contain a built-in small table and chairs so that the living and the dead can share a meal. A candle is then lit near the tomb, weeds are cleared out and fresh flowers are laid. Older women are expected to clean the tombs no longer tended by the relatives of the deceased.

'Sharing a meal with the dead in the central cemetery of Chișinău'. Source: Gian Marco Moisé. © Gian Marco Moisé.

While younger generations tend to not partake in the practice, older ones continue to prepare pomeni with care, days in advance. In some Moldovan areas such as Soroca, in Northern Moldova, pomeni have become an extravagant display of wealth, involving plasma TVs and laptops instead of eggs and bread. Attendants dress up for paștele blajinilor as they would for a night out. Women in high heels and revealing dresses often infuriate priests, who accuse visitors of violating the sacred ground of the cemetery (Transilvania Report 2019). Visitors snap selfies in front of the tombs or document their celebration on social media. The town, already well-known for its kitsch architecture, has a cemetery with tombstones that reach impressive dimensions and carry life-sized carved pictures of the deceased, often dressed in tracksuits or sitting on thrones. In a game of blame, on local newspapers Romanians attribute the degeneration of the practice to Moldovans. On the other hand, Moldovans put the blame on Roma, whose presence is particularly high in the district of Soroca.

'Built-in table and chairs in tombs'. Source: Gian Marco Moisé. © Gian Marco Moisé.

Gifting pomeni to visitors to the cemetery is the core practice of paștele blajinilor. In Romanian, paștele means ‘Easter’. The term blajinilor has Slavic origins meaning a ‘gentle, kind, or pious soul’ (Stimpovschii 2015). By celebrating paștele blajinilor, people from Banat, Transylvania, Bukovina, Bessarabia, and Maramureș, regions between Moldova, Romania, and Ukraine, celebrate their mythical forefathers. The ancestors, believed to guard the villages, are called to celebrate Easter by releasing red-coloured eggshells to float down the river. Another way to call the ancestors is to put an ear on the ground but according to a popular belief, the voices of blajini can cause deafness. According to another popular belief, if people do not celebrate the Easter of the Blessed Ones with care, the fields will no longer bear fruit, the sheep will get sick, and their hands and feet will ache (Radio Chișinău, no date).

While in Romanian references to the ancestors are vague, in Ukrainian the celebration has a protohistoric etymology. Paștele blajinilor is called rahmanskii velikdien’, the great day of the Rahmans (Boris Grinchenko Dictionary, b). It is believed that the forefathers of people from these regions, the blajini, were the Rahmans, a mythical nation of righteous Christians in Ukrainian folklore (Sofronia 2021). Other interpretations present blajini as the descendants of Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve, incapable of doing harm and living at the border between the ‘seen’ and the ‘unseen’. According to researchers, the name Rahmans (Boris Grinchenko Dictionary, a) comes from the Thracian language, and is the nickname of Zeind-Roymenos (holy light), a deity present in Dobrogean, Oltenian, and Transylvanian folklore. In a section of the medieval epic “Alexandria” (Vrăjitoriu Enache 2015), Alexander the Great met the Blajini at the edge of heaven, where their king Evant gifted him with the water of eternal life (Radu no date). This shows that paștele blajinilor is a pagan celebration reinterpreted by the Christians from these regions. Similar to paștele blajinilor, Russians from the Smolensk region celebrate radonitsa (Mostowicz 2018), and in Belarus the same festivity is called radaunitsa.

Celebrated on the Monday following Saint Thomas Sunday, eight days after Orthodox Easter, paștele blajinilor takes place after ‘light week’ (săptămâna luminată), during which believers are supposed to abstain from household or farm work or they risk going blind (Sofronia 2021). Only during the ‘dark week’ (săptămâna neagră) can they commemorate the dead. Most of these beliefs have been lost in modern-day practice. During Soviet times, paștele blajinilor was celebrated on Sunday instead of Monday, a working day since Soviet authorities did not acknowledge the holiday. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Moldova independence, the celebration became a national holiday. In Chișinău, the capital of Moldova, during paștele blajinilor, buses form long queues on the side of Albișoara street to bring passengers to Saint Lazarus cemetery located on the outskirts. It is prohibited to travel to the cemetery by car during the paștele blajinilor holiday, because the cemetery’s car park is too small to accept all the visitors.

References

Boris Grinchenko Dictionary. No date a). Rahman. http://hrinchenko.com/slovar/znachenie-slova/50545-rakhman.html

Boris Grinchenko Dictionary. No date b). Rahmanskii Velikdien, http://hrinchenko.com/slovar/znachenie-slova/4405-velykden.html

Mostowicz, Irina. 2018. “A Ritual of Death or Life? The Case of Radonitsa in the Smolensk Region, Russia”, Сибирские исторические исследования, Sibirskie Istoriceskie Issledovania [Siberian Historical Research], 2: 224-243, DOI: 10.17223/2312461X/20/12

Radio Chișinău. DOCUMENTAR | Paștele Blajinilor, https://radiochisinau.md/documentar-pastele-blajinilor---66176.html

Radu, Melania. Paştele Blajinilor – legendă, tradiţie şi mister, [Paştele Blajinilor – legend, tradition and mistery], https://www.academia.edu/43212859/Melania_Radu_Pa%C5%9Ftele_Blajinilor_legend%C4%83_tradi%C5%A3ie_%C5%9Fi_mister

Sofronia, Dan. 2021. "Tradiţii în Săptămâna Neagră. Când e Paştele Blajinilor sau al Rohmanilor, o sărbătoare cu origini păgâne"", [Traditions in the Black Week. When it is the Easter of the Blessed Ones or the Rohmans, a feast of pagan origins] Adevarul.md, 5 May, https://adevarul.ro/locale/piatra-neamt/traditii-saptamana-neagra-e-pastele-blajinilor-rohmanilor-sarbatoare-origini-pagane-1_6091275e5163ec4271aee3d6/index.html

Stimpovschii, Doina. 2015. "Moldovenii sărbătoresc păgâneşte. 'Paştele Blajinilor înseamnă fericire. În cimitir nu se intră cu mâncare şi băutură'", [Moldovans celebrate pagan. "The Easter of the Blessed means happiness. Food and drink are not allowed into the cemetery] Adevarul.md, 18 April, https://adevarul.ro/moldova/social/moldovenii-sarbatoresc-paganeste-pastele-blajinilor-inseamna-fericire-In-cimitir-nu-intra-mancare-bautura-1_55321173cfbe376e35445e99/index.html

Transilvania Report. 2019. ‘’Paștele Blajinilor în Republica Moldova, între tradiție creștin – ortodoxă și practică păgână’’, [Easter of the Blessed in the Republic of Moldova, between Christian-Orthodox tradition and pagan practice], 5 May, https://transilvaniareporter.ro/actualitate/pastele-blajinilor-in-republica-moldova-intre-traditie-crestin-ortodoxa-si-practica-pagana/

Vrăjitoriu Enache, Anca. 2015. “The Food of the Happy Ones.” DICE Vol. 12 (1): 183-194