Hristos A Inviat - Easter...the Moldova way

Easter in Moldova is the Sunday after Easter in America, but the basics are the same. Instead of saying "good morning, good afternoon, hello..." you greet each other saying "Christ has risen." So for the entire week, you are saying this and the other person is responding back. It is fun, at least, to me. When you wake up in the morning you have to wash your face with a red colored egg and some bani (coins) in a bowl of water. The previous night, everyone goes to the church to have their bread, eggs, and anything else, blessed for the upcoming holiday. Pasca, is the traditional Easter bread. Every house makes their own. The ingredients consist of about 30 eggs, milk, sour cream and butter, among the regular ingredients needed to make bread. The bread is then rolled out thin, covered with various toppings and then rolled up. My host mom used crushed walnuts and peanuts, apricot jam, crushed sunflowers, and a chocolatey sauce. Inga and I had full intentions of taking a two hour nap, waking up at 11pm and going to church. The appointed time rolled around and Inga refused to get up, so it was a bust. Maybe next year. I wasn't crazy about standing around in a church from midnight to 5am, the way it goes here. The rundown of the day goes like this:
We set up and wait for guests at our house. When they arrive, we sit down to a table full of fish, pork, lamb, salads, candy, bread, vegetables, wine and vodka. We eat generous portions of the (as always) amazing food.
About and hour after eating, we pile into the car and head to the neighboring village where my host grandmother lives. We are welcomed by yet another masa complete, once again, with wine and cognac. We crack eggs with each other, and whoever's egg does not crack, will have a very fulfilled life. I played there and won...so watch out! Inga, her friend, and I venture around, taking silly pictures of ourselves. At least, mine were silly, while there's were attempting to be model quality, right down to the expression. From there we go to my host dad's aunt's house. She is really sick and he wanted to see her. When I arrive, of course, they introduce everyone and I am immediately the conversation of the week. The uncle there was immediately glued to me and pulled a chair right up next to me and began talking. He told me all about his cows, sheep, goat, and his garden. He kept saying, "I will show you, do you want to see?" and, of course, my response was yes. So after drinking and eating some more, he took me on a tour of his place. It was great, right down to the hand holding. He showed me his baby pigs, which I attempted to pet, to the horror of my host mom who was screaming " they will bite you!" I saw his enormous raspberry, onion, garlic, watermelon garden and his wine vineyard. He took me to see the sheep and the baby lambs. I held a baby lamb, once again, to the dismay of my host mom. Then we went out to the field to gather the cow, the baby cow and the goat. I attempted to feed the baby cow but it was always out of my reach. It was fun to see an old man run around chasing a cow and a goat in the countryside.
Once the animals were secure in their places, the tour did not end. I was shown his immense piles of wood for the winter and his cellar. In his cellar, we tasted some wine, straight from the barrel. He gave me canned green beans, apple jam, and strawberry jam. He was truly great. I said "I have a new boyfriend," and everyone laughed.
Easter day did not stop there. We went to my host dad's cousin's house. They began setting up a table, loading on it a big tort, tea, crepes, salami, bread, pasca, and was even going to place alcohol on the table before we all started screaming no. It was a good wind down of the day to have some tea and cake, even if it was 10 pm. It was a long but interesting day.