69. Hram

 Hram (dictionary translation: Feast day) is a like a city’s birthday but it is on the day of an Orthodox Saint. Each village has a saint, my village’s Hram is on the 22nd of May and our saint is Saint Nicklaus.

I recently visited a volunteer in my Raion (like a county) whose village was having their 600th Hram. Pretty wild if you think about it, a 3000 person village in Moldova on the boarder of the Ukraine is 600 years old. There were speeches, singing and dancing. Below are a couple of picture of a traditional Moldavian choir.

Generally people would feast, drink and celebrate at home then in late afternoon come to the ‘Casa de Cultură’ for the village’s festivities. ‘Casa de Cultură’ is translated into ‘The House of Culture’ which is where cultural celebrations, holiday events and on weekend nights a dance club takes place.