Nădlac is either 100% or pretty close to 100%
Christian. The population here is approximately
8,000 with seven Christian churches, Catholic,
Evangelical, Pentecostal, Serbian Orthodox and
three others. (This is a lot better than the village I
was in while in El Salvador. There they had six
churches with a population of 350.)
The custom says that Christmas is a three day affair.
It begins on the 24th and goes on till the 26th. With
each day as intense as the next. There are no buses
running and everything was closed.
Another custom is food, food and then guess what …
yup, more food. Also, there are some great dishes.
Unfortunately I am guy that is not a gourmet so I really
can’t explain it in an informative way, but my sister came
up with a good idea. That is that in the future I will write
an entry or two about the fantastic dishes.
I received invitations and it began on Christmas Eve at
the house of my neighbor. The are Slovakian by nationality
so there were many incredible traditional Slovakian dishes.
Also at this time I learned of a tradition called ‘colinda’.
Colinda is the custom of going to peoples’ houses, and
either singing or reciting a poem consisting of Christmas
or good wishes for a happy healthy life. After, the residents
give a little present, either a little candy, money, usually
something small.
Sure wish I would have learned that a few hours earlier.
In every life of a Peace Corps volunteer is the ‘frequently
looking stupid event‘. This is usually based on the fact that
despite the attempts to prepare us to integrate into the
local culture, there is too much to learn.
With making excuses before telling the story, I have to
write about a ‘colinda’ embarrassing moment.
At about 3 in the afternoon I see 3 kids at my door. They
are saying something about colinda and that they said a
poem and that I had to give them something. The first thing
that came into my mind was of my time in Africa. There, if
you gave a kid something in 10 minutes you’d have every
kid from three villages over, coming to your door.
I wasn’t prepared for colinda because I didn’t know it
existed. So I didn’t give the kids anything. Then I told
them ( to try and get them to back off the demands) that
I am from the States and I am used to the custom there
that when a person comes to your door on Christmas, the
people usually bring presents instead of asking for them.
Once colinda was explained to me, I got to say I felt kind
of like a grinch. More like a stupid grinch.
I did have a very unique and positive experience when I
had lunch on the 25th at the house of a Rroma (Gypsy)
family. I have learned that it was a privilege. It was a
really great experience and I received incredible hospitality.
The Christmas festivities culminated with a gala event
at the Nădlac Cultural Center.
The show started with the youngest kids singing.
Followed by a few other singing groups. Then
came the ‘Majorettes’ of Nădlac.
And for the first time participating in the
Christmas festival was the Rroma (Gypsy)
cultural dance group. First singing in the
Rroma language.
Then dancing …
The grand finale was that of all the groups combined,
Slovakian dance troupe on the far left and the
Romanian dance troupe on the far right.
They sang a Christmas carol to end the show.
I have to say at that moment, more than any other,
I was impressed. There were Slovakian, Romanian
and Rroma youngsters together, celebrating one Christmas.
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