24/04/2025
📸 Over Easter, my phone lit up with images from friends and family in Romania — candlelit processions, hand-painted eggs, tables groaning with local specialities… and my absolute favourite: cozonac (a swirled walnut or cocoa brioche, similar to a Jewish Babka).
And it reminded me of something I’ve felt for years: no matter how hard I try, I’ll never quite manage to replicate our Easter customs here in the UK.
🌸 In Romania, Easter is as big as Christmas, it is a heartfelt return to tradition, the kind that wraps around you like a beloved old shawl.
The whole country bursts into life with colour, rituals, and a sense of heritage you can feel in the air.
🥚 Eggs aren’t chocolate — they’re “ouă încondeiate”, hand-painted symbols of renewal and protection. Each one is a miniature work of art, etched and dyed in reds, golds, blacks… made with patience and meaning.
🕯️ On Holy Saturday, candlelight floods the streets as people leave midnight mass, carefully carrying the holy flame back home.
You see it flickering from garden to garden, neighbour to neighbour — a glowing thread of faith passed hand to hand.
🍽️ And the food… oh, the food! Drob (herbs & lamb offal), Easter soup (ciorbă de miel), roast lamb, spring cheeses, radishes, sweet cozonac — every dish made with love, and meant to be shared.
👨👩👧 What makes Easter in Romania so special? It’s that feeling of togetherness. Of slowing down. Reconnecting with roots, family, and faith. I try to bring a little of that magic here — but nothing compares to experiencing it in the village where I was born.
🏡 If you ever want to feel the very soul of Romania, go at Easter — walk the cobbled lanes, hear the bells, smell the baking…
It feels like coming home — even if you’ve never been before.
