Just a few days after returning to Romania, I attended the annual ecumenical concert, organized by Veritas, featuring choirs from several different churches in Sighișoara. This year's concert was hosted by the Reformed Church. Below is a video of the Veritas Gospel choir singing (in English).
Post by Veritas Sighisoara.
The Țigmandru church has had several special events in the past.few weeks. The Friday afternoon before Christmas, there was a Christmas program featuring the children, teenagers, and adult choirs. The church was full of parents and others who came to hear the music.
The next evening (Saturday), the church hosted a special dinner attended by members and attenders. After dinner, we sang a few carols and then played a game. It was a very enjoyable and memorable evening.
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| Dinner at the Țigmandru church |
The next evening (Saturday), the church hosted a special dinner attended by members and attenders. After dinner, we sang a few carols and then played a game. It was a very enjoyable and memorable evening.
On Sunday evening, the Veritas Gospel Choir performed in a Christmas concert in Sighișoara. The 800-year old church where they performed is not heated, so the concert was only about 45 minutes long. (The choir could actually see their breath while singing.) Fortunately, I remembered to dress warmly!
On Christmas Eve, after a candlelight service in the Sighișoara Church of the Nazarene, I joined about a dozen other young people to go Christmas caroling. This is one of my favorite Romanian traditions. After singing a song outdoors, the group is invited inside. Another song or two is sung while enjoying cakes, hot tea, soda and other holiday treats. We stayed for about 15 minutes in each place, before having to go to the next house. Caroling can easily go all night (if you stay longer at each house) but we were fortunate to end around 2:00 AM.
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| Caroling on Christmas Eve |
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| Christmas Dinner |
On Christmas Day I ate a traditional American Christmas dinner (including turkey, stuffing, and gravy) made by Roberta, and celebrated with about a dozen others - Americans, a German, and Romanians. After dinner, we rushed off to the Țigmandru church for their Christmas Day service. After returning home to my apartment, I called my family in the US who had just finished eating, so I was able to talk to many of my relatives gathered for the occasion.
In Romania, the 26th of December (the second day of Christmas) is considered part of the continuing Christmas celebration. (In fact, Romanians traditionally observe the 12 Days of Christmas, not taking down Christmas decorations until Epiphany on January 6.) That evening, I attended a 2-hour choral concert at the Orthodox Cathedral in Sighișoara. Both the church choir and a choir of monks from a nearby monastery sang.
Many Romanians have the week between Christmas and New Year's off, returning to work on January 6. I'm taking advantage of this down time by reading books just for fun and catching up on writing blog posts. (You'll hopefully see a few blog posts appear in the next few days about trips I took in the spring and summer that I never had time to post.) There are a few other Nazarene missionaries who have come to Sighișoara for New Year's. We had a wonderful dinner on Monday evening and will be spending New Year's Eve together.
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