Trick or Treat!

I was awoken this morning by a chorus of 10 young "trick or treaters" from the neighborhood calling out "Koledе! Koledе!" meaning "Christmas! Christmas!" I had heard they may come as early as 5am, but they went easy on me, showing up at my door at 9:30am with their plastic bags already bursting with treats.  Even at this later hour, their shouts had to pull me from slumber.  As I stumbled to the door, frantically rubbing the sleep out of my eyes and trying to tame my crazy fly-away bangs with bobby pins, the kids persistently continued their chanting.  As I opened the door, eyes were wide in either anticipation of what treat the American might deliver or in surprise that the American answered her door at all on this peculiar Christmas eve tradition. Fortunately I had been forewarned and had  2 boxes of individually wrapped Atlantis hazelnut chocolates (made in Macedonia) standing ready by the door.  So began Christmas eve day.

In the afternoon, families congregated at the little Orthodox Christian church, a 2-minute walk down the dirt road from my house, to light candles and collect a small, dried oak branch to hang above their entryways for the year to come as a reminder of the Christmas blessing.  Oak branches from the previous year were burned in village bonfires the night before.  As dusk set in, the village lit up with tidy Christmas lights in various shapes and sizes (trees, bells, stars, bows, etc) adorning nearly every light pole in the village. Even at the entrance to my long, dark driveway, the light pole is bejeweled with a simple star where my neighbor Vaska's death certificate was posted last year, before being completely worn away by the winter weather.

My oak branch.

Today's Christmas morning was less eventful with no children's chorus to startle me out of bed. After a simple breakfast of last night's leftover crepes and a steaming cup of coffeeeeeeee, I headed to Igorche's house for a Christmas dinner. While families fasted from all animal products on Christmas eve, eating only dried figs, dates, fruits and crepes with honey or garlic, today's feast was much different with piles of perfectly seasoned pork meat (from the family's former pig), homemade french fries from the garden's potatoes, and salads of the Russian and cabbage variety - enjoyed with shots of hot homemade whiskey (rakia) sweetened with burnt sugar and generous glasses of nicely aged Bulgarian wine.  All of this was followed by an exquisite homemade baklava (or in my case apple pie cake due to my unfortunate walnut allergy).  Macedonian Christmas highlight: a package arrived just in time from the States for me to open this morning - with a full set of fleece sheets for me to snuggle into beginning tonight!  Despite a flurry of snow this morning, winter just got a whole lot warmer for me. :)  Thank you CDA Woods and Gimbel families!

New fleece sheets for my winter bed by the fireplace!

Tis the season for holidays here in Macedonia.  Next weekend is Orthodox New Year's, which will be celebrated with dozens of neighborhood bonfires throughout the village bringing families together to roast kielbasa sausages and throw back more shots of hot homemade whiskey (rakia)! 

Holiday work party at Elen Restaurant - food, drinks, live music and Macedonian Oro line dancing!

Merry Christmas today to all my dear Christian Orthodox friends in Ethiopia and Macedonia!

To all the rest, good tidings for this NEW year!

Pozdrav,

Hana T.