Bulgarian Easter

Lightening candles for my beloved ones 

Outside the church 

Colorful Easter eggs 

I was staying at my friend's house this weekend to celebrate Bulgarian Easter with her and her family and I was enjoying every minute of it! First thing Saturday morning Pav, her mom and I went out grocery shopping 3 different places to get all the things we needed for the dinner later that evening and the barbecue which was due Sunday afternoon. Saturday around 3pm her cousin Elena and Elenas boyfriend, Bill, came over just in time to paint the eggs! This is also a Bulgarian tradition and not just for the kids! We all gathered in the kitchen to find ourselves covered in red, yellow, green, blue and crystal decorations an hour later. It was entertaining to say the least! ... Meanwhile Pav was cooking dinner for all of us which we enjoyed 3 hours later after chit-chatting and giggling about Bulgarian pop folk music and not to forget our egg-painting-skills. At 10pm the four of us went out for a couple of drinks and then headed to the Easter midnight ceremony in the orthodox church (And yes I am aware of how wrong that sounds!). It was a very different experience from what I'm use to in the protestant churches and ceremonies in Denmark. We stood in a room full of people lightening their candles for someone they love and suddenly the "church people" blew out all the candles and turned off the light in the room so it went completely dark. Then the ones nearest the door lightened their candles and used theirs to lighten the ones standing behind them etc... So in the end everyone had helped lightened someone else's candle! I thought it was such a beautiful experience and concept. It looked like a thousand burning stars gathered in a pitch black tiny room full of people. I was very amazed by their commitment to their religion and their celebration of this lovely holiday ♥

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well 

xxx