Glossary: parastas, praznic, colivă, Moși — what each means

Parastas

The memorial service for a dead person, held by a priest at set intervals — at three days, nine, forty, at six months, at one year and then year by year up to seven. By extension the word is also used for the meal that follows, though strictly that is the praznic. When someone says "we're holding the parastas at 40 days", they usually mean both: the service and the meal.

Praznic

The meal held after the memorial service. It's the moment when those who came to church or to the cemetery gather to eat together, in memory of the person who died. The word is also used for festive meals, but in a memorial context it means exactly the meal after the parastas.

Pomană (alms)

What is given to others in memory of the dead — food, vessels, clothes, money, candles. It is given "for the soul" of the departed. At a memorial meal the food itself is pomană; at Moși, vessels filled with food are given, along with colaci. Nothing is asked in return, and it isn't customarily thanked for.

Colivă

Boiled wheat, sweetened and mixed with ground walnuts, set on a platter and decorated on top — usually with a cross of breadcrumbs or icing sugar. It is placed on the table at any memorial, blessed at the service and shared out afterwards. Made from wheat, sugar and walnuts, it is lenten, so it is served the same whatever the day. The wheat stands for resurrection: the grain buried in the earth that bears fruit.

Colaci

Braided, ring-shaped breads made specially for a memorial. They are given to those who helped at the funeral, to the priest, to the gravediggers and to close relatives. How many is decided within the family or according to the priest — from a few to several dozen, depending on how many people are to be honoured. One of them, larger and more elaborate, is the colac placed beside the colivă.

Soroc (interval)

The interval at which a memorial is held: three days, nine days, forty days, three months, six months, nine months, one year, then every year up to seven. "The 40-day soroc" means the memorial at forty days. It is counted from the day of death, not from the funeral, and the day of death counts as the first.

Moși

The days on which all the dead are remembered at once, rather than one person. The most significant are summer Moși — the Saturday before Pentecost — followed by autumn Moși, before Saint Demetrius, and winter Moși. People go to the cemetery and give alms, usually vessels filled with food, and colaci.

Saturdays of the dead

Saturdays appointed for remembering the dead, especially during the Great Lent — the second, third and fourth Saturdays of the fast. A commemoration is held at church, with colivă and colaci, but without a large meal: it being a fast, the observance calls for restraint.

Paștele Blajinilor

The commemoration of the dead after Easter, held on the Monday or Tuesday after St Thomas Sunday. It is also called the Easter of the dead. People go to the cemetery with food — red eggs, cozonac, pască, wine — and eat there, at the grave. It is a custom kept more strongly in Moldova than in the rest of the country.

Sărindar

A commemoration made at church over forty consecutive days, within the services. A list with the name of the dead is given and paid for at the church. It has nothing to do with the memorial meal — it is a continuing service, not an event with guests.

Panihidă

A short memorial service, which can be held at any time, not only at the set intervals. It takes place at church, at the cemetery or at home. The term appears more in church books than in ordinary speech, where people simply say "pomenire".

Dezlegare (dispensation)

Permission to eat something that would not ordinarily be eaten on that day. "Dezlegare la pește" means fish may be eaten on a fasting day; "a day with dezlegare" means a day without fasting, on which a non-fasting meal can be held. These days don't fall the same each year — the priest knows them.

The explanations above are those used in ordinary speech around Iași. Customs differ from village to village, and for church observance you ask the priest holding the service — his word is final.