A rural ancestral Easter tradition in Romania is the Fires of Maundy Thursday. Across the Sânpetru de Câmpie area, ritual fires are lit on Maundy Thursday, from the wood left after the dressing of the fruit trees, there is a belief that now the souls of the sleeping ones need warmth because they are returning home to celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord with the rest and that they will remain with families until Pentecost,
“It is said that these fires actually symbolize the fires of the torches with which the Roman soldiers, guided by Judas, came to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Some say that it is the fires in the Garden of Gethsemane where His disciples warmed themselves, and other specialists advance the theory that Easter is a moment of communion between the two worlds: seen and unseen.The fires would actually be a help for the souls of the dead, who come to celebrate Easter with the living, and the fire would warm these souls. There is a belief in the village world that now the souls of those who have left the world without longing would come home to celebrate with those who remained and will stay here until Pentecost, at the Descent of the Holy Spirit. That’s why everything that happens during this interval also includes rituals for those who have left, such as Memorial Easter (Pastele Blajinilor), for example. It is certain that this day is about fires and smoke, about communion with others”, Professor Mihai Teodor Naşca, a passionate collector of folklore from the plains of Mureş county, told the press.
The professor explained that in many areas of Transylvania, the Thursday before Easter is awaited with ritual fires. “The old trees collected previously by cleaning the trees or the yard are placed in a specific place to dry in order to be lit on Thursday morning. The whole village was engulfed in smoke. It was a kind of competition, which of the brothers wakes up first to go to the fire, which was often the responsibility of the mother. I learned much later, that the mother was our link with spirituality, that the woman was the one who maintained the unseen paths between the worlds and she had the role of the one who fulfilled the tradition of purification”, said Mihai Teodor Naşca.
He also recounted that Holy Week has a special character during Lent because it stands under the sign of cleanliness and silence. Also on this day, in the morning, the locals take the trees to the church.