Most of the Romanians say they are spending Easter holidays at home and will allot a budget of around RON 500 for the Easter meal, says a survey conducted by the Romanian Institute for Evaluation and Strategy (IRES) during April 10-12.
98 per cent of the respondents say they are usually spending Easter at home. 87 per cent though admit they don’t know what Christians are celebrating on Easter.
92 per cent say that holiday traditions are important or very important. Two thirds of the respondents recall there are traditions in the regions they live, like going to church (31 per cent), egg painting (20 per cent), wetting ceremony (7 pc) and sacrificing lambs (7 pc).
83 per cent of the people say they usually attend the Resurrection service at the church on Saturday night. 72 pc of them will attend the church service this year as well.
45 per cent of the respondents have fasted, while 18 per cent say they have fasted during the Holly Week or on the Good Friday. 15 per cent say they don’t fast. Only 6 pc revealed they had the holiday of observation.
Most of the people said they would stay home for Easter this year (75 pc), while 16 pc said they would pay visits to their friends and relatives. Only 5 pc said they would go on holiday, and 3 pc said they would celebrate Easter at work.
Most of the respondents revealed that the budget for the Easter meal is RON 500 or lower (9 pc- below RON 100, 50 pc- RON 100-500).
A quarter of them have a larger budget RON 501-RON 1,000,while only one in ten families will have a budget higher than RON 1,000.
Four in ten respondents will buy lamb on Easter, for a budget of RON 200.
There will be painted eggs in 95 pc of the Romanian households. The most spread colors for egg painting are red (99 pc), yellow (46 pc) and green (42 pc).
Six in ten respondents will make Easter cakes at home, while one in five will buy them from bakeries and confectioneries.
As for the Easter bonuses, 15 pc of the people surveyed by IRES say they have bonuses from work, and 32 pc won’t get any.