This year I was able to spend Easter with my host family.  Last year I left at 6 AM on Easter morning to meet up with friends and head to Ukraine for a week.  This year I purposefully planned my trip around the two Easters. 

Like last year, host mom and sister made a wide variety of food for Easter.  There are several traditional foods such as cozonac which is a traditional Easter bread.  The dough is flattened out and various fillings are spread on it.  It is then rolled together to either form cake-like loaves, or long, rectangular roles.  They also come in various sizes.  Unfortunately my internet isn't letting me upload pictures right now.  There is another type of bread called pasca which is eaten specifically on Easter morning, after the blessing at the church.  There was also a large amount of meat made for this Easter week.

Last year I didn't participate in any Easter activities.  This year I wanted to do everything my host family did.  The Russian Orthodox church has service from midnight to about 4 am every Easter morning.  My host family doesn't go.....but they do get up around 3:30 am to go to the church and get the bread blessed.  The following link is to my friends facebook album about this Easter blessing.  Every volunteer has the same general experience with this holiday, so her photos were very similar to what I experienced. 
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150226806604884.357693.700754883&l=6d9f0c13f5

My host mom told me we would leave for the church at 3 am....so I set my alarm for 2:30.  Unfortunately she forgot there was a car this year (host sister's fiance's car) to take us to the church...meaning we didn't have to leave until 4 am.  Since no one bothered to tell me I was up an hour before everyone else thinking that I they forgot/decided not to go/had already left.  Luckily they were up at 3:30 and I went with my host sister and her fiance to the local church.  There was a long line of people with small baskets of food to be blessed by the priest.  We set our basket on the ground and lit a candle, which we stuck in the pasca.  In our basket, my host mom had put dyed Easter eggs, pasca, some of the meat she had prepared, salt, candles, and poppy seeds.  We were in the line waiting for about half an hour before the priest came by wit a bucket of water and what I can only describe as a large paint brush.  He was sprinkling/throwing water on the line as he walked alone saying "Hristos a inviat!" meaning Christ has risen!  We then respond with "Adevarat a inviat."  Truly he has risen.  Host sister then went in the church and lit a candle which is supposed to burn for Easter week.  We then packed up our things and went home....to me it seemed a little anticlimatic after waiting around with candles and bread.  I also wondered what the priest thought of all the people who were waiting in line to get their Easter food blessed...clearly many of them had not been in church.

We got home around 5 am and host mom woke up.  We unpacked what was in the basket and had a masa.  My host mom placed one of the red-dyed eggs in a cup of water along with some banuti (coins).  She then rubbed the wet, red egg on her face.  This is for luck for the coming year as well as a belief that you will have money for the upcoming year.  We then sat down to the food, where I counted 10 types of meat.  I went to bed around 6 am.

I woke up around 11 am and we ate again around 12 pm.  The day was beautiful, so I sat outside on our steps with my host mom and host sister and the girl who lives with my host mom.  Host sister's fiance was in the house fixing the TV that had broken at 6 that morning while host sister was watching her favorite show.  I spent a couple hours outside talking with my family and painting my nails with my host sister.  Then I went and took another nap.  It was a great day...relaxing and without the burden of feeling like you should be working.  Oh, and then I ate again after my nap.  In all, I counted 12 types of meat...there was almost nothing but meat on the table.