Moldovans celebrate St. Basil, old-style New Year

On January 14, the Moldovan Orthodox Church celebrates the feast of Saint Basil the Great and the Circumcision of Jesus Christ. Also today many Moldovans celebrate the New Year as per the old-style Julian calendar. Fr. Valeriu Potoroaca, senior priest at St. Panthelimon Church in Chisinau, told Info-Prim Neo that Saint Basil the Great, or Sfintul Vasile cel Mare as he is called in Moldova and Romania, lived between cca 329 and 379 AD in Cappadocia and is considered to be one of the Orthodox Church's pillars. He left a rich heritage which includes teachings and guidance, in particular for the clergy, and he is also celebrated for being the founder of the first charity institutions, called Basiliades, which were basically community homes for the sick and the poor. The old-style New Year, which is also marked today, wasn't celebrated in the times of the Circumsicion and of Basil the Great, when it was presumably marked on September 1. Fr. Valeriu Potoroaca says that some Moldovan and Romanian winter traditions, like Sorcova, the Little Plow or the Sowing, are inherited from pagan times. “Presumably the New Year was celebrated on March 1 in those old times. Usually these winter traditions mention plowing and sowing, which is actually more suitable for March. Now they are mingled with our Christian identity, but essentially they remain a good-luck-wishing popular tradition”. Today churches across Moldova read the Liturgy of Saint Basil. People bring tributes in form of food to the church to pray for the health of the living and to commemorate the dead. Many people also come to the church with grain and scatter the seeds around in a sowing movement in anticipation of a prosperous year.