Jingle Bells

Two and a half weeks ago, the first big batch of snow came. The same day came the snowflake lights which promised to light Republicii in the early December (at that point November) nights. But, no light. They stayed unlit. Just empty promises hanging over the street. The same Monday, a giant tree appeared in the square. A week later I watched the decorators hang the red and gold bows. I even thought the tree would fall over in last Monday’s wind but it made it through (unless it toppled and was restored while I was sleeping).

The signs of Sfantul Nicolae first hit me on 5 December. People stuffed into shops carrying twigs, buying Kinder Surprises. The twigs are like coal – they are for kids who have been bad. But everyone buys it anyway. I bought one (it’s just a branch spray-painted silver) because I felt a little left out, knowing that Sfantul Nicolae wasn’t coming to visit my house.

On 6 December, the entire child population of Brasov showed up with parents in tow to watch the tree light up. It was snowing, so it was freezing and my feet were wet, but being in the middle of a thousand people kept me warm, as did the vin fiert we bought. The whole event was actually quite fun – the mayor spoke, reminding us that Brasov is a fairytale city (not hard to believe in the snow). Then we counted down zece, noua, opt, sapte, sase, cinci, patru, trei, doi, unu. And lights. It was lovely. Kids sang. There were more fireworks (which I missed again). And my feet were really cold.