Source: https://evz.ro/sambata-lui-toader-sau-sambata-colivelor-cum-a-aparut-coliva.html

What is coliva?

According to the Romanian dictionary dexonline it is:

Boiled wheat mixed with sugar and crushed nuts, adorned with candies and powdered sugar, which is distributed for the commemoration of the dead, at funerals, and at memorial services.

According to Wikipedia: The practice of offering koliva is traditional in Greece, Cyprus, Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, Russia and parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and among Christians in the Middle East.

When do you eat coliva?

Coliva is a funeral cake, which Romanians really like. I have personally met people that regret liking coliva because the only time they manage to eat it is during funeral services. You can technically eat it on particular saints day and important holidays, but I have always had it in the context of going to a funeral or remembrance days of the loved ones (40 days after death, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, and every year up until the 7th year mark). You go to church, and people give it away to the relatives and the needy that attend the service.

Why do we have the coliva?

According to the Romanian Orthodox Church: 50 years after the death of Saint Theodore, Emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363), wishing to mock Christians, ordered the governor of the city of Constantinople to sprinkle all the provisions in the food markets with the blood sacrificed to idols in the first week of Great Lent. Saint Theodore the Soldier, appearing in a dream to the Archbishop of Constantinople, Eudoxius, commanded him to inform the Christians not to buy anything from the market, but rather to eat boiled wheat with honey: koliva.

Romanian humour about coliva

The text below translates to: Hello, are you coliva? Because I like you to death.

Bringing coliva into flirting is a bit over the top, but you never know who is into grim sense of humour.

If you would like to drink a spirit with the flavour of coliva: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1103654850474368 you can drink at Shoteria.

Or

If you would like ice cream with this flavour at Zelato:

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