My Revolution Christmas 1989

I've never been a good student in history classes. I loved the stories, but I could not remember the exact dates -the day and the year when this and that event took place. With the Romanian Revolution of 1989 when our people broke free from communism it is totally different. I can remember what happened every single day, or even every single hour, because I was there, right in the middle of it. It's true that I was only a child, but maybe that's why I was even more impressed. The 1989 Revolution will remain a landmark not only in Romanian history, but in my life also.

Oh! Where should I start from? It's such a huge topic and I feel overwhelmed by memories. There would be so many things to say about my life before the Revolution, but I am thinking about getting into that later on. Right now I want to get to the events that took place right before Christmas.

Still, in order to have a grasp into what they meant for me, I would probably need to tell you a few things like

• I was almost 10 when the Revolution took place and during all that time I remember I ate one banana. Actually I ate it years apart. I used to share everything with my sister at that time and I remeber when she was three she received a banana and gave me half of it. Then, years later, my grandpa gave us a phonecall and said that we had to go to his place for a special treat. When we got there he brought the treasure out: a banana! I shared it with my sister again.
• Growing up, I remember we only had cold running water and we often had to do our homework at the light of a candle because electricity was cut off for hours every day so as to save energy.

I mentioned just a couple of things I experienced so that you can get a picture. I should probably add that we were not a poor family. I would say we were middle class and this is what almost any average Romanian family experienced at the time.

Just before Christmas I went to a friend's place. She told me that Christmas people won't be allowed to go carolling in groups (which was an old tradition in Romania -friends would gather in groups and go carolling from one house to another). She said that actually people are not even allowed to hang out together in very small groups (4-5 people). I was just a 9-year-old girl but I figured out that was way wrong and completely ridiculous and I did not want to believe my friend, even if she was older than I. Now, checking back with historical documents, I saw they attest that the Romanian secret police forbidden people to meet in groups. I guess they saw it comming!

And still, my friend's words continued to come to my mind. And with a child's mind, instead of being worried for the crazy things that were going on in my country, I was worried instead that they won't let us go carolling! I loved to go and I wanted to go! I guess I had got used to not having food and heat, and considered that normal (did not know any better), but not to be able to go carolling?!? That was way wrong!

Next thing I remember is that everybody was very agitated, all cars were honking their horn -I remember my friend told me that since I don't have a car I can just set the clock alarm to go off the next day at noon cause everybody would do that -and they did! People got out in the streets. There were gun shots (not many in my town though, but lots and lots of young people and even chlidren were killed in Bucharest and Timisoara those days). The question of who fired those days (people were not allowed to have guns) is still debated on, but I won't go into it now. Civilians did not have guns, only the army did, but the army say they did not shoot at people, they only shot in the air. So they shot in the air, people breathed air in and the bullets with it. Are we supposed to believe that? Anyway, I'll go back to my story for now.

The day Ceausecu, the dicatator, was overthrown, I was home alone with my sister. My grandfather had just had a surgery and my dad was travelling to take him home (he was living in a village and was in the city for the surgery). My mom was a nurse and she had to go to the hospital because there were lot of emergencies coming in. So we were left home alone. My mom told us to stay quiet, to lock the door and not to open it under any circumstances at all. And God and His angels guarded us.

My dad told us later that as he was passing through the city he saw people waving flags that were cut in the middle and the badge had been taken out. They were also dancing on Ceausescu's portrait (there used to be one hung on the front wall of any public building and in every single room). Then, as he was travelling by train, everybody was only talking about what was going on at Bucharest, about how Ceausescu and his wife had escaped the enraged mob and were now chased after. As the train stopped in stations, everybody put their heads out the window to ask people around what other news they had. The events were closely followed by everybody and in every station they announced the latest news through the station. They would announce: "They have found Ceausescu and his wife!" Then they would announce: "Oh, it's not them, it's someone that was dressed up to look like them!" "Now they really got them!"

When they received the news that the dictator had been caught everybody started to jump up with joy.  

Christmas came and we went to church. After the service we went carolling. It was not a group of 4 or 5, not 40 and 50, but everybody in our church -some hundred people! We went to the army and started singing Christian Christmas songs there. Before that you were not allowed to mention anything at all about God in public. And there we were, at the army gates, singing. We, the children, had gifts we had received at church. And we went to the gate and handed our gifts to the soldiers. And then, children and adults, civilians and soldiers, we all started shouting together: "Freedom!" "Victory!" "God is with us!"  From there we went to the police ("militia" at the time) and to the secret police building. And we were not shot at. Instead, all those people who had never been allowed to utter God's name, started shouting with us: "God is with us!"

That was my Revolution Christmas and I will never forget it!