I, for one, am grateful for milder temperatures and more hours of daylight in each day. I love that Bulgarian's begin celebrating the coming of spring early! I'm feeling the energy and renewal of spring and cheerfully anticipate it's arrival in a few short weeks.
On the 1st of March Bulgarian people celebrate a traditional holiday called БАБА МАРТА (Baba Marta) and it is related to welcoming the approaching spring. On that day, Bulgarians exchange so called мартеници (martenitsi) and tell each other Честита Баба Марта! This custom is essentially to wish great health, good luck, and happiness to family and friends. The name мартеница is taken from the Bulgarian word for March (март),or, as a legend tells, an angry old lady called Grandma Marta -Баба Марта.
In Bulgarian folklore Баба Марта is a grumpy old woman who changes her mood very rapidly and it reflects in the changeable March weather. When she is smiling the weather is sunny and warm, but if she gets angry the cold will stay longer and it may even snow. By wearing the red and white colors of the мартеница our ancestors asked Баба Марта for mercy. They hoped that it will make winter pass faster and bring spring.
Мартеница is made of twined red and white threads - woolen, silk, or cotton. The white is a symbol of strength, purity and happiness. The red is associated with health, blood, conception, and fertility. The most typical мартеница represents two small wool dolls –Пижо and Пенда (Pisho and Penka). Пижо is the male doll, usually dominating in white color. Пендаis the female doll, usually dominating in red color and distinguished by her skirt. There are many other variations and forms. Twined red and white threads are also used to make bracelets, necklaces, tassels, pompons, balls, squares, human or animal figures. Over the past several decades the tradition has been innovated by attaching all kinds of representations and symbols made of wood, leather, ceramics, metal foil to the thread-made мартеници.
When someone gives you a мартеница you should wear it either pinned on your clothes, on the hand tied around the wrist, or around your neck until you see a stork or a fruit tree in blossom for the first time in the season. After that you can tie it on a blossoming tree for fertility. It is believed that the мартеница bring health, happiness and longevity. Like an amulet, мартеница was attributed a magic power believed to protect folks from "ill fortune", diseases and an evil eye.
(Thanks to the Peace Corps staff for this succinct synopsis).
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