It’s that time of year: ЧЕСТИТА БАБА МАРТА! Happy Baba Marta.
Here’s to the 1st of March!! And spring.
Here’s to storks, to new flowers and budding trees!! Here’s to friendship and to Bulgaria.
I can’t believe that today is March 1st. Nor can I believe that I am celebrating this holiday for a third time in Bulgaria.
Yes. Three years. That’s totally weird.
I Love Martenitsi!
I love martenitsi as last year’s post proves (and I got lots of them as the next day’s post demonstrates). And then there was the year before that too. I like everything about the holiday but it’s the red and white boy and girl Piju and Panda that really make my heart pitter-patter.
Surprisingly, this year the holiday snuck up on me. I guess this happens. I mean out of the last three weekends I spent two of them traveling and one of them working.
Martenitsi on the streets of Mladost
So I grabbed a few martenitsi on Sunday afternoon on my way to lunch with my old landlord and his family. Thank-god there are old people selling martenitsi at all of the major bus stops in Sofia. Only after I bought them did I notice that they didn’t come with safety pins.
I mean, really?! Who sells martenitsi without a little safety pin? How am I supposed to wear it? or pin it to a friend? That’s when I realized: made in China. (Actually I don’t know that. I just suspect the Chinese are to blame for the lack of safety pins. Or at least that’s what the Sofia Echo tells me.)
Then yesterday after school, I was shamed into buying some more martenitsi. By the single thought: what if I don’t have enough martenitsi to give my friends. So at 7pm I stood in the cold picking out martenitsi by the light from street lamps.
Three years in, I have a single rule of thumb when buying martenitsi: buy from babas. Basically everyone has the same martenitsi fro sale at about the same price. So I buy from the little old ladies selling martenitsi. I do this for two reasons: I feel bad for them that they are out in the cold selling martenitsi and I think they are so much cuter than men of any age chain-smoking and selling martenitsi.
Here’s the great thing about teaching: lots of students = lots of martenitsi. Today, I will teach all day–two classes of 18 students and one class of 15. That’s something like 53 martenitsi and doesn’t even include colleagues. This math makes it pretty clear that I didn’t buy enough martenitsi this year. Or I am going to be cutting things really, really close.
I saw some great martenitsi this year but I am still keeping my eye out for one: the Justin Bieber martenitsa. Yep. That’s a martenitsi I’d pay good money for.
Don’t worry, even without the Justin Bieber martenitsa I spent more than 20 leva on martenitsi. Sure I got home with a fairly questionable one–a plastic bird with feathers. It was a lot prettier in the yellow light of the bus stop. Good thing it was only one leva (see photo above top right). However, that questionable purchase was offset by the purchase of an extra large pair of girl and boy martenitsi dressed in “traditional” Bulgarian costumes.
Anyhow, all of this said, I wish I knew what martenitsa etiquette was. Like do I give a martenitsa to everyone I know? What if someone gives me one and I wasn’t planning on giving them one? Can I re-gift a martenitsa?
Честита Баба Марта, Каролинке!
There’s no particular “etiquette” with martenitsi. And it’s not realy a gift, you’re not giving people a martenitsa to have. It’s a longevity and happiness charm, a ward against bad stuff. So it doesn’t matter if it’s an old martenitsa (though you should’ve put those on a blossoming tree or under a rock). What’s important is not the physical thing, but the effect and the gesture. That’s why you should tie or pin them on people and not just hand it over. Though I imagine with your students that could take a while
On March 1st and the next several days I walk around with some extra martenitsi in my pocket, in case I meet someone I wasn’t expecting to. There’s no reason not to tie a martenitsa on someone you know. But you’re not obliged to, because it’s pretty certain they already have several. The idea is that by the end of the day everyone and their dog (literally) should have a piece of red and white string for health, long life, happiness, unity, good fortune and nice weather in March.
I remember last year when you wrote there are Chinese martenitsi being sold. I was surprised and this year apparently it’s worse. From what I’ve seen, there are four types of martenitsi – proper martenitsi, incl. Pijo and Penda (not Piju and Panda :Р), weird martenitsi, martenitsi that are looking at weird in the rear-view mirror and martenitsi that are starting to be misguided.
I like your rule about bying – I think I follow it too.
Честита Баба Марта!
“Мартеница пращам надалече
нишка от живота във дома,
бяла като вишната на двора
и червена – сила на кръвта.”
A little practice in Bulgarian
there is a justin bieber martenitsa? eewwww
@i No. There’s not one. Well not one that I could find. Granted I didn’t look that hard but really a Justin Bieber martenitsa would really be the best representation of the clash between Buglarian and American culture. I mean Barbie has her own martenitsa why not Justin? Or me!?
I was so captivated by the martenitsa that I started making my own to give to friends. I make them the traditional way, with red and white yarn. Not too many people in the States know about this custom, so I am teaching them about it, especially the people that I dance with. They think it’s really cool.
Your MoM put a martenitsi on my wrist this morning – good luck you say… perhaps, I only got three fillings at the dentist… The good news was that he had a real drill – not one made out of a sewing machine!
The first thing that I saw when I went outside were some white “dew drops” blooming – no I didn’t take the martenisti off after wearing it for just five minutes. I decided that the dew drops were already blooming (perhaps since January) so they didn’t count…
I did however wish everyone that came into the store “A happy March!”
dAd
@dAd Oh. I am glad to hear that I’ve taught MoM so well. It’s like she’s going to be Bulgarian soon!! Sorry to hear about the serious trip to the dentist.
Is it too late to give one away, if you can’t get it organizsed until about March 4th?
@MoM I am pretty sure that you can give away a martenitsa when ever you want. I mean in the last year you already moved Christmas back a few days for me. So technically, I think the 4th might be March 1st if we’re working backwards from the “second” Christmas we celebrated together. Love you.
Happy belated Baba Marta! Nice posting about what I consider one of the coolest pagan traditions that have survived to this day. Glad you are spreading the word to the States and beyond
I’m kind of happy you didn’t find a Justin Bieber martenitsa. This would be the last straw. The recent arrival of all these plastic fakes really kills the whole meaning behind Pijo and Penda. Justin Bieber will be the final victory of consumerism and plastics over symbolism… OK, I got a bit carried away but you know what I mean.
@Nick O Thanks so much! I love the tradition and I am glad that my post shows this. And for the record, I agree a Justin Bieber martenitsa while very fun would really too much.