sábado, 2 de marzo de 2013
Martisor Day
From Orodea en Romania Sandor told us about Martisor.
Mărţişor – celebration of Spring in Romania
Romanians have a beautiful ancient tradition on the first day of March, Mărţişor
. It’s name is a diminutive from the name of Martie - the Romanian word
for March. There is a similarity between Martie and the ancient Roman
God "Mars" or "Marte" in Latin language. In ancient Rome this God was a
symbol of revival, green fields, flocks and love. They used to celebrate
their God on the first day of spring.
From the ancient time
people were celebrating the coming of spring with long time forgotten
rituals. They used small pebbles painted in white and red arranged
alternatively on a string. It might be curious why they had chosen these two
colors : red and white. In those times, many magical rituals involved
human or animal sacrifices for determining their pagan Gods to listen to
their prayers. So blood was associated with life, fertility and
worship. On the other hand, the snow, the ice and the clouds were white.
In a single expression the meaning of two colors might be : "let's
forget about winter and pray our Gods to bring us fertility".
At the beginning of 19th century the beautiful Mărţişor was found in all Romanian regions. Especially children and women wore around their necks or on their left hands two woolen strings (one red, one white) knitted together and a small silver or golden coin hung on them. The belief was that those who wore that Mărţişor were protected and would have good luck in the next year. Books were writing that young Romanian girls wore Mărţişor from March 1st till March 12th. After two weeks, they used to tie their hair with that special red-white strings waiting to see the first spring birds coming to their village. Only after that event, the young girls took out the Mărţişor and hang it to the first tree they saw in blossom.
Nowadays "Mărţişor" is present in all Romanian regions but you can find a similar tradition in Bulgaria (Baba Marta), Macedonia and Albania too. In Romania this Mărţişor is a symbol of coming spring and joy. Exchanging them is a gesture of love, friendship, respect and appreciation. You can buy silky red-white threads (tied into a bow) and small plastic objects : flowers, horse shoes, leaves, bumblebees, animals, birds, tiny suns or stars, red hearts, and many others. People wear in the left side on their chests these amulets during nine days, starting from March 1st, of course.
Martisor´s day in our school.
Today, my students have been reading about Martisor´s day. We had red and white wool and we decided to made our own Martisor.
From the ancient time
people were celebrating the coming of spring with long time forgotten
rituals. They used small pebbles painted in white and red arranged
alternatively on a string. It might be curious why they had chosen these two
colors : red and white. In those times, many magical rituals involved
human or animal sacrifices for determining their pagan Gods to listen to
their prayers. So blood was associated with life, fertility and
worship. On the other hand, the snow, the ice and the clouds were white.
In a single expression the meaning of two colors might be : "let's
forget about winter and pray our Gods to bring us fertility".At the beginning of 19th century the beautiful Mărţişor was found in all Romanian regions. Especially children and women wore around their necks or on their left hands two woolen strings (one red, one white) knitted together and a small silver or golden coin hung on them. The belief was that those who wore that Mărţişor were protected and would have good luck in the next year. Books were writing that young Romanian girls wore Mărţişor from March 1st till March 12th. After two weeks, they used to tie their hair with that special red-white strings waiting to see the first spring birds coming to their village. Only after that event, the young girls took out the Mărţişor and hang it to the first tree they saw in blossom.
Nowadays "Mărţişor" is present in all Romanian regions but you can find a similar tradition in Bulgaria (Baba Marta), Macedonia and Albania too. In Romania this Mărţişor is a symbol of coming spring and joy. Exchanging them is a gesture of love, friendship, respect and appreciation. You can buy silky red-white threads (tied into a bow) and small plastic objects : flowers, horse shoes, leaves, bumblebees, animals, birds, tiny suns or stars, red hearts, and many others. People wear in the left side on their chests these amulets during nine days, starting from March 1st, of course.
Martisor´s day in our school.
Today, my students have been reading about Martisor´s day. We had red and white wool and we decided to made our own Martisor.
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