Chestita Baba Marta

Chestita Baba Marta everyone!!! That means: Happy Grandma March! On March 1st Bulgarians celebrate spring by tying red and white martenitsas to each others wrists and pinning them on their shirts. It was wonderful to be a part of. The pictures here are a bit blurry, but you get the point. Most of them are of my 8th graders in my keyboarding class. All of them gave me (and all their other classmates) a martenitsa, so by the end of the day you have a wrist full of red and white. It's great. Here is a history that Ani sent to all of us, if you are interested:

Every year on March 1st Bulgarians exchange red-and-white tassels of various shapes and sizes, wishing each other, "Chestita Baba Marta!" ("Happy Grandma March!"). The decorations are Bulgarian martenitsa, the name coming from "Mart," the Bulgarian for March. This is a unique Bulgarian tradition associated with a legend from the early days of the Bulgarian state.

In the 7th century AD Khan Asparukh, the founder of the Bulgarian state, left his country in search of a new land, free and fertile. He had a young sister who remained behind in the old lands. In early spring the worried sister sent Khan Asparukh a message using a carrier pigeon: a simple red and white thread tied around the bird's leg. With the white thread she asked, "Are you alive? Can you still see the sunlight?", and with the red thread she said, "If you are alive-be victorious!" The Khan regarded the message as a link between his old and his new land, and ordered his soldiers to decorate themselves with pieces of red and white thread.

With the passing of time the meaning of the martenitsa changed somewhat, but it is generally regarded as a symbol of health and new life awakening in spring.

Although martenitsas are traditionally red and white, some have other colors as well: green (symbol of nature and vegetation), yellow (the color of wheat) and blue (a hope for a cloudless sky).

Martenitsas are worn until we see a stork or swallow in the sky-then we take them off and put them under a stone or on a tree. If, a few days later, you lift the stone and see ants scurrying underneath, you'll be lucky throughout the year.

It is common to decorate the doors of houses with a martenitsa, in the belief that this will drive away evil spirits.