My new favorite holiday is March First: Честита баба марта!!
The day was just beautiful on Sunday, March 1st. We had snow the week before and on March First the sun was out and shinning. It was warm enough for the first time in two weeks to wear just a rain coat. What a wonderful start to the month of March. (Today for the record, there’s been no hint of the sun.) _
The martenitsas come in lots of shapes and sizes. Yesterday I received two that looked like little girls. One in “traditional” Bulgarian dress. You can see the apron on her if you look closely. I also received one that was little red riding hood (look for her close up below). I am also wearing a necklace martenitsa with a heart on it and not in the picture are a number of bracelets I received.
Traditionally you give martenitsas made of either red and white tassels or two figures a boy and girl called “Пижо и Пенда” (Pizho and Penda). I have no idea how they got these names. The tassels and the boy and girl come in a range of different sizes. Most of the ones I saw were attached to cardboard cards which said Честита баба марта and sometimes had flowers, birds or tree branches also printed on the cards. The martenitsa is stapled to the card and the whole thing is protected in plastic.
See how cute the martenitsas are!? I loved these little things. I love them so much that I bought many, many more than I probably should have. So much so that I couldn’t help but wonder after spending over $20 on martenitsas if I was becoming Bulgarian. In the beginning, my affinity for the martenitsa was fairly secret. Then I told my friends how many I bought and they laughed at me. Then, they got sucked in themselves. The thing was, as I bought the martenitsas, I kept thinking: oh, I don’t want to give this one away. That’s why I ended up with so many.
But when other people started giving me martenitsas things got really exciting. I liked it a lot. I can’t really describe how cute and wonderful the various different martenitsas are. Maybe I can go into the martenitsa import business in the States. It seems like it would go perfectly with the banitsa shop and rakia distillery I am also thinking about opening…
In conclusion: Ach, I love this holiday. I can’t get enough of it. Also, the shirt I am wearing is new. I like it a lot too. I just might like martenitsas more than I like my new shirt which was for the record a steal and I always love things that are cute and a good deal. I hope this puts this holiday in perspective for you and maybe now you can understand how much I like this holiday. So again: Happy March First and Честита баба марта!!
This is not surprising. You have always loved crafts and are an amazingly good shopper. In august, I expect you to make me banitsa and martenitsas. I’ll give you a little more time to get the rakia distillery up and running.
i have this smile on my face when i finished reading your entry on Martenichki/Martenitsi. Back in Bulgaria when i was very little i used to have a collection of Martenichki which got lost on the way to Turkey alongside my stamp collection but anyway it is kind of nostalgia for me now to hold a pair of Martenitsa in my hands..Oh, boy! how i loved to make the two colour thread and tie the boy and the girl on each end!
I guess I must thank you for this post. Tomorrow I’m going to wear my pair of Martenitsi (the famous pair = Pizho&Penda) and give away some of them as presents…Do you know what you are supposed to do after wearing them? Have you been told?
You’re supposed to tie them to a blooming tree 🙂