Martisor-Folklore of March first

Mărţişor   There is a part of me that is of Romanian descent. I take interest in my ancient roots and  the rites of spring on this first day of March,

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A sample generic Mărţişor

Mărţişor (Romanian pronunciation: [mərtsiʃor]) is a traditional celebration of the beginning of Spring, on the 1st of March. It is a tradition in Romania, Moldova, and all territories inhabited by Romanians, or Daco-Romanians, and also Aromanians. Similar customs are found in Bulgaria (see Martenitsa), Macedonia, Albania^[1], Italy^[2].

The name Mărţişor is the diminutive of the name for March (Martie, in Romanian), and thus literally means "little" or "dear March". It is also the folk name for this month.

Mărţişor, marţ and mărţiguş are all names for the red and white (or black and white, also blue and white) string, from which usually a small decoration is tied, and which is offered by people on the 1st day of March^[3]. Giving this Talisman to other people is an old custom, and it is believed that the one who wears the red and white string will be powerful and healthy for the year to come. It is also a symbol of the coming spring. Usually, women wear it pinned to their blouses for the first 12 days of this month, until other certain spring celebrations, or until the bloom of certain fruit-trees. In some regions, a gold or silver coin is hanged from the string, which they wear it around the neck. After wearing it for a certain period of time, they buy red wine and sweet cheese with the coin, according to the belief that their faces would remain beautiful and white as cheese, and rubicund as the red wine, for the entire year^[4].

In modern times, the Mărţişor lost most of its talisman properties and became more of a symbol of friendship and love, appreciation and respect. The black threads were replaced with red, but the delicate wool ropes are still a ‘cottage industry’ among the country people. They still comb out the wool, dye the floss, and twist it into thousands of tassels. In certain areas the amulets are still made with black and white ropes, for warding off evil.^[5]

Daco-Romanian Legends

There are many different legends which explain the tradition of Mărţişor. Here are just two of them.

On the first day of March, the wonderful Spring came out to the verge of the forest. She looked around and saw in the blackthorn a little dainty snowdrop appearing from the snow. The kind Spring wanted to help the snowdrop and started to take away the snow and thorny branches. The Winter saw this and became angry. She brought severe wind and snow to wipe out the little flower. However, the Spring covered the flower by her hands. She wounded her finger and hot blood dropped to the faint flower. Thanks to that, the snowdrop came to life. Thus the wonderful Spring won over the Winter. Since that time, people wear little Mărţişors, which symbolize the red blood on the white snow^[15].

And another legend:

There was a time when the Sun used to take the shape of a young man and descend on Earth to dance among the people. A dragon found out about this and followed the Sun on Earth, captured him and confined him in a dungeon in his castle. Suddenly, the birds stopped singing, and the children could not laugh anymore, but no one dared to confront the dragon. One day, a brave young man set out to find the dungeon and free the Sun. Many people joined in and gave him strength and courage to challenge the mighty dragon. The journey lasted three seasons: summer, autumn and winter. At the end of the third season the brave young man could finally reach the castle of the dragon, where the Sun was imprisoned. The fight lasted several days until the dragon was defeated. Weakened by his wounds, the brave young man however managed to set the Sun free, to the joy of those who believed in him. Nature was alive again, people got back their smile, but the brave young man could not make it through spring. His warm blood was draining from his wounds in the snow. With the snow melting, white flowers, called snowdrops, harbingers of spring, sprouted from the thawing soil. When the last drop of the brave young man's blood fell on the pure white snow he died with pride that his life served a noble purpose. Since then people braid two tassels: one white and one red. Every March 1 men offer this amulet called Mărţişor to the women they love. The red colour symbolizes love for all that is beautiful and also the blood of the brave young man, while white represents purity, good health and the snowdrop, the first flower of spring^[16].