On the 1st of March, Maria’s mum sent over two martenitsa for us to wear…
Martenitsa are red and white threads that you wear around your wrist throughout March or until you see the first blossoming tree, you then break off the martenitsa and tie it around the tree. There is also some rule about seeing a stork and putting it under a stone, but there aren’t very many storks in Sweden, so I’ll go for the tree.
I think that this is a really cool Bulgarian tradition and unique to that region. It’s meant to celebrate the spring, but I’ve also heard stories of how the red and white symbolises the blood of soldiers who fought in the past and of a story about three brothers.
If you ever meet a Bulgarian on the 1st of March you can say “Chestita Baba Marta” and it’s basically wishing them a happy spring.
