Romanian Spring Welcoming Tradition for MarketFriday

Today it's #MarketFriday again,d I'm going to write about a typical Romanian spring welcoming tradition. I'm quoting the definition and description of Mărțișor given by Wikipedia below.

Mărțișor (mərt͡siˈʃor) is a celebration at the beginning of spring, on March the 1st in Romania, Moldova, and all territories inhabited by Romanians and Moldovans.

The word Mărțișor is the diminutive of Marț, the old folk name for March (martie, in modern Romanian), and thus literally means "little March".

Mărțișor, marț and mărțiguș are all names for the red and white string with hanging tassel customarily given on the 1st day of March. In the olden times, the string could be black and white or blue and white. Giving this talisman to people is an old custom, and it is believed that the wearer will be strong and healthy for the year to come. It is also a symbol of the coming spring. Usually, both women and men wear it pinned to their clothes, close to the heart, until the last day of March, when they tie it to a fruit-tree twig. In some regions, a gold or silver coin hangs on the string and is worn around the neck. After wearing it for a certain length of time, they buy red wine and sweet cheese with the coin, according to a belief that their faces would remain beautiful and white as cheese and rubicund as the wine, all year.

In modern times, and especially in urban areas, the Mărțișor lost most of its talisman properties and became more a symbol of friendship, love, appreciation and respect. The black threads were replaced by red, but the delicate wool string is still a ‘cottage industry’ among people in the countryside, who comb out the wool, dye the floss, and twist it into thousands of tassels. In some areas, the amulets are still made with black and white string, to ward off evil. Related to Martisor and also symbol for spring in Romania is the snowdrop flower. source

Although these Mărțișori are given only on the 1st day of March, the stores are full with them already. Next week street vendors are going sell them on every corner.

It's a nice tradition which brings back childhood memories. When we were kids we used to get these from the boys, our classmates and friends. We went prepared on the 1st of march, we all had something to pin these on our winter coats. It was a kind of competition, the most liked girl got the most :) Those were different times, now these little symbols are different.

Back when I was a kid the most popular was the snowdrop, clover, horse shoe and the chimney sweeper. These were also for good luck as we know clover, horse shoe and the chimney sweeper brings luck.

Now things have changed, people and habits have changed as well. These Mărțișori look very different today. You can still find the old fashioned ones but there are lots of new ones. Now you can buy bracelets, key chains, earrings and so on.

Here's a photo, I'll let you choose whatever you want from here. Owl, butterfly, cat, chimney sweeper, flower, ladybug, elephant, bicycle, clover, traditional Romanian fold clothes.

Some of these are really odd, I don't understand what elephants have to do with this tradition. You don't find elephants in Romania, except at the zoo and circus.

This is just the beginning, the first part of my presentation. These were products I could find at the supermarket but there will be a fair next week, specially for Mărțișor and I know for sure there will be some amazing products. I've been there last year and took a bunch of photos. Still have them but I'd like to take new ones to show you next Friday.

This is my entry to #MarketFriday hosted by my dear friend Denise @dswigle.

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These are the days and the categories:
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