MARTISORUL- THE 1ST OF MARCH

1. SRING CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS IN ROMANIAOver the centuries, the Romanian culture has developed and many ancient beliefs took the shape of some traditions which are still kept nowadays. In early March, Romania celebrates spring in a unique way.

2. MARTISORUL- THE 1ST OF MARCH Celebrated on 1 March, when the entire world rejoices the beginning of spring, “Martisor” is a beautiful Romanian custom consisting in a little gift called “martisor” offered by any man to all the women in his life. The approximate English translation for Martisor could be trinket but in the Romanian language it’s actually a diminutive of Martie- a little March. The word “martisor” has latin roots and is the old name of March. Nowadays, itis a symbol of spring, and the item itself has become a true work of art. Its lace, made of two twisted threads of wool, colored in red and white, represents the unity of opposites: summer-winter, heat-cold, light-dark. It is worn by children and women in order to be protected, healthy and strong for the year to come.

3. The “Martisor” • On 1st March Romania is a truly spectacle, the scene of thousands little stalls with twisted red-white strings and original trinkets. From beautiful handmade pieces to silver charms, ingenious figurines, ecological amulets, elegant brooches, vintage or fashionable jewels, the vendors exhibit their merchandise offering men a great range of gifts to choose from. • Itis usually worn by every Romanian woman for 9 to 12 days and then, its red-white strings are tied in the branches of a tree. The legend says that if the tree blossoms, the person who has knotted it there will have a wonderful year.

4. Babele - The Old Ladies The legend has it that the first day of March is the day of the old lady Dochia, an ancient agrarian divinity who climbed the mountains with her son (Dragobete) wearing 9 coats. In the first day, it started to rain and she took off one coat, the second day she did the same thing as the rain didn’t stop and so she continued by taking off all of her coats and ending tragically- freezing in the top of the mountain. • The first 9 days of spring are called “Babe” and they are very important for Romanians. There is a tradition in our country, besides many others, which persuades every single person to pick a day and if that day will be beautiful and sunny and so will be the entire year for the person who chose it. • “Babe” or the articulated noun “Babele” means “old ladies” in Romanian and it has derived from an agricultural tradition used by people to predict how the year is going to turn out. In the rural sides of the country “Babele” has the same meaning today as it had once, still being an essential part in peasants’ life.

5. 40 Mucenici • 9 March represents the day of the 40 saints called “Mucenici” (martyrs) or “mosi”- old men. The “40 Mucenici” or “44 Mucenici”- in some areas of the country, is celebrated by almost all Romanians. • Women are baking human shape cakes for the entire family while a few are taking to the church and given to the poor.In Mehedinti and Gorj districts, they make a cake by wheat meal and they put a golden coin in it. The cake is then cut in equal slices, one for each member of the family. The one who finds the coin will be the luckiest one. • On 9 March people, especially men, should drink 40 (44) glasses of wine and during the year, the wine will turn into blood and power. • “Mucenici” is a traditional holiday with religious connotations, representing, in the Orthodox calendar, the 40 saints from Sevastia city who have been burned alive. • There are also various legends behind this holiday, each of them representing different areas of the country but, in the end Romanians like to celebrate and, considering the high number of full glasses involved and the fact that men also consider 9 March as being Men’s Day, you can easily realize that “Mucenicii” will mean partying until midnight.

6. EASTERResurrection of Christ, is one of the most celebrated Christian holidays in theworld. Each country has its own way of celebrating Easter, through different customs and Romania too has its own wealth of traditions waiting to be discovered. • Easter in Romania is celebrated according to the rituals of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Easter entire season consists of Flowers Saturday (Lazarus’ Saturday), Palm Day (Flowers Day), Great Thursday, Great Friday, Easter, The Small Fountain and Good People’s Easter. • Each of these has small interesting rituals. The Easter celebration goes on for a long week and finally wraps with Good People’s Easter celebrated in honor of the ancient spirits.

7. Flowers Saturday(Lazarus’ Saturday) Lazarus, the character whose name was given to this day can have various meanings. He is thought to be either the brother of Martha and Mary, who was resurrected by Jesus, prior to His entrance in Jerusalem, either Lazarus the poor, either „Lazarica” (a Romanian diminutive of Lazarus), who died craving for pies. • On this day the dead are waiting at the gates of Heaven to be remembered and celebrated, with traditional drinks and dishes like “coliva.” Coliva is the food for the dead and it’s prepared traditionally by widows or close family members of the deceased. The dish is used in various death related occasions, to celebrate and honor the dead. The coliva is usually decorated with a cross motif, made of cocoa or nuts and sugar. The coliva is always blessed in the church by a priest before being consumed. The ceremony is long, but beautiful – the participants join their hands in a ritual “hora.”

8. Palm Sunday- FloriilePalm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast which always falls on the Sunday before Easter Sunday. The feast commemoratesthe triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem in the days before his Passion. • Evoking the entering of Jesus into Jerusalem riding on a donkey, welcomed with a lot of flowers and cheers, Palm Sunday is both a celebration in which the pre-Christian and Christian elements combine happily, resulting in extremely beautiful customs and traditions.  • The name of the feast in Romanian (Florii) comes from the Roman goddess Flora. The green branches used this day, employed both in domestic and church rituals, embodies the symbol of chastity and the annual rebirth of vegetation. • The day before people gather willow branches, tie them in bundles and go to church to be sanctified by a priest. After sanctification, the branches called 'mâţişori' (approx. 'kitties') are taken home by the faithful to adorn with the icons, windows, doors, entrances. • Another belief said that how weather is like on Palm Sunday, so will be on Easter Day. On this day celebrate the name-day those who bear a flower name (around 1.5 million Romanians).

9. THE BLACK THURSDAYIt’sthe Thursday before Easter, also known as the Great Thursday or the Thursday of Sufferings • It’sthe day when all graves and the doors of Heaven open and let the dead return home, to spend Easter with their families. Don’t imagine a Halloween-type of celebration, there’s nothing scary about this belief. The return of the dead doesn’t bring evil, the spirits are driven by love of Christ and family rather than by a black desire of haunting the living. It’s believed that they don’t stay indoors, but on the roofs or in the yards so in many regions in Romania people light fires to give them light and to keep them warm. • In the south of Romania, peopledon’t light fires, but theylight candles and prepare drinks and food for the dead. The food is mostly coliva and colaci. Coliva is a type of cake made of boiled wheat, sweetened with sugar and decorated with nuts and sometimes bonbons. It represents the body of the dead that has to be buried first to come back to life, pretty much as the grain is buried into the ground to grow into a new plant. Aside the somehow macabre superstition about the return of the dead, the Great Thursday is a time of intense preparations for the Easter feast. It’s believed that those who sleep on the Great Thursday will be lazy the whole year. Women and girls particularly should not sleep, for if they do Joimarita will come to put a spell on their hands, a spell that will make the women unable of working the whole year. So to keep “awake” people work this Thursday, preparing all they need for Easter: cleaning the house, preparing the traditional “Cozonaci,” dyeing eggs. All is allowed, except doing laundry, because Romanians believe that the dirty water will go to the dead.

10. The Great Friday- Vinerea MareThe Friday before the Easter is called the Great Friday. Also named the Friday of sufferings, it is the day when Jesus was crucified. • People don’teat on this day, as it is believed that by doing that they will be healthy and they will know they’lldye three days before.The tradition recommends that you step on a piece of iron when you wake up, in order to be protected from bruises. If you bathe in the river before the sun rises, you won’t suffer from bone illness. In Bucovina it is said that who bathes three times in a cold river will be healthy all year long.People go to church to confess. • Bread may not be baked, the earth may not be ploughed and trees may not be planted, as they won’t fruit.

11. The EasterThe Easter is the most important celebration of the Romanian people and it is preceded by numerous preparations and rituals.  • The EasterIt’s a must for the people to have a clean house and have all the ritual foods ready. Because it’s a good thing to have a new piece of clothing on the Easter, girls and young wives start to sew shirts for them and also for their parents, brothers, husbands or children, with about two weeks in advance. • On the night between Holy Saturday to Easter Sunday, people go to church to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ by attending the midnight mass, where they light candles. After that, they take the lighted candles home, to have the holly light in their homes, souls and lives. • On the Easter Sunday morning, people usually go to church for the Easter morning mass.  This mass is however not as much attended as the midnight one. After that, they go back home and eat the blessed food which they took with them to the church.

12. The Good People’s Easter(Dead People’s Easter) • The Good People’s Easter is celebrated a week after the Easter, on Monday. In the Romanian tradition, the Good People are the ancient’s spirits, which live between the two worlds, where Saturday’s water spills into the Earth. The Good People are religious people and fast each time they should, according to the traditions. However they are not aware of the day when Easter is celebrated until they see remains of the painted eggs on the water, about eight days later.In gratitude for the dead, packages containing red painted eggs and pies are placed on the graves and candles are lit.

13. Easter food • Dyed eggs are traditional food at Easter, but of course in this category we cannot include the beautiful hand painted eggs, which are emptied of their contents. Such eggs are purely decorative. Everywhere in Romania, in the Great Thursday, eggs are dyed in red, yellow, green, blue or black, each of these colors having its special meaning, for example red stands obviously for the blood of Christ, green is a symbol of passing from Winter to Spring and black stands for Jesus suffering on the cross. • Related to eggs we should not forget the traditional custom of knocking the eggs. This starts the first day of Easter and it continues till the Great Sunday. When cracking eggs the two parts involved should say “Christ is risen!”, and the answer to this is “He is truly risen!” – this is also the greeting that replaces the common “hello” till the Great Sunday. There are many superstitions related to this custom, one saying that the one whose egg cracks first will die younger than his oponent.

14. Easter food • The traditional main dishes at Easter in Romanian are prepared from fresh lamb: lamb roast and drob (lamb haggis – spiced minced lamb organs with green onion, green garlic and eggs in lamb stomach).

15. Easter Food • The special Easter cake, known as Pasca, is baked on Great Thursday. The Pasca can have a round shape or a rectangular one- named cozonac- the Romanian panettone- (symbolizing the shape of Jesus’ grave). • The shells of the eggs used for the Pasca are thrown in a river. This action stems from the ancient belief that the shells are taken by the river to the country of the Good People, announcing them the Easter has came. 

16. Other Spring customs • The Paparuda "Rain Caller" is the ritual celebrated in Spring on a date that varies from place to place. • It is an old magical dance invoking rain, this customs survived to the present day in many villagesof Romania. The children knit coronets, adorning them with ribbons. Then they dance, going from house to house. The hostess throws water and milk after them. The children and the young people have to receive a coin or wheat, corn, flour or bean.

17. Presentation made within the multilateral Comenius project “Art and Science- The Best Ambassadors of the National Values within Europe”