lifestyle

I love my Martisor

It’s been a long break..my writing muscles are beginning to stretch a bit, but have no fear, spring is..almost here.

I took a look outside, better say I pulled just a bit down the blinds, and there’s a frozen world out there, with lots of snow that’s covering my garden and freezing people looking to stay outside as little as possible. This is not how I imagined my Martisor day to be, but it’s OK, thank God for the tulips and daffodils they sell at the flower shop.

Since there’s no Martisor celebrated here in Germany, this being more a Balkan tradition (yeap, according to Wikipedia, we, Romanians, are Balkans too), I had to take action and make my own Martisor.

For everyone who’s reading my post and they don’t know what Martisor is, I’ll make a short summary. 1st of March, or Martisor Day equals the beginning of spring in our old traditions. This is the day when all the women wear a red and white string tied into a bow, with a small trinket attached to it. The wearer it is believed to be prosperous and healthy for the whole year. This is also the day (Ahem.. Ahem.. week, because this all ends on 8th of March 🙂 ), when you will see all the men with flowers and small Martisor in their hands, ready to make all women around them happy.

So here’s how I created a small Martisor string: take one red string and another one white. Knot them together at one end. Separate the two strings and start spinning them in opposite direction: one upwards, one backwards, as it’s shown in the video. Bring them together, repeat the process if the string is too long and tie together the remaining end of the strings. Adjust the string so the two colors and divided evenly. Easy peasy!