| Martenitza, Martenitsa ( ?????????) |
| All over the world people meet spring with joy and new hope, but it is only in Bulgaria where it is saved as an ancient custom. If you are walking along the streets in Bulgaria on the 1st of March you will wittness many smiling faces. But first of all your eyes will be captured by martenitza (martenitsa, martenica). Everyone has decorated their clothes with them. Moreover, you can see decorated dogs and cats. In the small villages in the mountains people decorate their domestic animals. Houses have their own martenitza as well. On the 1st of March everybody hould wear martenitza, especially young children, just married couples or newly born domestic animals. The kids are the most enthused when practicing this traditional holiday. They accept Baba Marta as well as they accept Santa Clause, but they receive martenitza instead of a present. This widespread practice of wearing of Martenitza and its exclusive stability in the Bulgarian folk culture is explained with the believed magical power of the red colour. It is believed to have the magic power to chase away the evil spirits, the demons and the illneses. We wear martenitsa, because we believe that hereon everything will be better, we smile because the winter is over, the spring is coming |
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