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Romanian Traditions

A Romanian celebration of Spring, Love and Friendship

LITTLE MARCH- ( "Mărţişor" )

In Romania, on the first of March, you can see girls and women wearing on their coats a little trinket tied up with two braided white and red cotton or silk threads. This amulet is called Little March ,"Mărţişor“ in Romanian , and there are many legends about its origin.

To respect traditions , the Little March( "Mărţişor" ) should be worn from the first day of March until it shows the first signs of spring, until cherry trees and roses blossom, until the arrival of storks. At the end of March, the red-white threads are tied to a branch of a fruit tree, said to bring wealth. 

 

The Romanian tradition of “Little March” amulets is said to have originated in Roman and Daco-Thracian times, according to archaeological researches. The Romans and the Dacians, the ancestors of the Romanian people, used to celebrate New Year's Eve on 1st March. The name of the month March, “Martie” in Romanian, comes from the Roman god of agriculture and war , “Mars”. Men used to go to wars in springtime so women gave them an amulet to protect them in battle. 

The white of the “Little March” twisted threads represented peace and fertility, while the red represented war. At the beginning the amulets were river stones painted in white and red. Later they were silver coins and nowadays they may be spring flowers(snowdrops),lucky chimney sweeps, horseshoes or four-leaf clovers or even jewellery .

A couple of weeks before the first of March, schoolchildren all over Romania make “Little March” amulets for their mothers and grandmothers.

Since the beginning of February “Little March” amulets are sold everywhere, in shops, in the streets, in museums, at the florist's , at the chemist's ,etc. They bring “ colour to the eye and joy to the heart ”.

The legend of Little March Amulet

 Once upon a time the sun embodied in a very handsome young man used to come down on Earth for joining the circle dances in villages.

Finding out the Sun’s passion for dancing, a dragon followed him and in one of his incursions on Earth, kidnapped him and threw him into a dungeon in his castle.The birds stopped singing and the children stopped laughing. No one dared to challenge the dragon.

One day a brave young man decided to go and find the dungeon and save the Sun. All the people who went with the young man to the dragon’s castle gave him a lot of their strength to succeed in defeating the mighty dragon.His journey to the castle lasted three seasons, summer, autumn and winter. At the end of winter the man finally found the dragon’s castle where the Sun was imprisoned.The fight started and lasted for many days until the dragon was defeated. With his last strength the young man set the Sun free.

He succeeded in making happy again all the people who believed in him. Nature came back to life, people started laughing again but the man couldn’t see Spring coming again. Wounded, he fell to the ground. His blood drained from his wounds into the snow.While the snow was melting away white flowers called snowdrops, the messengers of spring, came out of the ground. When the last drop of blood drained away he died happily for having served a noble purpose.

Since then people have braided two threads, a white one and a red one and hang on it a small amulet. At the beginning of Spring, on March 1st men offer these small amulets called “ little March” to all women they care for.

Drawings by Andreea Balteanu - class 8B,School No.13 Sibiu

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