Born on a March day

One of the reasons I really wanted to come to Romania in the spring is because of the Mărțișor which takes place on March 1st. It builds up during the last week of February with vendors making shop in the busy streets of Romanian cities selling mărțișoare. Archaeological finds date this holiday to over 8,000 years old and some historians say it has a Roman origin. But more importantly, this was my favorite celebration when I was a kid. The colors are white and red – my favorite colors – and the point? Give little talisman gifts to everyone you love.

The above picture was taken on Valentine’s Day and was the first sign of the Mărțișor. Things got more and more hectic as March 1st approached. Everything was wrapped in red and white. You couldn’t pass a busy street without smelling some zambile or having a talisman vendor say “Spune!” (speak, which is a really demanding thing to say, and my first instinct is to say something. So I say like, “Oh I’m looking!” and then they give me a smart comment like: “Keep looking. Looking is free.“)

One of the difficult challenges is to find hand-made talismans. Many of them, for many years, are basically cheap imported plastic trinkets. This isn’t always bad. There is a sort of farmec (charm) to these trinkets. For one, a lot of them are brought from China, some from India, some even from Ireland. It’s as if all the world’s good luck charms find their way to Romania during March. There are jade elephants, golden frogs, asian cat figurines, coins from a variety of countries, beads from Africa, Shells from the nearby river and handmade trinkets made by Romanians. If you collect mărțișoare, then having various shapes, sizes, and colors will add some interest to your collection, even if they’re not handmade. I ended up finding several vendors that made truly work-of-art type talismans. I bought one for 30 RON (which is a lot relative to prices for other talismans) for a hand-shaped clay bouquet of flowers for my grandmother. The artist that made it has a website, ioniart.ro, but it’s under construction right now.

Although I already mentioned Zambile, the ghiocel, or snowdrop is also an important flower for the Mărțișor celebration. These flowers were selling even in early february. They are not particularly fantastic flowers, since they are pretty small. A bouquet is short and lightweight, and the flower doesn’t even open upward. At first I didn’t really see the point of selling them for 1 RON on the street. They are not the kind of flower you give to someone on Valentines Day or their birthday or for any special occasion. I really underestimated how much Romanians just like having flowers in their homes. There is strong symbolism to the snowdrop and it’s association with spring – but the main motivator for Romanians that buy tiny little Snowdrop bouquets? “It’s just nice.”

And it is. As I was walking around looking for something to catch my eye on March first, I remembered that my mom used to make these talismans and sell them – 21 years ago. She was pregnant with me and found time and energy to stand out in the cold to make an extra buck (I mean, leu). While I was daydreaming about this, a vendor a while back started screaming “St. Nicholas is dead! Spring is coming!” I had never heard this before, but it made me smile. It’s both traumatizing and endearing.

March isn’t over and International Woman’s Day (March 8) was just another reason to bring out the flowers and gifts. Some people wear their talismans all throughout March I’m told. Every gift given in March is wrapped in red and white string. White symbolizes winter’s hold on us, and red symbolizes the inevitable spring.

One of the myths surrounding the Mărțișor goes like this:

Spring (personified) walked into a snowy forest and saw a snowdrop, covered in snow, struggling to live. Immediately, Spring parted the snow away with her hands. When Winter (personified) saw this, she got angry and sent wind and cold toward the snowdrop: it froze instantly. Spring, distraught, tried to protect the snowdrop with her hands, which where cut on the ice that Winter sent. Her hands were cut, and started bleeding, the hot red blood fell on the snowdrop and melted the ice, allowing it to survive, and thus, Spring conquered Winter.