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.

Born with the sun on my face.

I went to Piata Mare today. There was something strange about it. I have never been there before but I really felt like I had. Parts of it reminded me of the OC fair. The casual banter between vendors, the quality of the goods. I didn’t buy anything, but after leaving I ran into a little bakery and I gave in and treated myself to a cafe frappe and a Dunarea. (A “danube”?) I’m not sure what this desert entailed but it was delicious. I also picked it because it had a heart on it and it looked Valentine’s Day-ish and I thought it would be cute for myself.

After munching, I started going on random roads hoping I would hit Str. Nicolae Alexandrescu. Somehow I did. And this was the first thing I saw:

This street is sort of residential, and doesn’t have much to see so I kept walking. It looked like an average neighborhood, but gradually started getting messier and more village-looking. It was quiet, and I was talking pictures of random tagging and gates and things that looked old and wonderful. I took a picture of a gate/alleyway when all of a sudden, the gate shook towards me and a rush of adrenaline started pumping through my veins. A dog started pounding on the gate, and a couple more pounds and it felt like he would’ve knocked it down, I moved away quickly. I did snap a picture first though. I definitely have my priorities in order.

I spoke with a woman about the hospital, she told me a story about someone who broke their spine a few steps from me and was rushed there, even though it’s a gynecological/maternity hospital. Interesting I thought. There were holes in the ground that lead to the underground water/drainage system, and that’s how lots of people would get hurt. I ran into the hospital. It had huge walls, and I couldn’t go in. I didn’t really try to talk myself into it, the guard was kind of rude and I didn’t want to deal with it so I left. It looked like I thought it would look. Big and creepy, and sort of Shutter Island-esque. There was an interesting sculpture in the courtyard, but because of the lovely guard, I couldn’t photograph anything. It’s okay. You guys aren’t missing much. I was born in the “Jewish” section of this hospital. I’m not really sure why or what that means. It was interesting, nonetheless, and I’m glad I went even though I mostly just saw the walls on the outside.

The hospital of good news. Mostly Noemi.

I walked around, got lost, started going towards an orthodox church because that’s the only thing I could identify on the skyline. I found an art museum. I really liked it, and I only looked at the outside/sculptural exhibit. I plan on going inside of these days as well.

Taggers marked the title of the museum. Can’t decide if I love this more than I hate it.

In the courtyard of the museum there was a pack of dogs. They were all super cute and gentle. I took some video and I’ll probably post it later.

Overall, pretty nice day.