Happy spring everyone!
… Or is it spring yet?
The exact starting date of spring can be a contentious subject for some.
There’s those who take things very literally and say that spring begins right on the date of the spring equinox, which is on March 19th this year. The Sun will be directly in line with the Earth’s equator, thus causing our day and night to be approximately equal. Others are less swayed by astronomical occurrences and say that it begins when we finally leave winter’s snow and icy conditions in the past where they belong, and instead welcome fairer weather. Others still look for the blooming of spring flowers- although that might just be my sister. She says that spring begins when she sees the snowdrops blossom, but I think that’s only one of the signs that precedes the upcoming change in season.
In any case, I personally believe that spring begins on March 1st, regardless of what the weather might look like around that time. In Romania, this is the date of “Mărțișor” (pronounced like mur-tzi-shor), a holiday that marks the beginning of spring.
Every year around the beginning of March, my sisters and I eagerly await an envelope in the mail from my relatives. We never receive it quite on March 1st, as the postal service to and from Romania can be as unpredictable as Midwestern spring weather at times. (One time my mother sent out Christmas cards in mid December and somehow, my grandparents didn’t receive it until March).
The envelope contains a card and a “mărțișor” for each one of us. A mărțișor is an object like the one in the picture above, typically given to women and children. It’s made up of two threads – one red, one white – that are intertwined. Depending on what kind of thread is used, each end of the threads will have a small tassel that’s reminiscent of a doll person. These twined threads are then further tied to a small charm of some sort. When I was younger, these charms were often cartoon characters like Tweety Bird or Mickey Mouse. Now that I’m older, I usually receive charms with “ghiocei” (snowdrops), four leaf clovers, ladybugs, etc. This year’s charm was a chimney sweep, which are considered signs of good luck in Romania just as they are in English speaking countries.
These “mărțișoare” are then pinned on to one’s clothing and worn for a certain period of time. I usually just wear mine on March 1st, but I know that there’s people in other regions of Romania who wear it anywhere from eight days to a couple weeks.
While I don’t know how this tradition came to be, I do know that there’s many different stories in Romanian folklore about the beginning of spring.
One story goes as follows:
There once was a woman named Baba Dochia (which literally translates to “Old Woman Dochia”). She had a son, who fell in love with a girl from the village and eventually married her. Baba Dochia did not treat her new daughter in law very well and assigned her all sorts of impossible tasks. One day in late February, she gave her a piece of black wool, sent her to the river at the top of the mountain to wash it, and told her not to return until the wool was white as snow.
No matter how hard the girl tried, she was not able to turn the wool white. A man (Jesus in some versions) saw her struggling and gave her a red flower. He told her to put the flower in the river with the wool and that it would turn white if she did so. She tried it and it was just as he said- the wool turned white. She returned home, white wool and red flower in hand.
Seeing the red flower, Baba Dochia thought that spring had finally arrived and decided to take her goats up the mountain to graze its (definitely green) pastures. With each passing day as she climbed the mountain, she took off one of her coats and by the time she reached the top, she had taken off all eight of her coats. However, since it wasn’t actually spring yet, the top of the mountain was bitterly cold. Baba Dochia froze to death and her son and daughter in law lived happily ever after.
For this reason, the first eight days of March are known as “zilele babei” or “the old woman’s days.” It’s said that you should choose one of these days, and depending on how the weather is on that day, that’s how your year will be.
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I think that folk traditions in general are fascinating and it’s so cool to see how a tradition of the same name can be interpreted and celebrated so differently across regions. I’m so grateful to my relatives for finding ways to include us in our culture, even though there is an ocean between us.