<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/dsc01553.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-2239" title="Martenitsa 2 2010" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/dsc01553.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></a>It's March 1st! Excellent. Today I'll be telling everyone: Chestita Baba Marta.

I don't really know how to say this in English.  It's something like Happy Grandmother March. Yeah I know. It sounds pretty awkward in English and it doesn't really mean anything in English.  I guess that you might also be able to "translate" it as something like Happy First of March--but this seems to me to be a stretch. But we do celebrate this day on March 1st so it's not horribly wrong. <a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/dsc01562.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-2246" title="Martenitsa 3 2010" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/dsc01562.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></a>

I think it's safe to say that at its most basic this is a holiday that celebrates the coming of spring.

There are lots of stories, myths, tales and stories that float around about this holiday. <!--more--> The stories cover such things as the two main colors red and white, the use of string, spotting birds and new buds on trees, Bulgaria, the month of March and maybe a few other things like good luck and good health.  Yep, it's a lot of power for one holiday.

<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/dsc01552.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-2238" title="Martenitsa 2010" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/dsc01552.jpg?w=225" alt="" width="225" height="300" /></a>So what does this mean in practice? Martenitsi! Martenitsi everywhere. These little things are for sale on the street corners, in the main book square and even outside of bus stops.  The martenitsi cost between .10 leva for a little bracelet and 20 leva for a giant martenitsa for your wall.  You're supposed to buy one for your friends and family.

I am not sure that it's always been a commercial holiday but it's unquestionably one today. I guess there's a chance it's always been this way seeing as this is only my second March 1st in Bulgaria but I am assuming in the past one must have made a basic bracelet at home for friends.  However today, there are a huge number of people selling martenitsi on every street corner and many of the martenitsi are now made in China. Oh, capitalism and globalism.

What's interesting to me is that this doesn't seem to be a gender specific holiday. One may think that wearing red and white bracelets or little red and white girls and boys, is something only girls would do but this is not the case.  Everybody does.  Little boys, big boys, teenagers and grown men. I think that's pretty great. <a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/dsc01556.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-2247" title="Martenitsa 4 2010" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/dsc01556.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></a>

So, you may wonder what the Baba Marta story is. I do too. I've head so many different versions.

The common denominator seems to be this: concerns about spring ensue (hey, I know that feeling), March however is a mixed up month going hot and cold, then a  bird of some sort probably a stork shows up with a branch/twig/sign of spring attached to it everyone is very happy (I guess that when the stork isn't delivering babies he can also deliver spring).  The result is that today we exchange martenitsi as a symbol of the coming of spring. Then, when we see a stork or the first bloom we hang our martenitsa on a tree branch.

What is your Baba Marta story?