Hey! Today's the 1st of March.

That can only mean one thing: throughout the day everyone in Bulgaria will be happily exchanging martenitsi and wishing each other Happy Baba Marta or in Bulgarian Chestita Baba Marta.
<a title="Happy Baba Marta Card by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6942911517/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7045/6942911517_520b1fdfe3_z.jpg" alt="Happy Baba Marta Card" width="640" height="480" /></a>
I love this tradition. I love it a lot in fact. Last year I wrote about <a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/2011/03/01/%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B0-%D0%B1%D0%B0%D0%B1%D0%B0-%D0%BC%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%82%D0%B0/" target="_blank">how much I like the red and white martenitsi</a>. Especially the red and white boy and girl Piju and Panda. So cute.

However it's not just the martenitsi that make me like this holiday so much.

Nope. In fact, I love this day because Bulgarians are all so happy on the 1st of March. Teenage boys who are more prone to grumbling are trading martenitsi and wearing a stack of them on their wrists. Girls bound into the classroom to pin them on each other. The cleaning ladies smile upon receiving martenitsi and even the women in the cafeteria have a certain lightness around them.

I've never seen another holiday in Bulgaria that produces such joy throughout the day.
<a title="Happy Baba Marta Card by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6942910789/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7069/6942910789_65d78b4b7a_z.jpg" alt="Happy Baba Marta Card" width="640" height="480" /></a>
The basics are as follows. But I should warn you, I've heard a 100+ variations on this tradition.

Once you've been given a martenista, you wear it until you see either a blooming tree or a stork. These two things are a sure sign that spring is on the way. Then you hang your martenitsa in said tree or tuck it under a rock. I am partial to the blooming tree and martenitsi look so pretty hanging in flowering trees. That and it's significantly more difficult to spot a stork. The idea is that you hang the red and white martenitsa for good luck and health in the coming year.

The challenge of course is that spring isn't guaranteed during the month of March in Bulgaria. So Bulgarians say that March is the only female month of the year. The other 11 months are male and March's bothers. March is know fondly as Baba Marta or Grandmother March. As a woman, she is fickle, moody and constantly changing her mind. Thus the weather can swing during this month from mild and warm to cold and rainy or even to winter snow flurries.

The tradition of the red and white woven strings that we exchange supposedly dates back to the times of Khan Asparuh. For those of you not up on your Bulgarian history, Khan Asparuh is the man who is credited with the establishment of the first Bulgarian empire and the martenitsi. He was a busy man. Rumor has it he tied two strings one red and one white to his falcon after a battle to signal to his wife that he was still alive. The tradition was born from this.

The red symbolizes blood and the white snow. Or maybe the red is a blushing cheek and the white is pure white skin the blush appears on.

Whatever the symbol, Честита Баба Марта (Chestita Baba Marta)!! May spring find you sooner than later wherever you are.