In case you missed it, yesterday was the First of March. On this day Bulgarians exchange martenitsi and greet each other with the saying Chestita Baba Marta. Or Happy Grandmother March.

And I want to wish you Chestita the-day-after Baba Marta!!

Anyhow, here's a quick review of yesterday.

My students were again wonderfully funny when it comes to celebrating this Bulgarian holiday. They stream into the classroom with plastic bags of martenitsi or they extract martenitsi one at a time from their backpacks. Even the students who come off in class as a little too-cool for school are wearing and exchanging the red and white martenitsi.

[caption id="attachment_4409" align="alignleft" width="614" caption="Many Martenitsi!!!"]<a rel="attachment wp-att-4409" href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/?attachment_id=4409"><img class="size-large wp-image-4409 " title="Many Martenitsi!!!" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/DSC02395-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="614" height="461" /></a>[/caption]

On a whole, students feel the need not only to give their American teachers martenitsi but also to explain the tradition. The only problem is that for many of the younger students don't know all of vocabulary that need to explain the holiday and the tradition of the martenitsa.  Of course, they don't realize this until the are into the middle of story and can't come up with the word stork or an equally little used word in their vocabulary.

It's a wonderful thing to watch their minds working so hard to come up with another suitable word. Luckily after year two here in Bulgaria, I can help them fill in the story and the background without a round of charades or a string of questions!!

Now there are two major kinds of martenitsi--the kind that you tie around your wrist and the kind that you pin to your shirt. It seems like most students give friends martenitsi that you tie around the wrist while they give teachers the larger and often more elaborate martenitsi which you pin to your shirt.<!--more-->

[caption id="attachment_4410" align="alignleft" width="614" caption="Martenitsi come in every shape and size"]<a rel="attachment wp-att-4410" href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/?attachment_id=4410"><img class="size-large wp-image-4410 " title="Martenitsi come in every shape and size" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/DSC02398-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="614" height="461" /></a>[/caption]

Now given the pictures of my wrist after a day of exchanging martenitsi at school this is clearly not a rule but I did receive more martenitsi than I could comfortably wear. Also many, many martenitsi came without safety pins this year (which I think is kind of annoying).

The thing about martenitsi is that they aren't really something that you can put on yourself. It's basically impossible to knot one to your wrist yourself.  So if you're a teacher like me, the result is that for half of the day you have students clamoring to pin things to you or tie red and white lengths of string around your wrist.

It's an interesting experience. First students are in your personal space much, much more than they normally are. And second, they take their job of pinning on a martenitsa or knotting around your wrist seriously. So you get open safety pins coming at you and martenitsi tied just a little to tightly to your wrist.

Oh and as they are struggling to tie a martenitsa around your wrist or pin it to you many students also feel obligated to tell you that you are to make a wish right before it's a attached to you as this is the luckiest moment of the process. I wasted a lot of wishes yesterday right at this moment as I thought: please don't stab me with that pin or ah, I hope that you don't tie that on to tightly. But I did get a few good wishes in for the speedy arrival of spring and good health.

This said, it's a wonderful holiday and there's something really wonderful about coming home at the end of the day with an arm full of martenitsi.

Anyhow, I've downsized the number of martenitsi I'll wear around this month. There's one really cute red and white heart on my coat. There's a martenitsi on my purse and I've got about four on my wrist. I mean, it's hard to do the dishes with too many more on than this.

So to each of you, I hope that you had a wonderful First of March and that spring finds you quickly!!