It's that time of year:  ЧЕСТИТА БАБА МАРТА! Happy Baba Marta. Here's to the 1st of March!! And spring.

I can't believe that today is March 1st. Nor can I believe that I am celebrating this holiday for a <em>third</em> time in Bulgaria.

Yes. Three years. That's totally weird.

[caption id="attachment_4391" align="alignleft" width="614" caption="I Love Martenitsi! "]<a rel="attachment wp-att-4391" href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/?attachment_id=4391"><img class="size-large wp-image-4391 " title="I Love Martenitsi! " src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/DSC02391-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="614" height="461" /></a>[/caption]

<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/2010/03/01/chestita-baba-marta/" target="_self">I love martenitsi</a> as last year's post proves (and I got lots of them as the <a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/2010/03/02/martenitsa-fever-pitch/" target="_self">next day's post</a> demonstrates).  And then there was <a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/2009/03/02/march-1st/" target="_self">the year before that too</a>. I like everything about the holiday but it's the red and white boy and girl Piju and Panda that really make my heart pitter-patter.

Surprisingly, this year the holiday snuck up on me. I guess this happens. I mean out of the last three weekends I spent two of them traveling and one of them working.

So I grabbed a few martenitsi on Sunday afternoon on my way to lunch with my old landlord and his family. Thank-god there are old people selling martenitsi at all of the major bus stops in Sofia. Only after I bought them did I notice that they didn't come with safety pins.

I mean, really?! Who sells martenitsi without a little safety pin? How am I supposed to wear it? or pin it to a friend? That's when I realized: <a href="http://sofiaecho.com/2011/02/28/1051265_bulgarias-martenitsa-season-2011-baba-marta-meets-hannah-montana" target="_self">made in China</a>. (Actually I don't know that. I just suspect the Chinese are to blame for the lack of safety pins. Or at least that's what the Sofia Echo tells me.)

Then yesterday after school, I was shamed into buying some more martenitsi. By the single thought: what if I don't have enough martenitsi to give my friends. So at 7pm I stood in the cold picking out martenitsi by the light from street lamps.

Three years in, I have a single rule of thumb when buying martenitsi: buy from babas. Basically everyone has the same martenitsi fro sale at about the same price. So I buy from the little old ladies selling martenitsi. I do this for two reasons: I feel bad for them that they are out in the cold selling martenitsi and I think they are so much cuter than men of any age chain-smoking and selling martenitsi.

Here's the great thing about teaching: lots of students = lots of martenitsi. Today, I will teach all day--two classes of 18 students and one class of 15. That's something like 53 martenitsi and doesn't even include colleagues. This math makes it pretty clear that I didn't buy enough martenitsi this year. Or I am going to be cutting things really, really close.

I saw some great martenitsi this year but I am still keeping my eye out for one: the Justin Bieber martenitsa.  Yep. That's a martenitsi I'd pay good money for.

Don't worry, even without the Justin Bieber martenitsa I spent more than 20 leva on martenitsi. Sure I got home with a fairly questionable one--a plastic bird with feathers. It was a lot prettier in the yellow light of the bus stop. Good thing it was only one leva. However, that questionable purchase was offset by the purchase of an extra large pair of girl and boy martenitsi dressed in "tradition" Buglarian costumes.

Anyhow, all of this said, I wish I knew what martenitsa etiquette was. Like do I give a martenitsa to everyone I know? What if someone gives me one and I wasn't planning on giving them one? Can I re-gift a martenitsa?