A Big Thank you to Stefan and his family who presented each of the girls and staff in Primary 3/4 with a beautiful trinket. This is a special Romanian tradition which marks the arrival of Spring. Thank you to Stefan’s mum for also providing us with a detailed description of this tradition, as set out below. Also, thank you to Stefan’s granny.
March 1 is the day Romanians celebrate ‘Martisor’, an old tradition related to spring arrival and warm weather, also symbolizing love, respect and friendship.
The word Martisor is the diminutive of martie, the Romanian name for March, and thus literally means “little March”.
Martisor is also the name of the trinket with the red and white string with hanging tassel customarily given on the 1st day of March.
Traditionally boys give to girls, as gifts, the ‘Martisor’ symbol; nevertheless, there are several regions in Romania where the girls are the ones to offer „martisoare” to the boys.
Offering this trinket or talisman is an old custom, symbol of the coming spring and it is believed that his or her bearer will be strong and healthy for the rest of the year.
