Welcoming Spring (Phase 1): Martişor Remnants
Martişor, Romania (1st March). As in other cold countries, the joy of having spring coming begins early, when the snow starts melting down: some years, like this one, is already quite warm and there's no snow down the valleys (it mught snow again, though), some other years with cold, long winters there's still snow in March, and it's freezing, but the sun light gets warmer and days become longer anyway, that's unstoppable. And the first wild flowers sprout: in Romanian, that's the ghiocel.
First week of March is the week of early celebration of spring in Romania, is Martişor. Apart from ghiocel, women get small presents tied with white-red ribbons to wear that week as
lapel pins: those are the martişoare. After that week martişoare are tied in trees, tokens calling for the spring to come.
These ones at Cişmigiu certainly succeeded!
Welcoming Spring (Phase 2): Palm Sunday
Catholic and Orthodox Palm Sunday, Romania (5th April and 12th April). The flowers to be offered and blessed in such a date are beautiful, brief symbols of early spring: fragile narcisus and this brownish branch with cotton buttons that I've seen both here and also in Russia, but always in bouquets... So I still don't know which bush or tree is, and which kind of flowers or fruits are born after that soft shoots.
Welcoming Spring (Phase 3): Easter
Orthodox Easter, Romania (still to come -19th April-).
1. Painted eggs. They still keep the tradition, no fake. (Well, not only fake...). This craftmade one is pretty, but maybe the funniest thing
I've seen here is a common tray of eggs with painted ones at Carrefour. Perfect for busy Mommies and Daddies!
2. Lumina. On Holy Friday night, you go to the church with a candle. The Pope bless the first fire and then the light passes from one people to the next, in a lighting row that is worth seeing. You have to keep it lit until you get home, and let it to extinguish by itself: your house will be blessed the whole year. The rite starts at midnight more or less, but Mass goes on all night, so you can get your light at any time. And the next morning there's some holy breakfast, also... What I liked the most last year was the mixture between religious fervour and pagan joy, between Christmas Eve and New Years Eve: praying and quiet people near the Pope, inside the tiny churches, and noisy families and young people waiting outside, chatting and eating seeds, waiting their candle to be lit to go home and then, in the case of young people, to go out and party.
Martişor, Romania (1st March). As in other cold countries, the joy of having spring coming begins early, when the snow starts melting down: some years, like this one, is already quite warm and there's no snow down the valleys (it mught snow again, though), some other years with cold, long winters there's still snow in March, and it's freezing, but the sun light gets warmer and days become longer anyway, that's unstoppable. And the first wild flowers sprout: in Romanian, that's the ghiocel.
First week of March is the week of early celebration of spring in Romania, is Martişor. Apart from ghiocel, women get small presents tied with white-red ribbons to wear that week as
lapel pins: those are the martişoare. After that week martişoare are tied in trees, tokens calling for the spring to come.These ones at Cişmigiu certainly succeeded!
Welcoming Spring (Phase 2): Palm Sunday
Catholic and Orthodox Palm Sunday, Romania (5th April and 12th April). The flowers to be offered and blessed in such a date are beautiful, brief symbols of early spring: fragile narcisus and this brownish branch with cotton buttons that I've seen both here and also in Russia, but always in bouquets... So I still don't know which bush or tree is, and which kind of flowers or fruits are born after that soft shoots.Welcoming Spring (Phase 3): Easter
Orthodox Easter, Romania (still to come -19th April-).
1. Painted eggs. They still keep the tradition, no fake. (Well, not only fake...). This craftmade one is pretty, but maybe the funniest thing
I've seen here is a common tray of eggs with painted ones at Carrefour. Perfect for busy Mommies and Daddies!2. Lumina. On Holy Friday night, you go to the church with a candle. The Pope bless the first fire and then the light passes from one people to the next, in a lighting row that is worth seeing. You have to keep it lit until you get home, and let it to extinguish by itself: your house will be blessed the whole year. The rite starts at midnight more or less, but Mass goes on all night, so you can get your light at any time. And the next morning there's some holy breakfast, also... What I liked the most last year was the mixture between religious fervour and pagan joy, between Christmas Eve and New Years Eve: praying and quiet people near the Pope, inside the tiny churches, and noisy families and young people waiting outside, chatting and eating seeds, waiting their candle to be lit to go home and then, in the case of young people, to go out and party.
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1 comentario:
"this brownish branch with cotton buttons"... yo tengo un ramito en casa, jeje, pero los conozco de mi madre... pero a mí los cotton buttons que tú dices me recuerdan a las "almohadillas" de las patitas de los gatos...
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