Grandma Marta Day, also known as Baba Marta, is celebrated in Bulgaria on March 1st. People create Martenitsas, typically wristbands, tiny yarn dolls, or tassels, made by weaving together red and white threads. These Martenitsas are worn throughout March until a stork or swallow is spotted, symbolizing the arrival of spring, better weather, and good health. When the bird is seen, the Martenitsa is taken off and hung on a blooming tree, so trees are often decorated in spring.
The holiday is also known as Birch Month, when birch trees begin to grow leaves and produce sap. Rich folklore surrounds Baba Marta and the celebration, with many legends about the holiday’s origins. The greeting for the day is “Chestita Baba Marta” which translates to “Happy Baba Marta” and is often abbreviated as “ЧБМ” on greeting cards.
The meaning behind the red and white colors of the Martenitsas is open to interpretation and varies among different legends. Some believe that red symbolizes life and birth, while white represents a new beginning, resulting in a combination of “newborn” and “rebirth.” Another popular explanation is that white represents wisdom and red represents good health, representing a wish for both for the coming year.
Throughout March, Martenitsas can be seen everywhere in Bulgaria and surrounding areas, as people wear them around their wrists and on their clothing. Despite being a pagan ritual at its origin, Grandma Marta Day is one of the oldest continuing traditions in Christian Europe.
In folklore, Baba Marta is considered a feisty and unpredictable woman who is always in a bad mood with her two brothers, January and February. According to the legend, the sun only shines when she smiles. There are different versions of the Baba Marta story, with one saying that on March 1st, she performs her pre-spring cleaning and shakes out her mattress, causing the feathers to fall to the earth like snow, marking the last snowfall of the year. This story is also in German folklore, with the character Frau Holle or Mother Hulda. Another tale portrays Baba Marta as the sister or wife of the great long-horned beetle (January) and the small long-horned beetle (February). She is always unhappy with her husband because he is either drunk or harmful, causing her to become angry and the weather nasty.
According to another famous story, an old shepherd took her flock up into the mountains during the last days of March, hoping for good weather from Baba Marta because she was as old as Marta. However, Baba Marta was incensed at being considered old and asked her younger brother April to lend her a few days. April granted her request, and these days are known as “borrowed days” or “few days” in Bulgarian folklore. Baba Marta then unleashed strong snows and blizzards that froze the shepherd and her flock in the mountains.
