Celebrating March in Romania

1. Travelling Teds' European Discoveries-
Descoperirile Europene ale Ursuletilor Calatori
- COM-13-PM-1172-SB-IE

2. Romanian Traditions
A Romanian celebration
of Spring, Love and
Friendship

3. In Romania, on the first of March, you can see girls and
women wearing on their coats a little trinket tied up with
two braided white and red cotton or silk threads. This
amulet is called Little March ,"Mărţişor“ in Romanian , and
there are many legends about its origin.

4. To respect traditions , the Little March( "Mărţişor" )
should be worn from the first day of March until it
shows the first signs of spring, until cherry trees and
roses blossom, until the arrival of storks. At the end of
March, the red-white threads are tied to a branch of a
fruit tree, said to bring wealth.

5. The Romanian tradition of “Little March” amulets is
said to have originated in Roman and Daco-Thracian
times, according to archaeological researches. The
Romans and the Dacians, the ancestors of the
Romanian people, used to celebrate New Year's Eve
on 1st March. The name of the month
March, “Martie” in Romanian, comes from the
Roman god of agriculture and war , “Mars”. Men
used to go to wars in springtime so women gave
them an amulet to protect them in battle.

6. The white of the “Little March” twisted threads
represented peace and fertility, while the red
represented war.
At the beginning the amulets were river stones painted
in white and red.
Later they were silver coins and nowadays they may be
spring flowers(snowdrops),lucky chimney
sweeps, horseshoes or four-leaf clovers or even
jewellery .

7. A couple of weeks before the first of
March, schoolchildren all over Romania make “Little
March” amulets for their mothers and grandmothers.

11. Since the beginning of February “Little March”
amulets are sold everywhere, in shops, in the
streets, in museums, at the florist's , at the chemist's
,etc. They bring “ colour to the eye and joy to the
heart ”.

12. The legend of Little March
Amulet
Once upon a time the sun embodied in a very
handsome young man used to come down on Earth
for joining the circle dances in villages.
Finding out the Sun’s passion for dancing, a
dragon followed him and in one of his incursions
on Earth, kidnapped him and threw him into a
dungeon in his castle.
The birds stopped singing and the children
stopped laughing. No one dared to challenge the
dragon.

14. One day a brave young man decided to go and
find the dungeon and save the Sun. All the
people who went with the young man to the
dragon’s castle gave him a lot of their strength
to succeed in defeating the mighty dragon.
His journey to the castle lasted three seasons,
summer, autumn and winter. At the end of winter
the man finally found the dragon’s castle where
the Sun was imprisoned.
The fight started and lasted for many days until
the dragon was defeated. With his last strength
the young man set the Sun free.

16. He succeeded in making happy again all the
people who believed in him. Nature came back
to life, people started laughing again but the
man couldn’t see Spring coming again.
Wounded, he fell to the ground. His blood
drained from his wounds into the snow.
While the snow was melting away white flowers
called snowdrops, the messengers of spring,
came out of the ground. When the last drop of
blood drained away he died happily for having
served a noble purpose.

18. Since then people have braided two threads, a
white one and a red one and hang on it a small
amulet. At the beginning of Spring, on March
1st men offer these small amulets called
“ little March” to all women they care for.

19. Drawings by Andreea Balteanu - class 8B,School No.13 Sibiu
This project has been funded with support from
the European Commission.
This publication /communication reflects the
views only of the author, School No.13
Sibiu,Romania, and the Commission cannot be
held responsible for any use which may be
made of the information contained therein.