At The Mărțișoare Market

It's that time of the year again, when people are preparing for the big day, which is the 1st of March.

Mărțișor (Romanian pronunciation: [mərt͡siˈʃor]) is the Romanian name of a tradition celebrated at the beginning of spring, in the month of March, and the name of the associated object made from two intertwined red and white strings with hanging tassel in Romania and Moldova, very similar to Martenitsa tradition in Bulgaria and Martinka in North Macedonia and traditions of other populations from Southeastern Europe.

The word Mărțișor is the diminutive of marț, the old folk name for March (martie, in modern Romanian), and literally means "little March".

Modern tradition involves wearing the small object on the chest like a brooch or a lapel pin, during the first part of the month, starting from 1 March. source

This is an old tradition still going on today. Men give women a gift on the 1st day of March. Some prefer to give these traditional mărțișoare, while others gift women flowers.

I remember when I first posted about this tradition on Hive, then I saw a post from a user from Bulgaria. She's not active anymore, but back then she posted about their tradition, which is similar to ours. I had no idea and was amazed to learn through Hive about it. Since then I suppose I've been posting about it each year.

Each year there's a market dedicated to products for this event. You see vendors all over the city, selling mărțișoare, flowers and small souvenirs. I'm a regular already, trying to visit the market every time, to see what's new, each year. These mărțișoare have changed a lot over the years and those that were popular when I was a school girl are not sold anymore. Those were simple and mostly the same every year. Chimney sweep, clover, horseshoe, snow flower, heart, ladybug, these were the most common then.

Today, sky is the limit as far as creativity is regarded. The offer is huge, so if you want to make sales, you need to come up with something unique and new. Today there were two types of vendors at the market, artisans and those selling the same thing, which was what they bought at bulk. I was only interested in the first category, but I'm going to show you some of the latter as well.

This was the first thing I saw at the market today and was already happy s these were quite nice. I've seen these before, but that's not a problem.

These wee next, fridge magnets, not exactly souvenirs for the occasion, but most of them were so funny, so I bought one. Actually some were funny, others were for different occasions. Now reading the text of most of the magnets, I realized I have to go back and buy one for a relative as he likes to fish and would like it for sure. I bought one and I'm going to show you which one a bit later.

Label said these had Swarowski crystals. I don't know what to think, but the price was definitely established as if it was really Swarowski crystal. Some were quite cute I must say.

The funny thing was that I entered the market, made like 10 steps and took out my wallet 3 times 😂. Here was the third time.

When I saw this cutie, could not resist and bought one, for 1€.

There were pink ladies as well, but I don't like pink.

This intertwined red and white string is only used on this day and it's tied to this occasion only. As you can see, now you can buy bracelets, hair bands etc.

Looking at the great variety today, was thinking I could create some for my to be "souvenir shop" 😃.

These were hand made, like most and cute too. That dark brown wooden background made them look good.

These were made using quilling technique. I've never see similar before, but I liked them.

These were made by recycling paper. I know that technique. I see this guy at every single fair, selling, or trying to sell magnets, plates, boxes made of recycled paper.

These are the magnets you see at every fair.

These were made f dry flowers, a very original idea in my opinion. Could have chosen a few.

This is what I came home with. The cutie and the magnet. The message on the magnet is in Hungarian and it says:

I'm not an alcoholic, I just don't have time to get sober.

I found it funny.

And this is my cutie pie 😃

I don't even dare to ask if you know about this tradition, but if you do, do tell me about it :)

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