Handmade Martisoare spring holiday symbol in great demand in Moldova
The handmade spring artifacts Martisoare are in great demand this year. This is proven by the fact that skilled craftsmen have already come to sell their goods in Chisinau and the buyers are very excited by the offers.
The martisor craftsmen have started to prepare them in the summer already, in order to have them finished on 1 March. Elena Virlan from Chisinau is one of the craftswomen who come on the streets to sell her painstakingly handmade martisoare for five years already. She has manufactured over 2,000 martisoare and hopes to sell them all, as in previous years.
The passers-by are delighted by the multitude of the white and red colours and squeeze to buy them for their dear ones. The traditionally crocheted models are in great demand.
The prices to handmade martisoare vary between 5 and 15 lei. But, another category of martisoare is in great demand as well, namely those which can be used as embellishment and also are of bigger dimension. Their price varies between 30 and 100 lei.
According to the legends, the martisor is the symbol of the renewal and of the hope, which brings luck and health along the year. The martisor’s cord plaited in two strands means the passing from winter to spring. In the old times, on 1 March, upon the sun rise, women tied a martisor to their children’s hand in order to protect them from the evil things, the head of the ethnography department of the National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History, Maria Ciocanu, said. The same tradition says that the martisor has to be worn on the heart’s side or on the hand until 1 April, when it is hanged on a branch of the bloomed trees.
Martisor fairs will be organized in Chisinau until 10 March and the National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History will host a national exhibition dedicated to the spring’s symbol starting with 1 March.
Adapted from: MOLDPRES