March amulet (mărțișor)
The mărţişor has a special affective meaning, sharing the joy of the beginning of spring and communicating affection for the people to whom it is given.
The main meanings of the element today are of a symbolic nature: in the chromatic symbolism of mărţişor string, the white symbolizes, for most wearers, the purity of the beginning, and the red is an attribute of vitality (health, beauty or love). The amulet accompanying the thread specifies the symbolic and allegorical message of martisor (for example, a horseshoe signifies a wish for luck, offered by the giver to the one who will wear the martisor).
In folk belief, mărțișor has a magical, protective function in an important temporal threshold – spring, and a festive function, which marks an important date in the folk calendar, because it is called Spring head. It was placed in the horns of animals or at the entrances to the household, in the house or in the stable, in the belief that it can ensure health in the following vegetative and agrarian year.
It is worn on the left hand or on the chest, almost the entire month of March, and then it is tied to the budding branch of a fruit tree. It is said that if the tree does not bear fruit that year, it is a bad omen. Mărţişor can also be worn until the arrival of the storks when they say: “Take your blacks and give me your whites!”
One of the current characteristics is the taking over of the phenomenon in the urban environment and the integration of some aspects related to the celebration of the mărţişor in the consumer culture.
MĂRȚIȘORUL has been included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity List since 2017
