Dedicated To My Mother and Father, who have always encouraged me to continue my Bulgarian heritage, even though they are many miles from me now.

Bulgarians have many old traditions, but the most ancient one, still flourishing and vibrant until today is definitely MARTENITZA, the red and white twisted ribbons we give to each other every year on the 1st March.

One of my favourite variations of the legend that tells the origin of the martenitza is of Khan Asparouh (the founder of new Bulgaria in 681), who had a sister Houba. She was taken as a hostage by a rival tribe and when Asparouh found the beautiful land between the Danube, the Black Sea and the Balkans mountains, which he called Bulgaria, he sent her a message to escape and join him there. Houba managed to run off and rode for days towards the Danube, so once at its banks she let a falcon fly across to find a safe place for crossing. The falcon had a white ribbon tied on his leg, but an enemy’s arrow wounded him and his blood coloured it red. Still the faithful bird flew back to Houba and they found their way across to the new Bulgarian kingdom. Since then the red and white ribbons are the symbol of freedom, health and prosperity that links all of us Bulgarians to our ancestors.

An interesting research tells us that maybe the tradition is much older than we all anticipate. The proto Bulgarians had a kingdom in 2nd century AD, which was situated around Peshawar in India. Fara, their god of plenty was pictured as a ram with a martenitza round his neck. The tradition of hanging red and white ribbons from trees has been noticed in very isolated villages in  Mongolia and China. These facts are amazing evidence of the links between the cultures of India, Sumer and the Balkans.  The ribbons follow the DNA structure, which is a spiral with a left twist. Perhaps the martenitza is the message, which the ancient Bulgarian shamans wanted us to have today– our life is a twist between the two energies Yin and Yang.

This tradition has undergone many transformations: in the past only children and women wore the tokens. They were tied on their right wrists and were worn till they saw the first stork, which is a symbol of the new spring and new life. Then they were hung on a fruit tree or hidden under a stone on the crop fields for fruitful year ahead. Today you will find, all Bulgarians whatever their age or gender and wherever they might be living proudly wearing their martenitza in March.

This year like every year since the birth of my daughter I tied a martenitza around her tiny wrist and she tied one around mine. This symbolises our shared hopes for a good year ahead…