Category Archives: holidays

last year, i got excited about martenitsa — a beautiful bulgarian tradition with pagan roots, which marks the coming of spring with the relinquishment of small red-and-white trinkets — handmade or storebought, bracelets or little figures, usually — which are given between friends, and to those one wishes to know better. people exchange martenitsa on the first of march, and wear them until they see a first sign of spring — and then hang their martenitsa on the tree or bush where this first bud has been spotted.

the idea of making and sharing martenitsa has the perfect storm of virtues from my viewpoint. they are small and easy to crank out if you want them to be, or you can be incredibly fastidious and detailed. i love cultural iconography that allows for interpretation. and i love the idea of giving small tokens to friends… and to people you hope will be come friends. that’s very innocent and vulnerable and sweet (things we don’t all get in our every day commerce).

here's a day-old puppy, chewing the martenitsa i made ben.

and i love the idea that martenitsa create works of public art — hung in public spaces, and placed there by the public. collectively. one at a time. martenitsa are a version of the people’s microphone, in that if a person is waiting to hang their martenitsa until they see the first bud of spring, if they see a martenitsa before they see a bud… they know just what that means!

so through the magic of facebook, i organized a martenitsi exchange with friends in oregon, washington, california, maine, and here in philly. it was great to see friends getting into making them, all around the country. shortly before march first, the mailings started.

on feb 28th — claudia’s birthday — artist kate mundie and i made martenitsi with our kids’ pre-k class.

i wrote up a version of the craft — for InCultureParent Magazine. (BUT, i also did a leek craft for st. david’s day — st. david and baba marta share march 1st, and it is fun to think of their cage battle/grudge match for whose day it really is!)

béla is backing st. david.

on the actual morning of march first, i was sick, and forced myself to go out anyway and give some out at the coffee shop. it didn’t last long. so, i’ve got some ready for next year. but it was great to be able to put on the ones i had received, and attach the ones for my kids to their jackets and school bags and lunch bags.

one friend on the west coast took one of the martenitsi i had made him and gifted it to a friend with whom he had just patched up a falling out. it commemorated their new beginning.

the firebrand nikki virbitsky here in philly put a martenitsa on a rosebush outside of a chichi hair salon, only to turn around and see someone from the salon come out and remove it as though it were litter! nikki went straight home, printed out FLYERS about the tradition of the martenitsi, and took some of her handspun wool martenitsi, and her information, right back to the salon! THAT is hardcore!

this weekend the kids were helping me put the martenitsi from my own arm onto trees on tenth street, when — we SAW one! one we had not put there! it was one i had made — and we had a good guess as to who had left it (and we turned out to be right!) but it was extra fun to see one out in the wild.

baba marta day is a great tradition and i love sharing it. i’m keeping a whole flickr set for our martenitsi exploits… i pretty much start thinking about making mine now right after new year’s. you can combat the post-holiday emptiness and blues… with red and white!!

i love the breadcrumb trail, and how projects lead to other projects.

i was viewing some fantastic photos of the portland, OR krampuslauf, in which our second knitted krampus figured prominently. the photographs had been taken by gerhard hallstatt, an austrian pantheist and founder of the austrian industrial folklore project Allerseelen, who had attended the portland krampuslauf.

looking at some of gerhard’s other photos, i found one of some small, talismanic, red-and-white yarn figures that intrigued me. gerhard commented that they were martenitsa, a bulgarian tradition.

i did a little research. lying in bed with ben on new year’s eve, each of us with our ipads, i forgot about the new year entirely, and started looking forward to march 1. i could not wait to make martenitsa.

there are so many variations, and quite a bit of commentary on how the more contemporary ones are commercialized — made to look like spider man and other pop culture figures — and, on how much of bulgaria’s martenitsa trade is IMPORTED, from china, and how the chinese martenitsas are inferior to the bulgarian ones. wow, there are so many worlds out there, aren’t there? and yet, nothing new under the sun.

here’s a charming photo of a little boy who could use a nose wiping, wearing his martenitsa. i like to think someone made him that sweater, too — love the zipper detail on the shoulder.

here’s a funny little animated GIF featuring martenitsa — although i notice here the colors are switched — pizho (the male figure) is usually the white one, and penda (the female) usually the red.

i decided that i would try to needlefelt some martenitsa and knit others. both impulses resulted in some trial and error and ultimately pieces that i am very happy with.

the needlefelted martenitsa are large and chunky, and low on detail. i like their heft, their bauhaus-style. i only made two sets of these, and one is for me (even though you are not supposed to make martenitsa for yourself, i did.)

the other needlefelted set went to gerhard in austria.

the other sets are knitted, and very adorable — and tiny! when béla and claudia saw me working on these they were entranced and WANTED them immediately…

by all means mom, what we need in this family is more ethnic-y culture-y stuff.

i was excited about seeing the movie RARE EXPORTS for sure. i love scandanavian horror in general. i love the combination of scary + christmas. the movie was even better than expected, and i think it will become a holiday tradition for us. i can’t wait to own it.

back when i wasn’t even sure we’d see philly on the “limited release” circuit, i had found this pleasing iteration of the logo on an official site for the film.

how can you go wrong with that? great design. of course, i looked at it pretty carefully and felt pretty sure it had never actually been knitted; it was digitally produced.

i played with it a little and it was fairly easy to chart. i intentionally went a bit less symmetrical, a little more organic.

here’s claudia in the pre-finished edgings of arm and neck holes, pre-blocking phase on christmas eve:

and, here’s béla, soaking it with vietnamese dipping sauce on christmas night.

we do have our fun.