Mărțișorul
Springing to action
We have this thing in Romania and some other Balkan neighbors have it too. Of course they learned it from us. On the 1st of March boys give girls this tiny artisanal thingy attached to a red and white string. The thingy might be anything resembling a broch, small handmade crafts, cheap Chinese trinket, fancy artsy tiny painting on wood, even quite expensive jewelry, you name it. Basically all kinds of pins. Girls get (lots of) these things and wear them on their clothes or tied around their hand or whatever. Some get to look like Soviet multi decorated generals, others pick only one to wear, the one received from the significant other presumably. I remember this being the most awkward time of the year in school. But it was a chance to interact with girls you wouldn’t normally get to, if that was something you were interested in. I started to appreciate it more as I grew up. For different reasons.
I learned that it is a calendar. 365 of the thinnest threads, half red, half white, representing summer and winter days. These two bundles of threads are then weaved together, representing the whole year. At the end of the 19th century this magic string was then knotted in a bow and attached to a silver or even gold coin and was worn until other particular spring feast later in the season. And then it got hanged on a blossoming branch. It was said to be given to both girls and boys by their parents. Somewhere along the way it morphed into the gendered version we have today1. It was believed that the ones who wear it will not be burned by the sun during summer, stay in good health all year, will be lovable and loving, rich and lucky, all the good stuff. Good amulet to be protected by2.
It seems it’s slowly fading away as a custom, maybe due to the importing of the Valentine’s day. Maybe it’s not. I don’t have my hand of the pulse of this phenomenon. It’s just feels. I just keep on doing it regardless of context. On one hand I try to encourage the ones that are making a living selling these things, but I think the beauty lies in doing it yourself. So it’s like a yearly creative challenge on a very tight budget. I aim at as many as I can produce in order to not limit my reach at the close circle of family and friends. Go as long and wide as possible.
Anyway. Rhythms. We got this E(1,7). Like a weekly beat. One day of work and six days of leisure. Easy. In Coliere V1 this is titled Explosion. Its pair is Eruption. The dyad is Artificial vs Natural. In V3 we will get to its pair around September this year, so don’t touch that dial. For now it’s Mărțișor. A diminutive of March. Of Mars. Ares. A vessel for a little god of war . Small man-made explosion at the start of the year honoring him. Go life!
As with all these ‘one beat in space’ rhythms, to audiate it one might need an aid. A more lively 7 for this one. The Rooster comes in handy. It’s E(3,7). Go. Go. GO!. Go. Go. GO!. Loop this in your head and hit your chest like Matt McConaughey in the Wolf of Wall St. on the last long “GO!”. You will not get this right until you hear it3 done properly, but still worth trying. You will most likely do the E(1,8). That’s Toiag (Staff), and it’s randomly due in June. So again, patience.
The homework this week is not just this though. You have still time until the 1st of March to come up with something for the occasion. It’s a new year, it’s a new dawn, and I’m feeling good.
Next one will be the first pair of one we already had gone through. We did Crivățul earlier in January, we’ll do his match after the start of March. She’s one resilient lady. Some say she is the one who weaved the first Mărțișor string.
In the meantime… I am of course… Manufacturing ammo for the 1st of March.
Later edit: So parents, mostly the mothers I guess, (because it’s threading and weaving involved) gifted this to their sons and daughters. Then the poles miraculously shifted and now boys gift it to women of all ages regardless of family ties. Boys lost to women. Family ties lost to gender slop. In short. What happened here during the 20th century that might have influenced this? Communism happened. We live in the aftermath. Sifting through he debris, trying to piece together some Frankenstein’s monster. I’m digesting this just as I am already embroiled into its latest iteration.
Later edit the 2nd: I once offered one to a nun I know in an orthodox monastery, and she politely declined to receive it (something something antichristian). I’ve never seen anybody refusing one of these until then. Intriguing.
Listen to FVLGVR here. The kick/snare combo is (3,7). But the snare in isolation is doing the (1,7).