If you take a stroll in the streets of Sofia or any other town in the country you will find the colours red and white everywhere. Because on this last day of February everyone wants to choose a martenitsa for their loved ones – an amulet of health, which people in Bulgaria attach to their clothes on the first day of March.
The last day of February is our last chance to make martenitsas for family and friends ourselves. We do it to wish them health, success and luck. Dimka Dilkova who combined martenitsas and Bulgarian embroidery has her own interpretation of the colour symbolism: “The red and the white are symbols of womanhood and manhood,” she says.
Find out more about the different techniques used to make the typically Bulgarian symbols of the coming spring – the martenitsas here.
Editing by Elena Karkalanova
Ukrainian sculptor Mykhailo Parashchuk was born on November 16, 1878. He crafted the ornaments of some of the most emblematic buildings in the Bulgarian capital. Mykhailo Parashchuk was born in the village of Varvaryntsi, at the time within..
On October 19, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church honors the memory of the humble hermit from the Rila mountain and heavenly patron of the Bulgarian people and Bulgarian doctors. Called "an earthly angel" and "a heavenly inhabitant" during his lifetime,..
On the sixth day after the beginning of the summer fasting dedicated to the Theotokos, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church celebrates the Transfiguration of the Lord, one of the twelve feasts of the Lord . And as the Bulgarian tradition dictates, the church..
Partly Cloudy