Честита Баба Марта! За днес от мен - извънземна мартеница с антенки и рога. Айде да сте всички живи и здрави. :)



Today is one of The national holidays here. We give each other brooches made of white and red wool called "martenitsi". We wish good health for the whole year with them. I drew mine with alien antennae and horns because why not. :)

My children will go to "Surva" today. It's a traditional Bulgarian holiday where people wear scary masks ("kuker" masks) to frighten evil spirits. My daughters had to make two of them. I drew the image being supervised by the younger one and used it to cut the masks from cardboard. On the second photo you can see my oldest daughter with the mask we made. I cute it from the a cardboard pizza box. Then glued the horns to the face, because otherwise the mask would be too small. We wanted to put wool on the face as in most of the traditional kuker masks but we didn't have any. And, preparing things at the last time, as usual, we could not get wool. I decided to use old winter leggings which had holes on the knees. I cut them and glued them to the face and we had the needed texture. We cut the white fabric from an old white pillowcase and glued them to the horns and teeth. My daughter decided to put the red yarn around the horns. The red felt tip pen all over it was her original idea. “To be really scary, there should be blood all over it” she said. They will be great at frightening evil spirits. :)




Now in Bulgarian:

Today is March, the 1st. Here in Bulgaria there is a tradition to give to other people bracelets, brooches and other items made of white and red wool. These items are called "martenitsi" and are often shaped as characters, named Pizho (the male) and Penda (the female character). These martenitsi symbolize health and have to be worn until you see a stork - here storks go south in the autumn and come back in the spring. With their white and red colors the martenitsi are always cheerful things. Here's an alternative look at them. I've drawn the Pizho and Penda characters as a slightly evil couple. :)



This is just a funny approach to this lovely Bulgarian tradition. Thanks for looking!