Baba Marta Martenitsa Dolls appear in Bristol

Early this spring when I went to the Fort Royal Gardens to take some photos of the Magnolias I came across some dolls hanging from one of the Magnolia trees. Actually I would not have realised that they were there if I had not overheard one of the two guys who were there before me draw his friend's attention to them.
When I'd arrived two Japanese ladies had been leaving and I thought maybe the dolls were left by them. But when I got back and did some research, while I did find lots of Japanese dolls and stuff related to the Cherry Festival none resembled the ones I saw.
So I did a bit more digging and sifting and came across information which pointed at these dolls being Baba Marta Martenitsa Dolls.
Baba Marta is a Bulgarian holiday celebrated on the 1st of March. Baba Marta means Grandma March and has a lot of folklore related to it and the character Baba Marta who is associated with Spring. It is considered one of the oldest existing traditions in Europe having pagan origins.
As with most Spring traditions it is associated with life and rebirth as well as celebrating life and survival.
People wear small ornaments made of white and red yarn. The two Martenitsa dolls are called Pizho and Penda. Pizho who is predominantly white is male while Penda who is predominantly red is female and has a skirt. White represents purity while red symbolises life and passion.

According to tradition you cannot buy martenitsi for yourself. They have to be received as a gift. People give them to loved ones, family and friends to whom you feel close too.  You wear by pinning it to clothing or hanging it around your wrist or your neck. Martenitsa are worn until you see a stork, swallow or a budding tree which mark the beginning of spring
The ritual of taking them off is different in different parts of Bulgaria. However, some people will tie it to a tree which impart health and luck to the tree, which accounts for these two ending up on the Magnolia tree. Other rituals involve putting the Martenitsa under a stone and the belief is that the type of creature that comes closest to it the next day will determine your health in the coming year. A larva or worm denote health and success. If it is an ant the same applies except you will need to work hard to achieve that.
Similar traditions are held with in the region extending through Albania, Romania, Moldova, The Republic of Macedonia and Northern Greece

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/
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Magnolias and Martenista dolls from Bulgaria

I was waiting for nice blue skies to coincide with when I had a bit of time to quickly go and take some more photos in the Fort Royal Gardens because I wanted to get some photos of the Cherry and Magnolia blossoms as well as the changing flora. The hard thing was finding the time since despite what people may say and think you do get to see a lot of blue skies in England. Maybe I  just notice it more than those who only notice grey skies when they are there.
Anyway here are some photos of the two Magnolia trees located in the little cul-de-sac near the rear exit of the Gardens along with some other flowers.

Magnolia Blossom that has lost all its leaves in foreground

As you can see I probably was lucky as the flowers are beginning to lose their petals which made for some interesting photo opportunities also.

I am still not sure if the smaller tree is indeed a Magnolia or not.

Some one had hung two tiny dolls on this tree. I was not sure of the symbolism but assumed it was some Japanese tradition because I had seen two Japanese girls leaving there as I arrived. In fact I only noticed it because two guys who were already there (also taking pictures along with this other lady) noticed the dolls which were hanging from the lower branches.
I looked it up and it turns out they are most likely Pizho and Penda a pair of Martenitsa dolls, which are from a Bulgarian traditional holiday Baba Marta. I'll write more in another post with a close up of the dolls.
You can go to that post by licking on the link: Baba Marta Martenitsa Dolls appear in Bristol

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/
· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/
· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/