We’ve just welcomed in March and the traditional greeting in any new month is ‘Kalo mina’ - ‘May you have a good month’. Folklore says if March comes in like a lion, she will go out like a lamb …. and vice-versa!
In Greek there is a saying: Martis, gdhartis kai kaloupokaftis literally translated as ‘March the skin flayer and fence-post burner’. This makes reference to the unpredictable weather: the hot sun can burn your skin, yet the cold can force you to burn the fence stobs when fuel is used up at winter’s end.
It is a month of hope – and good cheer, we all need that! We look forward to longer, milder days, trees in blossom, the equinox will happen shortly and spring proper is not far away.
For this month in Greece people traditionally wear the marti: a simple bracelet made of woven red and white threads. This tradition is said to date back to the Eleusinian Mysteries, or secret rites, which took place annually at Eleusini, situated between Athens and the Peloponnese. The rites performed there are in three phases and reenact the abduction, the search for and the return of Persephone.
Persephone the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and fertility, had the delightful task of painting all the flowers of the earth, thus she can be said to personify spring.
According to the myth, before completing her task, she was abducted by Hades, the god of the Underworld. The distressed Demeter caused a dreadful drought and, to ease the suffering of gods and men alike, Zeus intervened and allowed Penelope to return to her mother.
There was, however, a rule in the Underworld, that whoever ate or drank there was doomed to stay forever. Since Hades had tricked Persephone into eating 4-6 pomegranate seeds, her penalty was to return to the Underworld for 4 to 6 months every year. During her daughter’s annual absence, Demeter neglected her duties of cultivation.
It is interesting to see how inclusive these events were since women and slaves were allowed to attend. There were two requirements that allowed attendance:
1) being free from ‘blood guilt’ i.e. not having committed murder……. and
2) not being a ‘barbarian’ i.e. being able to speak Greek !!
During initiation ceremonies, participants, who were obliged to swear an oath of secrecy, wore red thread called the kroki tied round their right wrists and left ankles. And this is what we continue when we wear the Marti.
It is a tradition that has spread and the bracelet is now worn in other Balkan countries, though its significance and related practices may vary a little. In North Macedonia it is called the martinka, Albanians refer to the verore, while Bulgarians wear the martenitsa.
Jewellers, of course, offer more up-market pieces of adornment, which may be made of gold or silver, and have precious stones – often the blue-eye talisman - woven into the design.
Traditionally, however, this is a very simple bracelet made of hand-woven red and white strands which may have little trinkets threaded onto them. The red and white threads are said to represent health and fertility, strength and purity, respectively. The martis was believed to confer health, good luck and protection in general on the wearer. It was even said to protect from the strengthening sun rays and prevent sunburn.
Some
wear it till it disintegrates, some take it off at the end of the month, while
others do so only once they have seen the first swallow of the season. Then it may
be hung on a branch of a tree in the hope the swallow might use it to build her
nest.
So there we have it: a beautiful tale designed as an explanation of our seasonal changes. And a tradition that we share with Greek culture from days long gone to the present time.
Kalo mas mina – may the month be kind to us!
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