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Baba Marta Day
Grandma Marta Day (or simply '' Baba Marta'', , "Grandma Marta") is a holiday celebrated in Bulgaria, on March 1. Martenitsas, usually in the form of a wrist band, small yarn dolls, or tassels, are created by combining red and white colored threads and are worn on that day and throughout March. They are worn until a stork or a swallow is seen, symbolizing the coming of spring, warmer weather, and well-being. Once the stork or a swallow appears the Martenitsa is taken off and hung on a blooming tree. It is common in the spring to see trees festooned in Martenitsas. Older Bulgarians call it Birch Month as it is around the time that birch trees start growing leaves and giving sap. There is a great amount of folklore about Grandma Marta Day and the character of Baba Marta herself. The greeting exchanged on this day is ''Chestita Baba Marta'' ({{langx, bg, Честита Баба Марта, italic=yes, "Happy Baba Marta"), often shortened to ''ЧБМ'' on greeting cards. There are v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martenitsa
A Martenitsa (, ; ; ; ; ; ) is a small piece of adornment, made of white and red yarn and usually in the form of two dolls, a white male and a red female. Martenitsi are worn from Baba Marta Day (March 1) until the wearer first sees a stork, swallow, or blossoming tree (or until the end of March (April 1)). The name of the holiday means "Grandma March" in Bulgarian and Macedonian, the holiday and the wearing of Martenitsi are a Bulgarian and Macedonian tradition related to welcoming the spring, which according to Bulgarian and Macedonian folklore begins in March. In Albania, it is worn on the March 14 (the old first day of March in the Julian calendar) to celebrate the Summer Fest ( Dita e Verës). In Albania, the Summer Fest is dedicated to the ancient Goddess Diana. It is inscribed in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Symbolism A typical Martenitsa consists of two small wool dolls, Pizho and Penda (). Pizho, the male ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ritual
A ritual is a repeated, structured sequence of actions or behaviors that alters the internal or external state of an individual, group, or environment, regardless of conscious understanding, emotional context, or symbolic meaning. Traditionally associated with gestures, words, or revered objects, rituals also occur in non-human species, such as elephant mourning or corvid object-leaving. They may be prescribed by tradition, including religious practices, and are often characterized by formalism, traditionalism, rule-governance, and performance. Rituals are a feature of all known human societies. They include not only the worship rites and sacraments of organized religions and cults, but also rites of passage, atonement and ritual purification, purification rites, oaths of allegiance, dedication ceremonies, coronations and presidential inaugurations, marriages, funerals and more. Even common actions like handshake, hand-shaking and saying "hello" may be termed as ''rituals''. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Culture Of Bulgaria
A number of ancient civilizations, including the Thracians, ancient Greeks, Scythians, Celts, ancient Romans, Goths (Ostrogoths and Visigoths), Slavs (East and West Slavs), Varangians and the Bulgars have left their mark on the culture, history and heritage of Bulgaria. Due to this great variety of influences, Bulgaria has adopted many unusual traditions. Thracian artifacts include numerous temples, tombs, golden treasures and ancient rites and rituals, while the Bulgars have left traces of their heritage in statehood, early architecture, music and dances. Thracian rituals such as the Tryphon Zarezan which is dedicated to Saint Tryphon of Campsada, Kukeri and Martenitsa are to this day kept alive in the modern Bulgarian culture. The oldest treasure of worked gold in the world, dating back to the 5th millennium BC, comes from the site of the Varna Necropolis. Bulgaria functioned as a cultural hub of Slavic Europe during much of the Middle Ages, exerting considerable litera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bistritsa Babi
Bistritsa Babi (, ) are an elderly/multi-generational women's choir carrying on the traditional dances and polyphonic singing of the Shopluk region of Bulgaria. Founded in 1939, the group won the European Folk Art Award in 1978, and it was declared a Masterpiece of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2005. Performing three-part polyphony with features "retained from the pre-Christian times," the group has toured Europe and the US. They are known for their use of ''Shopluk'' polyphony, costuming, dancing in a ring ( horo), and performing the '' lazarouvane'' (the girls' springtime initiation ritual). In 2005 they were included in UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage elements in Eastern Europe. The Shopluk genre is characterized by diaphony and parallel voicing. "Diaphony" is a type of polyphony where the melody is performed by one or two soloists, consisting of ''izvikava'' and ''buchi krivo'' or "to shout out" and "crooked rumbled roars", while the ensemble holds a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Feast Of The Annunciation
The Feast of the Annunciation () commemorates the visit of the archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, during which he informed her that she would be the mother of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is celebrated on 25 March; however, if 25 March falls either in Holy Week or in Easter Week, the feast is postponed to the Monday after the Second Sunday of Easter. Other names for the feast include the Solemnity of the Annunciation, Lady Day, Feast of the Incarnation (), and (Christ's Conception). The Feast of the Annunciation is observed almost universally throughout Christianity, especially within the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Churches, an the Anglican Churches. It is a major Marian feast, classified as a solemnity in the Catholic Church, a Festival in Lutheranism, and a Principal Feast in the Anglican Communion. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, because it announces the incarnation of Christ, it is counted as one of the eight great feast ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Forty Martyrs Of Sebaste
The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste or the Holy Forty (Ancient/Katharevousa Greek and Ἅγιοι Τεσσαράκοντα; Demotic: Άγιοι Σαράντα) were a group of Roman soldiers in the Legio XII ''Fulminata'' (Armed with Lightning) whose martyrdom in the year 320 AD for the Christian faith is recounted in traditional martyrologies. They were killed near the city of Sebaste, in Lesser Armenia (present-day Sivas in Turkey), victims of the persecutions of Licinius who, after 316, persecuted the Christians of the East. The earliest account of their existence and martyrdom is given by Bishop Basil of Caesarea (370–379) in a homily he delivered on their feast day. The Feast of the Forty Martyrs is thus older than Basil himself, who eulogised them only fifty or sixty years after their deaths. Martyrdom According to Basil, forty soldiers who had openly confessed themselves Christians were condemned by the prefect to be exposed naked upon a frozen pond near Sebaste on a bitter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christianity In Europe
Christianity is the predominant religion in Europe. Christianity has been practiced in Europe since the first century, and a number of the Pauline Epistles were addressed to Christians living in Greece, as well as other parts of the Roman Empire. According to a 2010 study by the Pew Research Center, 76.2% of the Demographics of Europe, European population identified themselves as Christians.Christianity in Europe , including the Asian part of Russia, excluding the European part of Turkey As of 2010, Roman Catholics were the largest Christians, Christian group in Europe, accounting for more than 48% of European Christians. The second-largest Christian group in Europe were the Eastern Orthodox Church, Orthodox, who made up 32% of European Christians. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pagan
Paganism (, later 'civilian') is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism. In the time of the Roman Empire, individuals fell into the pagan class either because they were increasingly rural and provincial relative to the Christian population, or because they were not '' milites Christi'' (soldiers of Christ).J. J. O'Donnell (1977)''Paganus'': Evolution and Use, ''Classical Folia'', 31: 163–69. Alternative terms used in Christian texts were '' hellene'', '' gentile'', and '' heathen''. Ritual sacrifice was an integral part of ancient Greco-Roman religion and was regarded as an indication of whether a person was pagan or Christian. Paganism has broadly connoted the "religion of the peasantry". During and after the Middle Ages, the term ''paganism'' was applied to any non-Christian religion, and the term presumed a belief in f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bulgaria
Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey to the south, Serbia and North Macedonia to the west, and Romania to the north. It covers a territory of and is the tenth largest within the European Union and the List of European countries by area, sixteenth-largest country in Europe by area. Sofia is the nation's capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city; other major cities include Burgas, Plovdiv, and Varna, Bulgaria, Varna. One of the earliest societies in the lands of modern-day Bulgaria was the Karanovo culture (6,500 BC). In the 6th to 3rd century BC, the region was a battleground for ancient Thracians, Persians, Celts and Ancient Macedonians, Macedonians; stability came when the Roman Empire conquered the region in AD 45. After the Roman state splintered, trib ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amulet
An amulet, also known as a good luck charm or phylactery, is an object believed to confer protection upon its possessor. The word "amulet" comes from the Latin word , which Pliny's ''Natural History'' describes as "an object that protects a person from trouble". Anything can function as an amulet; items commonly so used include statues, coins, drawings, plant parts, animal parts, and written words. Amulets which are said to derive their extraordinary properties and powers from magic or those which impart luck are typically part of folk religion or paganism, whereas amulets or Sacramental, sacred objects of Organized religion, formalised mainstream religion as in Christianity are believed to have no power of their own without faith in Jesus and being blessing, blessed by a clergyman, and they supposedly will also not provide any preternatural benefit to the bearer who does not have an Disposition#Religion, appropriate disposition. Talisman and amulets have interchangeable meanings. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birch
A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 30 to 60 known taxa of which 11 are on the IUCN 2011 Red List of Threatened Species. They are typically short-lived pioneer species and are widespread in the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in northern areas of temperate climates and in boreal climates. Birch wood is used for a wide range of purposes. Description Birch species are generally small to medium-sized trees or shrubs, mostly of northern temperate and boreal climates. The simple leaves are alternate, singly or doubly serrate, feather-veined, petiolate and stipulate. They often appear in pairs, but these pairs are really borne on spur-like, two-leaved, lateral branchlets. The fruit is a small samara, although the wings may be obscure in some species. They differ from t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
