Celebrate Spring

Mar 4, 2014

To celebrate the coming of spring Romanian/Bulgarian style, Nediyana Daskalova ’14, Corina Varlan ’14, and Iulia Iordache ’15 passed out red and white bracelets to students in the Joe Rosenfield ’25 Center.

The red strand signifies passion, says Iordache, who’s from Romania, and the white signifies purity. Together they “give birth to life again,” Iordache says.

This is the third year students from Bulgaria and Romania have distributed the bracelets—called martenitsi in Bulgaria and mărţişoare in Romania.

Traditionally, the bracelets are handmade. Iordache bought these in Romania during winter break. To support the students’ sharing of their culture, the Office of International Student Affairs paid the bill.

Students are encouraged to hang their bracelets in the trees between the JRC and Younker residence hall at the end of March in the Romanian and Bulgarian tradition. Iordache says, “A lot of people want to keep the bracelets, so the trees weren’t covered last year.” But it still looked like spring.