Spreading the Romanian joy

Spring has found me in Spain this year, but heyyy!!! This doesn’t mean that I won’t continue to respect and follow Romanian traditions.

Mărțișor, what a beautiful day, first of March, spring has come and the sun is up there shining. I’ve always liked this tradition. I still remember when, back in Romania, police officers would stop us on the street to give those tiny decorations or flowers. Of course, here this didn’t happen. However, if Mărțișor doesn’t exist in Spain, then let’s bring it here!! And so we did!

In the beginning, I was a bit skeptical of the method of actually creating handmade mărțișoare ... but well, why not give it a try? It all started with baking what would become the building blocks for this little gift.... I think that it took us around half a day to bake everything, which was only a part of a long, but lovely process. After that, give them a nice round shape, put the red and white strings together, and the pins and let them dry.

Thinking that probably not all the people will listen to our short story, I made a small flyer with the meanings of mărțișor (in Spanish of course, even though some people asked me if the information was in Romanian, haha).

The 1st of March has come so let’s spread the Romanian joy!!! I was a bit nervous at the beginning because I didn’t know what to expect, but well, it was so funny and entertaining and beautiful, all at the same time. A pharmacist, a violinist, a Romanian family, lots of old people, children, they all received the tiny Romanian gift with great pleasure and enthusiasm. Many of them didn’t know about the possibility of volunteering in another country, therefore it was also a good occasion to promote the idea of solidarity.

Hola, un regalito para ti! (Hi, a little present for you).

It was so funny that some people assumed that I was selling something so they kept on running away from me. Despite this, I was faster and after giving them the mărțișor, they were really happy and grateful. It’s always a greater feeling when you give than when you receive something.

So, for all of you out there don’t forget to always spread kindness and joy!

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