ASTRA Museum's Mărțișoare

🍀 We invite you to weave memories together on Thursday, February 27, 2025, at Casa Artelor, in Piața Mică no. 21, starting at 4:00 PM!

Casa Artelor will provide a space for learning about the cultural practices associated with March 1st, especially for passing down the techniques of crafting traditional Mărțișoare. This time, the Story of Mărțișor will be told by the Grandmas (Mumele) from Tălmăcel, accompanied by Mariana Filimon. In the late '90s, Mariana represented Tălmăcel at the national stage of the "Traditional Artistic Crafts" Olympiad, bringing to light the region’s specific weaving traditions. Her journey took her around the world for a while, but life’s thread has spun harmoniously back home, to the museum-home built from her grandparents’ house.

We asked the Grandmas how Mărțișoare used to be in their time. Slowly, they began to recall how it once was. You can find out their answer only if you come and meet them. 😉 Let’s rediscover together the Mărțișoare tradition from Tălmăcel!

ASTRA Museum's Mărțișoare marks the beginning of a series of activities dedicated to safeguarding and promoting elements of intangible cultural heritage inscribed by UNESCO on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The multinational file coordinated by Romania, dedicated to the Cultural Practices Associated with March 1st (Mărțișor), was developed together with the Republic of Moldova, the Republic of North Macedonia, and the Republic of Bulgaria, and was approved in December 2017. (https://ich.unesco.org/.../cultural-practices-associated...)

Mărțișor (also known as Marț, Marțu, Mărțic, Mărțug, Mărțiguș) represents the beginning of the calendar spring. The Romanian Ethnographic Atlas mentions over 500 localities where communities used to craft and gift Mărțișoare on March 1st.