BUCHAREST  –  The Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR) will be marking the Romanian tradition of Martisor through events organised at its branches in Budapest, Stockholm and Vienna, according to the ICR Facebook page. The Romanian Cultural Institute in Vienna organises on Sunday, 1 March, between 15:00 and 18:00, the workshop ‘Martisor, Romanian tradition and beauty,’ an event dedicated to children of all ages, organised by volunteers of the Vienna Family Network. ICR Vienna and the Romanian Orthodox Church ‘Descent of the Holy Spirit and Saint Stephen the Great’ in the Austrian capital also organise a Martisor fair bringing together creations made by artisans of Romanian origin settled in this country. The fair takes place on Friday between 15:00 and 19:00, on Saturday between 12:00 and 18:00 and on Sunday between 10:00 and 18:00, at Bruno-Marek-Allee 9, Vienna. The proposed activities include making Martisor tokens from various materials, creating cards dedicated to mothers and crafting bead bracelets on red thread. The event will also include a short presentation on the Martisor tradition, its meaning, origins and cultural context, delivered in Romanian with support in English or German. The Martisor tradition will also be celebrated in the Swedish capital on Friday from 16:30 through an event organised by ICR Stockholm together with the Embassies of Romania, the Republic of Moldova, Bulgaria and North Macedonia in the Kingdom of Sweden. At the ICR Stockholm headquarters, Martisor tokens from each participating country will be displayed and artisan Mihaela Bintia Alexe will demonstrate how a Romanian Martisor is made. During the event, films about the Martisor tradition in the four countries will be screened and guests will enjoy a folk dance performance by the Bulgarian group BG Folk Ritmi. The Seghedin branch of the Romanian Cultural Institute Budapest, in partnership with the ‘Lucian Magdu’ Romanian School in Battonya and the ‘Lucian Magdu’ Foundation, also known as the Romanian House in Battonya, organises the exhibition ‘Martisor: UNESCO intangible cultural heritage,’ designed to familiarise the public with the Martisor tradition.

The exhibition is open from 24 February to 6 March at the Romanian House in Battonya and offers a comprehensive description of the Martisor tradition in Romania and the Republic of Moldova, as well as a relevant selection of photographs.

Until Friday, daily Martisor-making workshops were organised in the exhibition space, led by the school’s educators and teachers. As part of the project, the Romanian children’s film ‘The Wishing Tree: Childhood Memories,’ directed by Andrei Hutuleac, is also being screened. The feature film, released in 2022, is inspired by ‘Childhood Memories’ by Ion Creanga and tells the story of Mara, a 12-year-old girl who, faced with an incurable illness, discovers a magical tree that carries her into the childhood world of Nica from Humulesti. In 2017, Martisor was inscribed by UNESCO on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, following the submission of a multinational nomination file prepared by the four countries.