Old legends say that the months of the year were living beings. Baba Marta was the sister of Golyam Sechko (January) and Little Sechko (February). The brothers drank the wine every year and didn't leave it to her, that's why Grandma Marta is still hot and sour. That's why people keep trying to appease her, because her mood affected the weather. When Baba Marta gets angry, blizzards can blow. And if he laughs - the sun appears from behind the clouds and nature warms up. On the first day of March, Baba Marta visited the people and their crops dressed in a red cloth, covered with a red scarf and wearing red socks.
Baba Marta was wayward and capricious and often lied to people. When she laughed, the sun was shining and the people were taking the cattle out to graze, because all winter the animals have been locked up. I had just reached the meadow and Martha was getting angry about something. The sun hid, it often snowed, and if a blizzard blew - the shepherds were petrified along with the flocks. An old folk tale tells that one day, an old goatherd took her flock to the mountains during the last days of March, thinking that Grandma Marta would give her good weather, because she was as old as she. Grandma Marta got angry, asked to borrow a few days from her brother February, and got them. These days are called in folk tradition "borrowed days", "borrowers", "counted days". Marta unleashed heavy snows and blizzards that froze the goatherd and herd in the mountains. The frozen ones turned into a pile of stones, from which healing water flowed.
Another legend tells that the ruler of the month of March was a man named Mart. He had two wives - beautiful and ugly. If he looked at the ugly - cold froze the earth and the winds howled madly. And as soon as his eyes shifted to the beautiful woman, the sun was shining and the earth was warming up.
© 2023 Iliana Dechkova