In Bulgaria the first of March is revered
as a special day and occasion. It is a day that symbolizes the start of spring.
The world that has been covered in snow for four odd months begins anew. This
day is referred to as Baba Marta.
Baba Marta literally translates into Grandmother March. Now, Baba Marta could
be argued to be the Bulgarian personification of Mother Nature, but only for
this single day. The day itself becomes a celebration, especially in the
village where people depend on self-sufficient life and crops. An early spring
would mean earlier planting and a more bountiful summer. The day is marked by
buying little intertwined red and white string, often decorated with evil eyes
and other bits and bobs. The tradition goes that you tie this string around yourself
and wear it until you see a stork.
After you have spotted this elusive bird,
you have been blessed with good luck and can now tie this string somewhere else
in your house for continued luck. I can't help but imagine that somewhere in
Bulgaria some old grandmother has kept over 80 years of these strings since her
childhood. Said grandmother should be the luckiest in Bulgaria.
It was previously the tradition that these
stringy symbols were hand and homemade by family but with ever busy people in a
capitalist environment, why toil on that which you can buy? Naturally I got
gifted said lucky string but because I have already seen a multitude of storks
in Poland the year before, I decided that I had enough luck to last me through
2015. Storks, by the way, are the national bird of Poland and if you ever take
a drive though villages or smaller Polish towns you are bound to see a stork's
nest on a chimney or a telephone pole. Another interesting fact: Those nests
can weigh up to and over 60KG.
Now Baba Marta is often described as a
rather harsh grandmother and the tale goes that you have to be nice, quiet and
kind to Baba Marta so that she returns the kindness and sends winter away.
After that spring arrives and seasons continue as they ever have. March 1st
2015 was a relatively warm day. It was sunny and it had not been below freeing
for two weeks prior and predictions showed 10 ⁰C weather. It seemed that Baba
Marta had been appeased and even I spent a few hours planting green onions to
start our garden.
As I pen these words – and eventually type
them up- I have but one Question to ask you. WHO PISSED OFF BABA MARTA! It is
March 7th and over 30cm of snow has fallen in as many hours. The
roads have turned to slush, my onions are covered in white fluff and the
electricity in the village has been turned off since morning. I went from lying
in a hammock with sun on my face, to hiding inside and stoking a fire in less
than a week. Winter not only came back, but it gave Bulgaria one final upper
cut. As I said, somebody really pissed off Baba Marta. It was probably them
dastardly teenagers with their infernal pop music and loud boom boxes, Baba
Marta had to teach them a lesson. And so five days of predicted nonstop snow
fall all across the Balkans.
Granted this is nothing I have not dealt
with before. Going to university in Montréal –McGill, not Concordia- you get
used to wind chills of below 40⁰C, where a light breeze can sting your eyes and
freezes your face in place. 30 cm of snow in a night in Montréal is easily
ploughed away and slushed through by the city inhabitants. Yet it is the
annoyance of starting to enjoy sleeveless shirts and then reverting back to 3
layers of clothing that really gets to me.
Yesterday, it began to snow so heavily that
the one hour drive from the capital Sofia turned into a 3 hour roller-coaster of
unknown twists and turns in a pitch black night and a visible distance of only
20m. Even at only 30KMPH the going was treacherous. All the while, local
Bulgarians sped along at 50kmph or over as if nothing was out of the ordinary.
Quite often we were passed by 10m long trucks zooming by blaring their horns
arrogantly because we would rather live than speed to an early slippery grave.
So now I write with pen and paper instead
of direct to the screen, for a writer must write no? No matter the
circumstance. Power outs in the village are not uncommon during harsh storms;
it is more a precautionary measure instead of actual lines breaking. That being
said, you would NOT survive a Bulgarian winter in a village without a wood
fire. During days like today, which sometimes could go on for 48-72 hours, you
have no chance of running an electric heater. Your comfort is directly related
to your warmth which depends on your wood burning stove. One per room is ideal
but one on its own can sufficiently heat a house to the point where you can at
least sleep at night. If you call waking up every few hours to add logs to the
fire, sleeping.
The idea of a fireplace still sounds
inviting and romantic to me, but having to constantly worry about keeping a
fire going for purely warmth gets on your nerves. That does not mean I do not
respect the stove. It is much more reliable and secure than any electrical heat
source would ever be and at times when you have no power, that fire sustains
you. That doesn’t mean I particularly like going through a cubic meter of
chopped wood in under a month. I would much rather set up my own solar panels
and a small wind turbine for a renewable source of energy with a large back up
battery and then sustain myself with electric heating. Yet that is a distant
dream for when renewable energy truly becomes affordable for all and is not
illegal in several countries.
That being said, I enjoyed the great
Canadian pastime of shoveling snow today and trying to push a car up a slushy
hill… not happening. Don’t get me wrong though I do love the snow. Suddenly the
world becomes silent and white, only listening to the accumulating snow and
frosted breath like that of an ice dragon. The garden turns into a veritable
winter wonderland and each Floomf of
a step in the shin deep snow becomes a fun labor. Our dog is having the time of
her life frolicking through the white snow.
Yet I will not deny, I would much rather be
typing and listening to some Bob Marley instead of scribbling and having to get
up every so often to maneuver the logs in the fire. Yet it is these village
moments that can bring you back in touch with reality and detach yourself from
needing to be a part of the electronic matrix.
To me, Baba Marta is being a Suka, if you know any eastern European
language, you can agree with me. However to the rest of the village
inhabitants, that’s just the way it is. Sure the power outage is an inconvenience
and a planned party has been put on hold but it is accepted as normal and life
goes on with little complaint by villagers. Electricity is not taken for
granted in the village and neither is life, hence the wine and Rakia culture,
because why not drink and enjoy. Even if some people drink beyond remembering
what merriment is.
That being said it is a lot easier to be
merry with a well cooked meal, which is difficult to prepare using a frying pan
on a wood burning stove. (However my little espresso maker works perfectly on
the stove top so coffee is still flowing despite the black out). Yet many
Bulgarians here are prepared to have a jar of compot with fruits still pickled
in sugary syrup inside, heavily salted meat and bread. It is what you have to
do to survive here in the winter. It may not be animalistic out door survival
but here, not everything is won with money and so sacrifices come easily to
brave another winter. For what is life but a series of harsh winters and
plentiful summers? We must all learn when to go out and pick the fruits of our own
labor, ferment them and enjoy the sweet liquor. We all too must know when to
hide away, stoke a fire and let the world and nature take its course outside.
In each of the seasons we encounter in
life, we must enjoy the little moments that keep us sane and maintain our
humanity. Not every day will be an adventure but it doesn’t hurt to try and
enjoy it as one.
PS: What would you do to appease Baba
Marta? Ritualistic sacrifice? Bribes? Religious chants? Comment below.
No comments:
Post a Comment