RUSE: The 1st March – Baba Marta (4th D class, V. Petkova, class teacher)

The 1^st March – Baba Marta (4^th D class, V. Petkova, class teacher)

A very loved and respected Bulgarian tradition – Baba Marta – was celebrated by the students from 4^th D class and their class teacher.

Children had started their preparation well in advance, enlacing white and red threads, making martenitsi, reading rhymes, short stories, legends and myths about the origin of ‘martenitsa’, and what it symbolizes. They had also learnt songs and riddles and written greeting cards. Students’ younger siblings also took part in this lesson and they read unfamiliar to them texts and sang along their elder brothers and sisters.

But what is the 1^st March without Grandmother Marta*[1]? Well, here she was, wearing folk style clothes, beautiful, with rosy cheeks and joyful. She came to greet children and also to check what they had learnt about her and the nice tradition.

Not only had the fourth-graders taken part in the quiz but also the guests.

Children gave the martenitsi ,which they had made by themselves, by their skillful hands, to everyone present there – students from the after school care, parents, teachers, administrative staff.

The first martenitsa they gave to Mrs Hristova, Deputy Headmistress and Manager of the Project LEARN TO READ AND READ TO LEARN in which they have been actively participating for the second year.

Students will  send marteinitsi ,which they made, to the children of the Romanian school in Oradea, where later in March the fifth working project meeting will take place.

 “This LEARN TO READ AND READ TO LEARN project activity came to show how reading and traditional activities, related to the Bulgarian custom Baba Marta, can match together”, Mrs  Hristova said to the parents and wished Baba Marta would bring health and success to children. To improve their reading skills and to learn more about their mother-land Mrs Hristova gave the students entertaining books (“Read me” and “I love Bulgaria” ) as presents.