If you take a stroll in the streets of Sofia or any other town in the country you will find the colours red and white everywhere. Because on this last day of February everyone wants to choose a martenitsa for their loved ones – an amulet of health, which people in Bulgaria attach to their clothes on the first day of March.

The last day of February is our last chance to make martenitsas for family and friends ourselves.  We do it to wish them health, success and luck. Dimka Dilkova who combined martenitsas and Bulgarian embroidery has her own interpretation of the colour symbolism: “The red and the white are symbols of womanhood and manhood,” she says.

Find out more about the different techniques used to make the typically Bulgarian symbols of the coming spring – the martenitsas here.
 
Editing by Elena Karkalanova