The Amulet

The Amulet is the rope of all days, of weeks and of months of the year together in a two color cord that symbolizes the winter and the summer and that is given as gift on 1st of March. The Amulet is made out of two colored cords, a red and a white one, from which a crafted object is attached, an object that is given to girls and women who wear it on their chest for several days. At the end of the XIXth century, The Amulet used to be given by parents to children, boys and girls, with no exception, on the 1st day of March, before sunrise. The Amulet, to which it was attached a golden or a silver coin, used to be worn at the wrist, at the neck or on the chest. It used to be worn again on a special holiday of spring (on Palm Sunday, or on Easter day) or when some fruit trees blossomed (cherry tree, ungrafted apricot tree, sweet cherry tree). They used to believe that the bearers of The Amulet wouldn't be burnt by the summer sun, that they would be as healthy and beautiful as flowers, wealthy and lucky.
As some traditions say, the cord of the Amulet may have been spined by Old Woman Dochia while climbing the mountain with her sheep. Dochia spins the cord of the year in spring time, when the year is born. The custom of the Romanian Amulet has been taken over by other people from the Center and South-East of Europe.

Iuliana Neacsu -Romanian language teacher
Eforie-Nord School, Romania