The exhibition "Martisor - The Story of a Tradition", which reunites creations by craftsmen from Romania, the Republic of Moldova, Macedonia and Bulgaria, was opened, on Tuesday, at the Parliament Palace.

The event, organized in the foyer of the Chamber of Deputies Plenary Hall, comes on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the Martisor being accepted as part of the UNESCO World Heritage.

"Even if from two strings of wool, one red and one white, the Martisor refined over time, it continues to speak of hope and purity of beginning, of vitality, beauty and love," said Save Romania Union senator Remus Negoi, deputy chair of the Committee for the relation with UNESCO.

The Ambassador of the Republic of Moldova in Bucharest, Victor Chirila, said the Martisor is the symbol of solidarity with those that need aid in trying times.

"The Martisor was always for us, for all Romanians, a symbol of hope, a hope that brings good, a good that defeats evil through love, through warmth, through love towards your neighbor. The Martisor is the symbol of solidarity with those that always need aid in trying times. The Martisor is also a tradition that has lived on for ages, a tradition which unites us, a tradition that defines us, not only as Romanians, it defines us as humans with human feelings which are necessary in order to survive, in order to progress," said the ambassador.

He recalled that the Martisor represents various peoples in the Balkans.

The Martisor is a tradition which enriches life, said, at the event, the director of the Dimitrie Gusti National Village Museum, Paulina Popoiu.

"It is a tradition which helps us pass from the gray winter full of cold and infertility, to the season of joy, the season of hope and the season of rebirth. We are living in sad times, troubled times in which we all look fearful towards monsters born of the human mind, which has forgotten to enjoy simple pleasures. The Martisor is that simple pleasure, which recalls us, at the beginning of each spring, that we are human, that we are together, that we must communicate and we must respect one another," Popoiu mentioned.

In her turn, the General Secretary of the Romania's National Commission for UNESCO, Madlen Serban, emphasized that the Martisor is a symbol of nature's rebirth.

The Martisor is a set of traditions relating to the 1st of March observed in Romania and Moldova as the Martisor, as well as in other Balkan countries under the name of Martenitsa or Martinka. In several areas, the culture is conflated with a general celebration of spring or other local cultural practices, the central symbol, however, remaining the wearing of a red and white thread that is to be untied at the sight of the first tree in blossom, or of swallows or storks.

Together with other media institutions, AGERPRES is a partner of the event. AGERPRES (RO - author: Alina Novaceanu, editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN - author: Razvan-Adrian Pandea, editor: Maria Voican)