The Marti Bracelet: Discover a Greek tradition to welcome Spring.

When I asked my friends what a Marti Bracelet was, I could see sparkles in their eyes as they remembered the laughter and other childhood memories. 

They are manly gifts given to children and elders to wish them good health.

The recipient wears their Marti Bracelet for a month before gifting it to a blossoming tree, wishing it health and prosperity. In time, the tree offers the threads to birds, who use the delicate threads to build their nests.

What a lovely tradition celebrating co-creation between species, nature cycles and love!

The Marti Bracelet is an ode to co-creation and wisdom.

The Marti Bracelet is a beautiful symbol of life and collaboration. It highlights our interconnectedness and the shared creation involving humans, nature, and animals. It reminds us that we are all essential to each other and that we should care for each other.

The white cord beautifully symbolises purity and clarity, while the red cord embodies life's vitality and strength. Together, these elements make the bracelet a heartfelt representation of our wishes for someone we cherish, especially for our growing children. It symbolises our hopes for them to have pure intentions and thoughts, act with clarity, develop resilience in the face of challenges, and embrace life with vitality and joy.

It's no wonder that children are Marti's primary recipients. They are in a constant state of growth and learning, shaping their characters with each experience. This gift is a gentle reminder of the love and support we want to provide them as they grow.

In my perspective, people can learn and grow at any time, becoming a new and improved version of themselves every day. For this reason, I believe in treating both kids and adults equally by giving them a Marti as a gift.

Weave your Marti and offer them on the 1st of March.

I prepared a tutorial for you with a lovely and extremely easy pattern to reproduce. You can do it on the bus or metro or while watching your favourite TV show.

All you need is:

• Red cotton or wool cord
• White cotton or wool cord
• 2 clothespin
• a cardboard, magazine or book (as support while you are weaving)
• a pair of scissors

Weaving your bracelets takes 10 to 30 minutes, depending on your dexterity and how quickly you want to work.

The length of your cords will depend on the width of your bracelets, the pattern's tightness, and the rope's diameter and material. To create a 1 cm wide bracelet that is 10 cm long, I used 40 cm of cord. I utilised a mix of cotton and cord; had I used only cotton, for instance, I would likely have achieved a bracelet of 12 cm. I also chose to make a rather loose pattern so that when the time comes to hang the bracelets on trees, birds could easily use the rope strings at their convenience.

Do you want to know more about the Marti Tradition?

Okay, I love exploring myths and traditions, so if you are like me, you want to know more about Marti's origin. Well, as it is present in Greece and many Balkan countries, we don't know where it originated.

The origin of the Marti tradition is still debated today.

In Greece, some link the Marti to the Eleusinian Mysteries, others to pagans' forgotten rituals to celebrate Spring, or, in other Balkan countries, to rituals dedicated to the goddess Diana (known in Greece as Demeter).

As My Tiny Sanctuary's home is in Greece, let's explore the Greek version and the Eleusinian connection. It is said that during rituals, initiates of the Eleusinian Sanctuary and Teachings wore a "Korki" bracelet on their right wrist and right ankle. The Korki would later have become the Marti.

(photo: Eleusis Sanctuary near Athens, Greece, ©christelmesey2024)

Some say it was to protect them from evil, others to celebrate life. It might be a mix of both.

Historians believe the Eleusinian Mysteries are rooted in the agrarian Bronze Age and derived from earlier Mycenaean religious practices. According to them, these mysteries are closely tied to agricultural activities and the natural cycles of life. Portrayed like this, Eleusinian Mysteries could be seen as a naive cult with a nice temple. But there is more than meets the eye. Plato, even if he didn't agree with all teachings, followed the Eleusinian initiations and mystery school.

Initiates of the Mysteries attended small and major events to experience through their senses, intellect and emotions teachings. In the sanctuary, one would enact events (dromena), theatre or play showing teachings (deiknumena) and teachings or speeches (logomena).

People would come from far away to attend these teachings (the only conditions for one to attend were to speak Greek and never have killed). Men and women would attend, and priests and priestesses offered teachings equally.

We know that the mysteries are linked to the myths of Hades, Persephone, and Demeter, and are part of rituals related to Spring and fertility. We also know that a temple to Hecate was present on the premises of Eleusis Temple (like she was on most temples and sanctuaries). We can deduce that the sanctuary was closely linked to the life cycle, death, and resurrection.

While the content of the mysteries remained secret as participants were not allowed to speak about them, we know that initiates would go through a process that took at least one year, cleansing and purifying themselves. We also know that at some point, some itinerates were given the "kykeon", a likely psychedelic beverage (as suggested by some studies) supporting the initiate's transformation. We could, therefore, imagine it was a therapeutic and enlightenment journey just like the one some take with ayahuasca or mycotherapy experiences to clean trauma, gain clarity and grow in their spiritual path.