The Bulgarian Connection

While walking the streets and parks of Budapest towards the end of March you might occasionally see red and white yarns being tied to blossoming trees- this is not a local custom, but a Balkan one, kept alive by Budapest's expat Bulgarian community. The red and white yarn ornament is called Martenica and is offered as a gift on the first of March, it is then worn on clothing or around the wrist until one sees the first blooming tree- the Martenica is then tied to a branch of the tree for health and luck. Bulgarians and flowers have a long lasting tradition in Budapest: in the 19th century Bulgarian gardeners who had developed a special method of  gardening on small areas moved out from their homeland spreading to the centre of what was then the Austro-Hungarian empire and establishing themselves in Budapest too. They became so popular that their activity turned into a proper Hungarian noun "bolgárkertészet", and the main area of settlement, in today's Zugló has a street bearing their name, Bolgárkertész utca, incidentally the first street I lived in after I arrived in Budapest.