Mucenici!
(Photo: Sarah In Romania) Another festival for the month of March - how I love the spring in Romania. As if we aren't spoilt enough by an improvement in the weather, there are so many festivals too, each bringing wonderful stories and colourful heart-warming customs.
For those of us who don't have Saints Days (like me), La Multi Ani for 9th March! Mucenici is the feast of the 40 Martyrs (Mucenici), soldiers in the Roman army during the reign of Emperor Licinius (308-324) who were tortured and executed (burnt alive and then chucked unceremoniously into a lake) in Sebaste (capital of the Roman province Armenia Minor, today Sivas in Turkey), because they refused to renounce Christianity. It is specifically celebrated in Romania and Moldova and coincides with the start of the agricultural year.
Please see this lovely video for a typical orthodox service to the 40 Martyrs.
Some believe that when the martyrs bodies were cast into the water, flowers rose to the surface. As a result, every year a typical dessert is made with the same name, Mucenici. They are fashioned in the figure 8 to represent garlands. Others say the 8 denotes a human form of the martyrs themselves.
(Image source) In Moldova, 8-shaped dough is baked, then smeared with honey and walnuts.
In the Muntenia and Dobrogea regions of Romania, the dough is smaller and cooked in water with sugar, cinnamon and crushed nuts, representing the lake where the Martyrs were thrown.
These don't only look delicious but are delicious... When in Bucharest at this time, I'm always charmed by stories and memories of how dear friends make theirs, preparing them with their mothers as children, twisting the dough around their little fingers to form the figure 8s.
Here's a recipe for you.
Pofta buna!
(Image source)
Oh and by the way, one should also drink forty (one for each martyr) glasses of red wine today, according to old pagan rituals stating that any consumed on March 9th turns into blood and vigour, serving you throughout the year. If you're overwhelmed at such a thought, at least have a sip or be splashed with it.
Fair enough. Noroc!