Rites of spring

I love a ritual. I especially love coming across one I’m not familiar with. So it’s great to find out what people do in other parts of the world.

In preparation for Spring, I’ve been gifted a bracelet by a young woman staying with us while she works out where she’s going to live in Glasgow. She’s travelled here from Bulgaria. A tale of planes, trains and automobiles, she left home in the snow, flew to Edinburgh, shuttled through to Glasgow on the bus, caught a train and arrived on our doorstep.

Travelling as light as she could to make the journey easy, nevertheless, she was bearing gifts to thank us, her hosts, for having her.

She was barely in the door when she offered up and then placed these lovely bracelets upon our wrists, ceremoniously.

The idea is, she shared, you wear the bracelet until you see the first blossom on the trees in Spring. Then you hang the bracelet on the tree, make a wish and the eye on the bracelet keeps watch over you for the year. Lovely.

It make me wonder what Scots might do in return. Sure, we have our lucky white heather and our lumps of coal but they’re out of season. So, a tot of whisky and a bit of shortbread will have to do for now.

Looking out for the first sign of blossom eagerly now for my wish. And I suspect every Spring from now on, I’ll be thinking of our friend from Bulgaria.