Martisor - the Spring is here!

On the 1st of March Romanians celebrate the arrival of spring. Many other countries have some sort of spring celebration, but as far as I know, "Martisor" (Romanian pronunciation: [mərt͡siˈʃor])  is a Romanian custom.  A "martisor" is a little object attached to a red-and-white string and is worn pinned to the blouse, or sweater, or whatever you are wearing.  It may look something like this (I received it from my brother last year):

Nowdays it is worn by women and children during the first couple of weeks in March.  It is a symbol of the nature coming back to life after a long winter and it is supposed to brings good luck.  In some parts of Romania, during the first weeks of March the young women used to wear necklaces made of round pebbles collected from a river bed, which they pained red and white.
I don't have the red-white pebbles, but I made my own geology-related "martisor".  It may be too heavy to pin on to my blouse, but it matches the "Romania Rocks" theme.  Happy Spring everyone!