AAS students welcome Baba Marta with H.E. James Warlick

BBLF member, the Anglo-American School of Sofia, welcomed Baba Marta, Golyam Sechko and Malak Sechko together with its students representing over 46 nationalities and with H.E. Ambassador James Warlick as special guest of the festive day.

A week before this event, a number of middle school students from US, UK, Turkey, Lithuania, Turkey, and Greece worked on the preparation of the biggest martenitsa ever produced by foreigners. With this project the Anglo-American School of Sofia demonstrated that the joyous ancient Bulgarian custom of Baba Marta can be proudly shared with the rest of the world.    

The other special guests at the First of March celebration were H.E. Ambassador Warlick; the director of the school, Mr. James Leahy; the representative of AUBG in Sofia, Dr. Ivan Ivanov; Mrs. Julia Martiniak, president of the Parent-Teacher Organization of the school; students; teachers and parents of AAS.

A group of grade five students performed a traditional Bulgarian play in both English and Bulgarian about Baba Marta, Malak Sechko and Golyam Sechko. At the end of their performance the young actors awarded Ambassador Warlick and other special guests with handmade martenitsas. Students from the audience sang the popular Bulgarian song ”Baba Marta came rushing through the forest with a bundle of martenitsas for all the children…” Ambassador Warlick warmly greeted the children with “Happy Baba Marta” and encouraged their enthusiasm to follow the ancient Bulgarian tradition. He also invited the bravest ones to submit a photo of the big martenitsa decorating  their school entrance to the Guinness Book of World Records.