Forty Martyrs (Mucenici)
9 March 2026 — A sweet figure-eight, a warm candle, and a good start to spring!
On 9 March Romania marks Mucenici, the feast of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste. According to Christian tradition, they were Roman soldiers in Sebaste (in present-day Turkey) who died for their faith in the 4th century. The Romanian Orthodox Church commemorates them on 9 March, and the date is also observed on 22 March in the older calendar tradition. Folk custom ties the day to the arrival of spring. Housewives shape figure-eight pastries, called mucenici, and either boil them in sweetened water with cinnamon and crushed walnuts, or bake them and glaze them with honey. The sweets are shared with relatives and neighbours, often in memory of departed loved ones. In many places the day is also seen as the start of the farming year, when work in the fields begins. The date falls shortly before the spring equinox, when day and night become nearly equal in length.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver figure made of bright dots and lines like a constellation: a softly glowing candle flame floating above a ring of figure-eight pastries drawn in star points
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