(FIRST IN ENG , ZA ŽLAHTNO DOMAČO BESEDO, PA POSKROLAJ)

What’s the first thing I think of when I say Women’s Day?

 🌹 Firstly, this is the day I must bring my mother and my mother-in-law flowers or else I will, without a doubt, listen to “It would have been so nice if someone remembered me.... At least on my holiday...” at every dinner until September.
🌹And then I remember what a HUGE DEAL Women’s Day was when I was in primary school. The preparations began two weeks prior, and the schoolroom was filled with toiled paper flowers, pinecone hearts and greeting cards with decorations made of pasta noodles.

This is how I imagine the first Women's day went.

It was on a gorgeous early spring day that women rolled up their sleeves, started working the machinery and took over factories. And after the 8th of March's day of work, they went out and drowned their voices in bad gin. Meanwhile, their overworked husbands did the laundry, cooked coq au vin, scrubbed the bathroom floor, and helped the children with Math homework. After checking them for lice and ironing the wife's bras, of course.

What did the first Women's Day actually look like?

My trusty and always reliable source, Wikipedia, says that the first Women’s day happened on the 28th of February 1909 when Theresa Malkiel organised the first women’s protest rally in New York.
Women’s day was first celebrated on the 8th of March 1914 in Germany.
Usually, they protested because they thought it cool to be equal. And if not equal to at least have the right to vote.
That’s why they were called Suffragettes❤ ️(Suffrage- a right to vote).

Women’s day at our home

In Slovenia, it’s a new tradition that first appeared after the second world war. First, it was the mothers that were bestowed with flowers. Their grateful sons and daughters placed carnations on their laps. With time it also transferred in factories so that overworked women left work with a flower in a hand.  (How many flowers made it to home depended on the duration and quality of the office party.)

Which flowers are given in different countries?

The reigning champions of Women's day flowers are mimosas, tulips and carnations.
You are considered a definite spinster in Italy and Russia if you are not seen carrying a bouquet of mimosas.
In some countries, flower giving was an expectation (Poland, for example), and be aware as not to present carnations; tulips are more welcome.
In Portugal and Romania, bouquets are given amongst women, who then organise babe night. Not familiar with it? It is a night when all goes loose, when there is little food on the table, and alcohol is not spared.
Would recommend the tradition going on in Russia, where officers pull over speeding women, but instead of making them take an alco test, they give them flowers.
Babe night- hands down the best tradition. Can pubs be open soon...

About the symbolic meaning of carnations:
 -Sometime around the Middle Ages they began to decorate the altars with carnations due to a belief that a carnation grew where Virgin Mary shed her tears after her son's funeral.
 -In the days of the February revolution, a carnation was a symbol of love and prejudice.
 -In the Victorian age, it was an answer to intimate questions.
 -After February of 1917, revolutionaries and workers started putting it in their buttonholes.

What was the meaning of a carnation in the Victorian ages? 

If Mr Darcy asked Elizabeth: “od dear Elizabeth, will thou show thine ankles after supper?” and she was later seen walking around with a bouquet of carnations, it meant he might even see her knees.
But if she dropped a yellow rose in front of him, he had to banish all sinister thoughts aside and started harassing another young maiden for her ankle nudes.

All messages to suitors and chaste virgins were sent with different colour carnations where each colour had a meaning of its own:
white- luck and pureness
light red- adoration
dark red- yearning love
pink- gratitude
yellow- reputable
scarlet- fickle
If I was the mother of Victorian maidens, I would lock them in their rooms at first sight of red carnations.
But alas, our house would get only a glimpse of scarlet ones.

Why did we choose a carnation to represent Women’s Day in Slovenia? 

 -A carnation is a typical Slovenian flower.
 -In the film Cvetje v jeseni, Meta grew the most beautiful carnations. Whoever should cast an eye on her balcony could tell that she was not only humble and hardworking but also had very fertile hips. All that can be translated from old paintings and literature.
 -Part of the reason behind carnations is the revolution- as this celebratory day was “artificially” introduced after the second world war.
 -They’re mostly cheap, there is a lot of them and they are durable, so if Karen received a carnation at work, it lasted until 11 pm without water and still looked intact even if she sat on it after the fifth glass of gin.

Is a cup an appropriate gift for Women’s Day?

If it’s a Polonapolona cup, it’s ALWAYS an appropriate gift.
I would fill it either with flowers or chocolate, but my mom doesn’t allow me to bring her cups anymore, so I usually give her a bouquet only.

 Thank you for reading, Polona

 <3

ZDAJ PA PO DOMAČE:

Kaj najprej pomislim, ko rečem Dan žena?

 🌹Najprej je to dan, ko je mami in tašči treba nest rože, sicer bom še do septembra pri kosilu poslušala "kako bi bilo lepo, če bi se me kdo spomnil. Vsaj na moj praznik."
 🌹Takoj zatem pa se spomnim, kakšen DOGODEK je bil 8.marec pri likovnem pouku v osnovni šoli. Tovarišici učiteljici je zapolnil dva tedna kurikuluma, ko smo delali rože iz WC tulcev in popali pašto v obliki marjetic na Muflon papir.

Kako je v resnici zgledal prvi Dan Žena?

Wikipedija pravi, da se je prvi Dan Žena odvil 28 februarja 1909, ko je Theresa Malkiel v New Yorku organizirala prvi ženski protestni shod. Na 8.marec je bil Dan Žena prvič leta 1914 v Nemčiji. Večinoma so štrajkale, ker se jim je zdelo, da bi bilo fino, če bi bile enakopravne. Ali pa če ne že enakopravne, da bi vsaj imele volilno pravico. Zato so jih klicali Sufražetke.❤ (Suffrage je po domače - pravica da javno voliš)

Dan Žena pri nas doma:

V Sloveniji gre za "novo tradicijo", ki se je postavila po 2. svetovni vojni. Najprej so obdarovali zgolj matere. Rože so jim v krilo položili njihovi hvaležni sinovi in spoštljive hčere. Sčasoma se je praznovanje 8. marca preselilo v fabrike, da so vse delavke odšle iz šihta z nageljnom. Koliko jim je uspelo rože domov prinest, je bilo verjetno odvisno od dolžine in kvalitete sindikalne zabave, ki je sledila.

Katere rože se daje po deželah?

Prvaki osmega marca so mimoze, tulipani in nageljni.
V Italiji in Rusiji, si uboga para brez snubcev, otrok ali romantično usmerjenih zakonskih partnerjev, če se na ulici ne prikažeš s šopkom mimoz.
🌸 V nekaterih deželah je bilo dajanje rdečih nageljnov forsirano iz strani države (Poljska npr.), pa boh ne daj, da ga danes z nageljni serješ, raje imajo tulipane.
🌸 Na Portugalskem in v Romuniji si punce šopke izmenjajo med seboj in si organizirajo babovanje. Ne veš kaj je babovanje? Zabava s pijačo (včasih tudi s hrano) kjer so pristne same bejbe.
🌸 Lušno tradicijo imajo tudi v Rusiji, kjer policisti ustavljajo bejbe in namesto, da bi jim dali za pihat in jim težili s tem kam se vozijo po 21h, jim poklonijo rožo.
🌸 Mislim, da mi je babovanje najboljša tradicija. Samo, da se odprejo gostilne.....

Nekaj malega o simbolnem pomenu nageljna:

-V starih časih, recimo od srednjega veka naprej, so cerkvene oltarje z nagelnji okitili zaradi izročila, ki pravi, da je nagelj zrasel tam, kjer je po sinovemu pogrebu kapnila Marijina solza.
-V časih pred februarsko revolucijo je nagelj v govorici rož pomenil ljubezen in prevzetnost.
-V viktorjanskih časih je bil nagelj odgovor na intimna vprašanja.
-Po Februarju 1917, pa so si ga za gumbnice začeli zatikati revolucionarji in delavci. 

Govorica nageljna v viktorijanskih časih

V Viktorjanskih časih je bil nagelj odgovor na intimna vprašanja.
💐Takole je šlo. Vpraša gospodič Anton: "O gdč. Vodopivec, al mi boš pokazala gleženj ob Binkoštu?"
Če je gdč. Vodopivec po Tivoliju šla z rdečim šopkom, si je Anton lahko obetal noge do kolena,
Če pa je pred njim spustila rumeni tulipan, je moral za potešitev svojih nogo-oglednih strasti začeti nadlegovati drugo mladenko.
💐Sporočila snubcem in oboževanim devicam, so si pošiljali tudi s šopki nageljnov, kjer je vsaka barva cveta imela svoj pomen:
Bela-sreča in neomadeževanost, 
svetlo Rdeča - oboževanje
temno rdeča - opasno zaljubljenost
pink - hvaležnost
rumena - zavrnitev
škrlatna - zmrdljivost
💐Če bi bila jaz mati viktorijanskih devic, bi jih zaklenila v sobo ob prvem znaku rdečih nagljev. Ampak k nam domov bi itak prihajali samo škrlatni.

Zakaj smo v Sloveniji za Dan Žena izbrali prav nageljne?

Nagelj je sterotipna slovenska roža. Samo pomisli, kakšne krasne nageljne je imela Meta iz Cvetja v jeseni. Vsak, ki se je ozrl na njen razbohoteni balkon je lahko po njih sklepal, da Meta nima samo dobrega uča za nagelnove podtaknjence, ampak je tudi skromna, delavna in rodovitih bokov. Tako vsaj se da razbrati iz Kmetskih slik in ostale literature.
En del odgovora je gotovo v revolucionarnem pomenu rdečega nageljna, saj se je praznik pri nas "umetno" uveljavil po 2 svetovni.
Predvsem pa so nageljni poceni, veliko jih je in tako so trpežni, da če je Apolonija dobila nagelj po šihtu, je le ta zdržal brez vode do 11h zvečer in zgledal intakten pa tudi če se je po tretjem kozarcu Širaza usedla nanj.

A je šalca primerno darilo za Dan žena?

Če gre za Polonapolona šalco, je VEDNO primerno darilo.Jaz bi jo napolnila z rožami ali bonboni, ampak meni moja mami ne dovoli več, da ji nosim šalce, pa ji potem prinesem rože.

hvala za tvoj čas, Polona