signsThe red threadחוט השני
said khutt hashani, the scarlet thread
also: red string · scarlet thread · kautuka · martenitsa thread · mărțișor
signThe LevantThe BalkansSouth AsiaChinaDiasporaIsraelBulgariaNorth MacedoniaRomaniaMoldovaAlbaniaGreeceIndiaChinaUnited States of America
A length of red wool or silk tied round a wrist. In the Jewish folk custom it is thin scarlet wool worn as a bracelet or band. In Bulgaria and North Macedonia red is twisted with white into a martenitsa, usually as two small dolls, Pizho in white and Penda in red. In Romania and Moldova the same two threads make a mărțișor with a charm hung from them.
citedWhen
1490s to now, as a recommended practice; the Genesis passage is older and is not a prescription still carried cited
| Period | late 15th century to the present |
|---|---|
| How the date is known | textual — a dated text describes it |
| Note | Dated from Rabbi Abraham Saba's recommendation in the 1490s, the only public exhortation the source records. The scarlet thread at Genesis 38 is a narrative detail, not an instruction, and is not used to date the practice. |
Years are stored astronomically — 1 CE is 1, 1 BCE is 0, 500 BCE is −499 — and printed the way a reader says them. How these dates are made.
The thing itself
| Form | Cord or string |
|---|---|
| Made of | Thread and cord · Cloth |
| Goes | On the wrist · On a finger · At the neck · On the chest, under the shirt |
| Made by | given by a friend or relative in the Balkan custom, where buying one for yourself is not the form |
| Colour | red · white |
| Retired | yes — it is replaced rather than kept |
What its carriers say it stops
Reported, attributed, not tested here. Each row below is somebody's claim, with their name on it.
- The evil eye — harm carried by a look, often an admiring one citedsaid by the Jewish folk custom, which names the harm as ayin hara
- Bad luck, unspecified citedsaid by the same custom, described as a way to ward off misfortune
- Illness — sickness in general, where no cause is named citedsaid by Bulgarian and Macedonian practice: the red and white threads are a wish for good health
- Harm to a house or a field citedsaid by Romanian and Moldovan observers, who record the pendant as a talisman for the wearer's health and beauty
The story
The thread's Jewish version is a folk custom, and the sources are careful about how thin its textual footing is. A scarlet thread tied about the wrist appears at Genesis 38, when Tamar gives birth to twins. As early as Rabbi Shmuel ben Hafni Gaon, commentators noted that a red string on the hand may be a good omen, and some say it could go round a finger; one early commentary, Aggadas Bereishis, says Joseph's coat was the same as his brothers' except that Jacob put a red string on the cuffs. But there is no written requirement in the Torah, in halacha or in Kabbalistic texts to tie a red string on a wrist, and it is not clear the mentions of red string as a good omen describe a widespread practice. The one public exhortation on record is from the 1490s: when Jews were barred from wearing tefillin, Rabbi Abraham Saba recommended wearing a red string on the hand instead, to remember the commandment.
The modern trade is documented. Elderly women sell scarlet thread to pilgrims and visitors in Israel, especially in the Old City of Jerusalem. Outside Israel it became popular in the late 1990s with celebrities, many of them not Jewish — Madonna and her children, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Jackson, Ariana Grande, Tucker Carlson, Jared Kushner — and the wider popularity is often linked to Philip Berg's Kabbalah Centre. Whether that is the same object as the thread a Jerusalem woman sells is an argument with named parties on both sides; the Kabbalah Centre's critics include the Kabbalist Michael Laitman, who holds that practical Kabbalah has no use for red strings.
The Balkan thread runs on a calendar instead. Martenitsi are given, never bought for oneself, from Baba Marta Day on 1 March, and worn pinned to clothing or at the wrist or neck until the wearer sees a stork or a swallow back from migration, or a tree in blossom — then taken off, and in some places tied to the branch of a fruit tree to give the tree health and luck. Red and white are read as a wish for good health; white for the purity of melting snow, red for the setting sun and for life. Both martenitsa and mărțișor are inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Inference — the red string is worn on wrists in Jewish, Hindu and Chinese practice, and the Jewish source itself says so without claiming a link between them. This atlas reports the three and does not draw a line between them, because nothing read here draws one.
Recognised by
- UNESCO — Martenitsa inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity
- UNESCO — Mărțișor inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity
What this is near
What names this one
Each in its own words, from its own page.
Where this came from
- Red string (Kabbalah) — Wikipedia read 2026-09-16
- Martenitsa — Wikipedia read 2026-09-16
- Mărțișor — Wikipedia read 2026-09-16
- Practical Kabbalah — Wikipedia read 2026-09-16
- Tefillin — Wikipedia read 2026-09-16
Elsewhere
Record updated 2026-09-16. This record as JSON. Every field carries its own provenance; the tier chips above say which.