Mărțolea is a mythical representation of evil that lives in empty woods. It walks through villages on Tuesday evenings to surprise women that are working. If it finds them working, it enters the house through the door - though if it’s locked it can use various tricks to enter.
It punishes those who work on Tuesday evenings as it is a semi-holy day.
An encounter with Mărțolea (Gathered from Roșia Montană, Alba, Transylvania):
‘Ah, about spirits! Long ago, Mărțolea walked, that’s what they called it, an evil thing, may God protect us from it. Whomever worked Tuesday evenings would get it.
So: there was a woman and she wanted to spin some cotton. I don’t remember if she had a husband, but she started to spin Tuesday evening, you see? Now that I sat for a bit I remembered the story. So she started to spin Tuesday evening and Mărțolea knew she was working, not resting in the evening like she’s supposed to. Mărțolea came, though the woman did not know that it was Mărțolea - this is what used to happen long ago. Mărțolea entered the house and asked her:
‘what are you doing?’
‘I’m spinning, I want to finish spinning tonight.’
‘Is there an extra spinning fork for me to borrow?’
‘There is’ the woman said.