Pancake Festival
The holiday dates back to pagan times when folks would bade farewell to winter and welcome spring. Maslenitsa has both pagan and Christian ancestry.
Pagan's was celebrated on the vernal equinox day.
Christian's on the week preceding the Lent.
Maslenitsa, derived from the word maslo which means butter or oil in Russian owes its existence to the tradition of making pancakes, blini in Russian. The holiday therefore involves a great deal of pancakes.
There are different sorts. From plain to those with toppings or stuffed with, cottage cheese, sour cream, cheese, jam, condensed milk, meat, fish, vegetables, mushroom and caviar. My favorites ones are those which are stuffed with ground meat and the ones stuffed with boiled condensed milk. I love them and believe me I won't exchange them with caviar.
The holiday also involves a lot of fun. Lots of eating, drinking and festivity games for both adults and children.
Maslenitsa is however not only about merry-making. There is a schedule of activities celebrated during a week. Here's a quick peek on that:
Monday: Welcoming.
- ice-hills, seesaws and other mess for the games are created
- assembling the Maslenitsa doll out of straw and old woman's clothing
- (traditionally) the rich starts baking pancakes on this day while the poor, only on Thursday or Friday
(you can read about that here)
Tuesday: Day of Games
- sleighrides, home to home surprise of on-the-spot performances, etc.
- fun & mischief falls on this day
Wednesday: Regalling, the Sweet Tooth day
- feast on houses with blini and other dishes
- son-in-laws would visit to enjoy their mother-in-laws pancakes
Thursday: Revelry
- broad Maslenitsa begins, highlights & climax of the game
- (traditionally) fist-fights happen on this day- it said to commemmorate Russian military history
"Never hit a man when he is down" is a Russian proverb which roots from the holiday of Maslenitsa.
I asked my Russian friends if they still practise such "game" nowadays. They said no. Not all of them are happy about this specific "game" though they recognize its origins and the significance of it in their history.
I've first come along with this when I watched the film "Barber of Siberia". It was an old, good movie.
Friday: Mother-in-laws Eve
- a mother-in-law, with all her kind is invited to a son-in-laws home for a treat
I find this fun :) please read here if you want to know how is it all done
Saturday: Sister-in-laws Gathering
- young wives would invite suster-in-laws
Sunday: Forgiveness Day
The title itself is self-explanatory. This is one very interesting part of the festival. You can read details of it here.
The festival commences with the burning of Lady Maslenitsa (the doll).
It then the first day of Lent. Clean Monday, which ws considered the day of purification and fast forbidden foods.
If you want to read more details about the festival, please click the link below: Maslenitsa, Russia
(with pictures from the internet and source of information from russiapedia)
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