Maslenitsa and its history
Maslenitsa is an ancient Slavic holiday that was celebrated even before the advent of Orthodoxy, and continues to be celebrated to this day. Maslenitsa is celebrated during the week before Lent, which lasts until
Easter. In the Orthodox calendar, Maslenitsa is designated as a cheese or meat-week. Although the arrival of Orthodoxy has somewhat changed Maslenitsa, the process of celebrating Maslenitsa is still a noisy and cheerful action associated with the wires of winter and the arrival of spring, the transition from winter holidays to spring cares.
Maslenitsa festival
Maslenitsa festival is a noisy and funny winter farewell, with the obligatory burning of effigies, various mass fun and entertainment, folk festivals and much more. The main culinary symbol of Maslenitsa is, of course, pancakes and pancakes that are diverse in recipes and appearance. Pancakes for Maslenitsa have always been cooked –
pancakes personified the symbol of the sun, in the days before the advent of Orthodoxy, pancakes were used in pagan rites to commemorate the dead, but with the adoption of Christianity, the tradition of cooking pancakes for Maslenitsa is not only preserved, but also developed.
Maslenitsa celebration
Celebration of Maslenitsa according to church traditions lasts a week, and according to the old, still pagan – as many as two. At present Maslenitsa is customary to celebrate the week, and then Great Lent before Easter. Various events are held on different days of the celebration of Maslenitsa – for example, on Wednesday, the son-in-law goes “
to mother-in-law for pancakes”, and on Friday the mother-in-law comes to the son-in-law, so to speak, on a return visit. There are many traditions of the celebration of Maslenitsa, which lasts all week and must end on Sunday with a ritual of seeing off Maslenitsa and burning its stuffed animal. Maslenitsa festival in one form or another, under various names and with different, but similar, traditions of seeing off winter, takes place in many countries of the world.
