The first warm rays of the spring Sun began to warm our earth. In such a transitional time, when winter is giving up its rights, the Russian people celebrate, perhaps, one of the most cheerful and wild holidays - Maslenitsa. It is celebrated seven weeks before Easter, this year from 11 to 17 March, and is otherwise called Shrove, or Cheese Week.
Spring meeting
For Orthodox Christians, Shrovetide week served as a preparation for Great Lent, which begins immediately after it. At this time, meat was already banned, but it was allowed to eat fish, eggs and dairy products, including butter, without restriction. Because of this, the last seven days before Lent got their name - Maslenitsa.
According to the time of celebration, the celebration falls on the days of the spring equinox - the border between winter and spring. In pagan Russia, in order to help the spring sun and warmth quickly gain its strength and enlist the support of nature, it was customary to perform a number of ritual actions. Everywhere for two weeks, bonfires were kindled, games were started, victories in which were identified with the arrival of spring after the winter cold.
Building tradition
Also, a straw effigy, symbolizing fertility, spring and at the same time winter, decline and death, was an integral attribute of the holiday. Its women were made from straw collected from all the village huts and dressed in old clothes or wrapped in rags. Such a scarecrow was also popularly named Maslenitsa.
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With the advent of Christianity, the Church did not break the pagan traditions, seeing in many of them a symbolic struggle between good and evil. However, the celebration of Shrovetide was reduced to one week, and a plentiful meal began to be interpreted as preparation for Great Lent.
Ancient dish
Pancakes were undoubtedly the main Pancake dish. The peasants believed that the more pancakes you eat at Shrovetide, the better the harvest will be and, accordingly, the higher the income. They ate them in large quantities themselves and treated guests and beggars. People said: "Shrovetide is coming, he is carrying pancakes!" Everywhere in all village houses young people went, singing funny songs, ditties and begging for pancakes.
The main dish of Maslenitsa has been around for over a thousand years. Each housewife had her own pancake recipe, which she kept secret. It was transmitted only through the female line from generation to generation. Peasant women went out to secretly knead the dough for the main Maslenitsa dish under the light of the month, while reading a special conspiracy.
The first pancakes baked for Shrovetide in peasant families were put on the street - "for deceased ancestors." They believed that at this time deceased relatives came to visit relatives living in this world.
You have to have fun to fast
"You have to have fun to fast!" - so they used to say in Russia. In addition, the Maslenitsa period often coincided with the beginning of the New Year, which in the old days coincided with the arrival of spring and was celebrated on March 1 (according to the old style). In ancient times, it was believed that the New Year should certainly be greeted with fun, so that the coming year develops safely. Also, the peasants tried in every possible way to appease the coming spring, believing that its warm welcome would be the key to a good harvest. All this formed the basis of the Maslenitsa customs.
Shrovetide week began with the Maslenitsa meeting. A straw scarecrow, accompanied by the singing of girls and children, was solemnly brought into the village and installed in the center of the festivities. Further, the holidays followed each other according to the schedule established by the people. So, in accordance with their customs, Monday was called "Meeting", Tuesday - "Flirt", Wednesday - "Gourmet", Thursday - "Revelry", Friday - "Mother-in-law's evening", Saturday - "Sister-in-law's gatherings", Sunday - "Seeing off" … The names of the days reflected their main activities and events.
For a whole week, young people and children skated down the slides, both from snow and ice. Adults joined them on Thursday, in the midst of Maslenitsa festivities. They tried to move down the mountain as far as possible. The peasants believed that this would make flax "longer". So they said: "Let's go for a drive on a long flax."
Riding down the mountains, village boys and girls looked closely at each other. Often new pairs formed after Shrove Week. In the cities, since Tuesday, brothers and fathers arranged slides for unmarried girls, inviting young people to ride. The guys who came under the supervision of the family looked closely at the bride.
Feast by the mountain
Many Shrovetide customs were dedicated to young people and first-year newlyweds as the personification of fertility. Dressed in the best outfits in a beautiful sleigh, the young husband and wife traveled around the entire village, invariably visiting all the guests at their wedding. Then comic tests were arranged for the young spouses. The husband and wife had to redeem their other half with long hot kisses and warm hugs, or free them from the kidnappers by digging out from under the snow. They believed that the fertility surrounding a young family should be passed on to mother earth.
On Wednesday, Shrovetide, the newly-made son-in-law tried to respect the mother-in-law, treating him with pancakes. In response, she received an invitation from a young family to taste their pastries on Friday. And everything necessary for baking pancakes was given by the mother-in-law to her son-in-law on Thursday evening. On Saturday, a young wife approached her new relatives, inviting her sister-in-law to gatherings with pancakes.
Bachelor youth had the custom of dressing up for Maslenitsa. Boys in women's clothes and girls dressed as men walked in droves along the village streets. They said at the same time: "The more you laugh at Shrovetide, the easier the year will pass."
The victory of spring over winter, of good over evil in folk festivals was symbolized by snowball games, as well as folk fun - the capture of a snow fort or a town. A kind of victim in the spring were the fistfights that were being planned, wall-to-wall fights.
Swings and merry-go-rounds installed on Shrovetide stretched as high as possible towards the sun. Closer to the luminary, guys and men climbed up the slippery pillar, trying to remove from it a gift in the form of a hat or a painted scarf. Felt boots and boots were thrown up to the sky, trying to knock down a highly suspended gift. Pancake-eating competitions were held everywhere.
At Shrovetide festivals, peasants were entertained by buffoons, puppet shows, in which Petrushka, beloved by the Russian people, was an indispensable participant. Samovars were puffing in the open air, hot sbiten or tea was poured out.
Forgiveness Sunday
But the riotous Maslenitsa was coming to an end. Her last day - Forgiveness Sunday - was the culmination of the holiday, the victory of spring over the cold. To commemorate this, the peasants burned a straw effigy together as the personification of winter, blowing ash over fields for a rich harvest. They believed that all troubles and troubles burned down with the stuffed animal. Children threw snowballs at the burning Maslenitsa so that winter would not return.
Having said goodbye to the holidays, the peasants thought about the coming time of Great Lent. A period of universal humility began. People went to relatives and acquaintances and asked for forgiveness for all the wrongs and quarrels caused. "Forgive me!", "God will forgive!" - these words, accompanied by bows and public kisses, sounded throughout the settlements.
Shrovetide revelry was coming to an end. The people said goodbye to the winter cold, greeted spring and Great Lent, which opens it, with a pure soul.
Magazine: Secrets of the 20th century №10. Author: Elena Artyomova