Shrovetide is the biggest and funniest holiday in the Christian tradition, because it lasts seven whole days
Monday 28 February until Sunday 6 March 2022 we will celebrate Maslenitsa week or the Maslenitsa folk festival, with its pancakes, cheese and cheese dumplings, all the attributes that follow from this festive day - festivities, visiting each other and so on. Maslenitsa is held in Russia for a whole week (Maslenitsa week) and on the eve of Lent (with its restrictions on food intake), and it is also called and called earlier - Cheese or Meat Week, and also Wide Maslenitsa.
Why is Shrovetide celebrated for seven days?
Traditionally, the Shrovetide holiday is divided into 7 days, each of which has its own role and name: Meeting, Flirting, Gourmet, Razgulyay, Mother-in-law's evening, Sister's gatherings and Forgiveness Sunday (farewell to Maslenitsa). In the first 3 days of Maslenitsa, called the Narrow Maslenitsa, housekeeping and housework are allowed, and in the remaining 4 days, known as the Wide Maslenitsa, one should forget about business and rest.
What you need to do on each of the Shrovetide days:
- Meeting - getting ready for the festivities, baking pancakes, dressing up a scarecrow.
- Flirting - the beginning of folk festivities: street fun, visiting.
- Gourmet - relatives go to each other to eat pancakes.
- Take a walk - the continuation of festivities, round dances, singing, sleigh rides.
- Mother-in-law gatherings - the son-in-law invites the mother-in-law to a festive lunch or dinner.
- Sister-in-law gatherings - the wife invites her husband's relatives to visit.
The last day of Shrovetide is Forgiveness Sunday. On this day, it is customary to ask for forgiveness and forgive the offenders.
The following days of the holiday begin to take on a more "personal" character and are dedicated to certain relatives. On Mother-in-law's evenings (Friday, March 4), on the fifth day of Maslenitsa week, the sons-in-law invite their wives' mothers to visit, set the table with pancakes, and other guests may be invited. The sister-in-law's gatherings (Saturday, March 5), which fall on the sixth day of Maslenitsa, are dedicated to the sister-in-law and other relatives of her husband. According to tradition, daughters-in-law invite them to stay or come to visit themselves, but with their own products. The daughter-in-law also gives her sister-in-law a gif.webpt.
On the seventh day of Shrovetide week - Forgiveness Sunday, or Seeing Off (Sunday, March 6) - everyone asks each other for forgiveness and treats themselves to pancakes for the last time before Lent. At the end of the holiday, a straw effigy is solemnly burned on the street on this day.
Preparing for the start of Shrovetide
Saturday before Shrovetide - Parental. This is a special day when deceased ancestors are remembered. For this, pancakes were specially baked, which was a memorial dish among the Slavs. The first pancakes were distributed to nuns and children, asking them to remember their departed relatives. The pancakes were taken to the cemetery or placed on the windowsill. According to many historians, baking pancakes was not originally associated with the glorification of the sun among the ancient Slavs.
During the Saturday evening meal, people invited the dead to share a feast with them. The remains of food and dishes were left on the table until the morning, only covering them with the ends of the tablecloth.
The Sunday preceding Shrovetide is called meat Sunday. On Sunday, it was customary to cook a plentiful meat treat and eat it up to 12 times.
For the arrival of Maslenitsa, preparations were made ahead of time: hills were poured, fortresses and towns were built from snow. On the eve of the holiday, they were sure to take a steam bath in order to wash away sins and all unnecessary things that had accumulated over the past year.
Traditions and rituals
Most of the Shrovetide traditions came to us from pagan mythology. The main attributes of the Maslenitsa celebration are feasting and daring fun.It was believed that a person who did not have fun on Maslenitsa week would be unlucky for a whole year. It was not customary to skimp on holiday expenses. In some villages, they made a team: together the whole village brewed beer and prepared a treat. Traditionally, Maslenitsa was a week of rest and festivities before the start of spring field work.
Baking pancakes
The most popular tradition for Shrovetide is to bake pancakes. This dish is associated primarily with a memorial treat. At a later time, the hot, round and yellow pancake became popularly associated with the cult of the sun. Each housewife had a personal recipe for pancake dough, which was passed on from their family to the family. Pancakes were served not only with butter. They are incredibly tasty with honey, jam, sour cream, vegetable and fruit fillings.
But pancakes are far from the only dish of the Maslenitsa meal. According to custom, the table should be rich and bursting with all kinds of food. Everywhere in Russia, cakes, pancakes, pies and pies were prepared with different fillings: cabbage, mushrooms, fish, cottage cheese, apples … In Ukraine and Belarus, traditional dishes were dumplings with sour cream, cheese cakes, cheesecakes.
Catania
A characteristic feature of the celebration is skating. Folk rides from the snowy and icy mountains on sledges, sleighs, birch bark were arranged, creating a cheerful "heap of mala". In the villages, they certainly rode on troika with bells, harnessed to a festively decorated sleigh. In large villages, whole sled processions were organized. A pole with a wheel was installed on the main sleigh, which symbolized the sun. Riding on specially built swings was also widespread.
Mummers
Buffoons and mummers took an active part in all the amusements and amusements. Dressing up is a ritual action of hiding the external appearance. The roots of the rite go back to the ancient ritual mysteries, possibly having elements of folk magic for communication with deities. The mummer is characterized by:
- motley;
- mask hiding the face;
- body painting with various paints and soot;
- noisy objects (musical instruments, ratchets);
- involuntary movements: jumping, dance elements, spinning.
The Russian tradition of reincarnation has direct links with European carnivals. On Shrovetide, mummers, together with festively dressed villagers, arranged dances and folk singing.
Fist fights
While the kids stormed the snow fortresses, where the mummers hid the stuffed Marena, the men from local villages gathered on fists. They fought in hand-to-hand combat seriously, often arranging wall-to-wall fights or “settlement to the settlement”. It was believed that the shed blood would serve as a good sacrifice for the earth for a good harvest. The massacre had certain laws: it was impossible to hit a lying person, grab onto clothes. Victory was recognized for the side that put the enemy to flight or forced them to retreat.
Burning scarecrow
The Shrovetide effigy is an archaic idea of a dying and resurrecting nature. On a pole with a ritual image, they tied "nauz" - amulets or old clothes with a slander. Burning a scarecrow was designed to get rid of everything bad and obsolete. The ritual was to ensure fertility in the coming agricultural year. For this, the ashes left after burning were scattered over the arable land.
Pancake Week days
Shrovetide is subdivided into Narrow and Wide. The period from Monday to Wednesday is referred to as the Narrow Shrovetide, during which it is allowed to work in the household. On Thursday, with the onset of Shrovetide, all business was stopped. Another nickname for the holiday is the broad boyarynya.
Monday - "Meeting"
On the first day of Pancake Week, the hostesses began to bake pancakes. Young people rolled ice on slides and skating rinks, arranged nursery rhymes and snow fun. It was believed that the further the sleigh rolled down the mountain, the louder the laugh and the noise, the richer the harvest would be. The mummers with songs went around the courtyards and collected things for burning.
Tuesday - "Flirting"
Unmarried girls were preparing for this day especially, because the show was held for the flirting. All Shrovetide rituals can be viewed as a precursor to future matchmaking. Traditional weddings held during Easter week became a successful conclusion for the young people.
Wednesday - "Gourmet"
The name of the day suggests that its main purpose is to feast on cooked pancakes. The hostesses competed with each other in the ability to bake pancakes, and the guests decided who made them the most delicious. On Wednesday, the mother-in-law invited the sons-in-law to visit and regaled them with pancakes.
Thursday - "Walk Wide"
The turning point of the festivities, when the celebration reached its climax. All Russia began to walk with a shake. They walked from morning to night - they danced, danced in circles, sang ditties and songs, fought on their fists. The audience was entertained by buffoons.
Friday - "Mother-in-law of the evening"
Games and festivities on Friday were designed to help young people find a worthy match. The sons-in-law sent elegant envoys to the mother-in-law to invite them to a pancake meal in return.
Saturday - "Cousin's Gatherings"
The young wife invited her husband's sister (sister-in-law) and gave her gif.webpts. If the girl was unmarried, single guys were invited to the house.
Resurrection
The old names for the final day of Maslenitsa are Tselovnik, Seeing Off. Today it is better known as Forgiveness Sunday. The end of the holiday - public burning of a stuffed straw on a large fire.
Shrovetide is one of the few ceremonial holidays that is widely celebrated today. In the 21st century, not only the villagers, but also the townspeople observe ancient rituals: they bake pancakes, go to visit, arrange festivities and burn a symbolic scarecrow at the stake.
