The celebration of the end of winter is called "Maslenitsa". It actually corresponds to the celebration before the great Lent. Maslenitsa represents the last chance to partake of dairy products (lactose intolerant people, this is litteraly your last chance), and those social activities that are not appropriate during the more prayerful, sober and introspective Lenten season.
During the Maslenitsa at school, the activities included:
-wearing colorful dresses and sing with friends.
-eating home-made chicken soup, pastries and blini.
-burning Lady Maslenitsa and dancing around in circles while holding hands. At the end, Lady Maslenitsa's ashes are buried in the snow to "fertilize the crops". Very enjoyable...
Now, it is all done, and I am ready to enter a period of sober, introspective Lenten season.
2 comments:
I thought they burried the ashes to hide the evidence of the violent crime that had just occurred. What do they do to Mr. Spring in the middle of May... submerge him in an ice hole they cut into the Ob sea?
Yes, definitely doesn't look very end of wintery to me, but then the end of my winter is when Ragin' Cajun starts serving crawfish, so everywhere's different. Does the Lenten season involve only having vodka before and after dinner and not during?
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