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Nothing says party like pancakes and butter. At least, not if you occur to be in Russia this week.
The nation is in the midst of celebrating Maslenitsa, an Eastern Slavic folk vacation that requires location the week before the start off of Russian Orthodox Lent (this yr, it starts March 18). Although now tied to the Christian calendar, Maslenitsa has roots in ancient Slavic sun worshippers it initially marked the finish of winter and advent of spring. And, like Mardi Gras, it involves a whole lot of feasting in advance of the Lenten rapidly with blinis, a Russian pancake, as the foods of selection.
Topped with sour cream, caviar, berries or jam, blinis are all over the place, anyway you like 'em. Why blinis? Their round shape and warmth had been meant to symbolize the sun. And they're commonly drenched in butter (the festival, whose name derives from "maslo," the Russia word for butter, is also regarded as "Butter Week.")
" Everybody goes crazy with the buttered foods " and the blinis, says Anton Fedyashin, a professor of Russian background at American University. He says he is attended ten or so Maslenitsa festivals considering that the collapse of the Soviet Union. "You consume them as usually as feasible."
The vacation is observed in other Slavic Orthodox European countries, he says, but "nowhere more elaborately than in Russia."
Pancakes are king in the course of Maslenitsa, but there is more to it than just meals. Sleigh rides, snowball fights, family members gatherings and general merrymaking are all portion of the tradition, with prescribed pursuits for every day of the week.
Indeed, a Google search turned up loads of Maslenitsa traditions some of which seemed as well wild to feel at initially.
Organized fistfights? They're true apparently, they are meant to celebrate Russia's fighting spirit. Our Moscow correspondent, Corey Flintoff, confirms there is a battle on the schedule of events at a park in the Russian capital this Sunday.
Dancing bears? Yep, in some destinations. Bears are regarded a symbol of Russia. And doing bears are an old tradition amid Russian Gypsies, also known as Roma, says Galina Aleksandrovna Komissarova of the Russian Cultural Center in Washington, D.C. The bears, she notes, are "not obligatory."
Celebrations have been additional muted through the Soviet era, normally taking spot at house. But in recent many years, the festivities have grow to be more elaborate public events.
In Moscow this 12 months, streets are staying temporarily rechristened with names like "Gluttony Row," in which passersby can sample blini in their quite a few incarnations, in accordance to The Moscow Times . Tasting lines, concerts and contests will be held at Gorky Park an amusement park that might ring a bell with some Americans simply because of the 1983 film of the similar identify.
And in Pskov, a city of about 200,000 in northwestern Russia, officials have even designed a Maslenitsa mascot as a way to raise the region's profile: Czar Blin is "a pancake-themed jolly despot" to rule in excess of the vacation, The Washington Post's Moscow correspondent reviews. ( Consider of him as the Hamburglar of pancakes.)
It all culminates on Sunday, when, across Russia, persons will inquire for forgiveness from their fellow guy ( at times, even from strangers). In some areas, the grand finale calls for pyrotechnics: A straw effigy of a female, "Lady Maslenitsa," meant to signify winter (the word for "winter" is feminine in Russian, explains Komissarova) is burned to bid the season a fiery goodbye. Other individuals make do with ice sculptures of "lady winter," says Komissarova.
Of course, this currently being Russia wherever alcoholism has been called a " national disaster " no vacation would be finish without having plenty of alcohol.
" Consuming and consuming, blini and sour cream and caviar," notes Komissarova, "that is the key issue."
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