It was believed that people should have fun at Shrovetide, eat well and eat well, then the whole year he will have a satisfying and successful. At Maslenitsu the most important dish is round, ruddy and hot like the sun, pancakes. Pancakes were baked all week and were eaten in large quantities. The pancake symbolized the sun, and the burning of a straw effigy is the end of winter.
Shrovetide festivities were organized for Shrovetide. People rolled on ice hills, on a sleigh. We played dances and sang songs of praise. They organized various competitions and fisticuffs. Celebrated Pancake everywhere in towns and villages. The order of holding in different provinces differed slightly, but the essence of the Carnival celebration was one, to spend a bored, evil winter and to meet the long-awaited spring.
Orthodox Cheese Week
According to Orthodox concepts, this holiday is called Cheese Week and precedes the Great Post. During the Cheese Week, the church advises to reconcile with relatives, friends, acquaintances, ask forgiveness from each other and forgive all resentments. The parishioners are preparing for the Great Lent. Since Monday of the Shrovetide week, the Orthodox do not eat meat, but other fast food is allowed. The Cheese Week ends - Forgiven Sunday.
Shrove week
Monday .On Monday - made of straw stuffed Pancake week, dressed in women's clothes, put on a stake, and drove on the sleigh through the streets. Children from the morning called Shrovetide - they built snow slides or poured ice slides. Women in the morning started baking pancakes. In some areas, the first pancake was given to the poor to remember the deceased. In others, the first pancake was carried to trees and hung on branches, it was believed that the souls of their ancestors live in the crowns of trees, so the first pancake was intended for deceased parents, it was placed in a certain place, offering to taste the dead. Children from the morning called Shrove Tuesday - they poured ice slides. The first day of the carnival is called Meeting .
Tuesday .Traditionally on Tuesday morning the stuffed pancake was set in the center of the place where the festivities were held. Smart, young guys and girls were dancing around the scarecrow, riding the mountains or swinging on the swings. We ate pancakes and looked closely at each other, looking for brides. We went on a visit, arranged gatherings with songs - this day is called Winning .
Wednesday .The mother-in-law prepares pancakes for the son-in-law. Invites him and other guests to his home, treats his son-in-law, cajoles. Each family was covered with a generous table, ate to the heap, how much they would fit in, went to visit. In the squares appeared trading tents with different delicacies, with sbit, with painted honey cakes, with nuts. This day is called - Gourmand .
Thursday .Since Thursday, any work has been banned. The holiday is in full swing. Mass walks were organized with sledding, fisticuffs. They built snowy towns that destroyed on Saturday, as if showing that the end came to snow and ice.
Everywhere there were rich fairs with all sorts of delicacies, spice-cakes, nuts, tea-drinking from samovars with bread and pancakes. Children whistled in clay whistles, imitating the singing of birds - they called the spring. From the ravines fired wheels from the carts were fired. In the squares walked mummers and drove a live trained bear on the chain, arranging performances. Or a man dressed up in a bear. Also, children dressed up in animals walked around the yard, caroling. Thursday is called - Razgulay .
Friday .The mother-in-law goes on a visit to the son-in-law with other relatives. Pancakes are baked by her daughter, and the son-in-law should treat her mother-in-law and show her respect to mother-in-law and her relatives. The day is called - Tekstschiny vecherki.
Saturday .On Saturday, her husband's sisters and other relatives of her husband came to their daughter-in-law's house, and she treated them to pancakes, gave them a gift.
On Saturday, took a snow town, it was believed that the town - this is the last shelter of winter. The players were divided into two camps, some defended the town, others attacked, and were destroyed. At the end of the game, the town collapsed. Saturday - Zolotkins of the gathering .
Sunday .The last day - seeing off Maslenitsa is the most fun. People went to visit, treated to each other. If they were in a quarrel, they were reconciled, everyone asked for forgiveness from each other for the wrongs that were inflicted on others during the year, in response they answered: "God will forgive."We went to church, asked for "forgiveness of sins," prayed for the deceased, visited the graves of our relatives. In the evening on Forgiveness Sunday, it was customary to commemorate deceased relatives.
This day, women baked from lark dough for their children. The children climbed onto the roof of the houses and raised larks to the sky beckoning a warm spring.
On Sunday evening, a straw stuffed Shrovetide was taken to the outskirts and burned. Ashes from the scarecrow scattered across the fields, so that there was a rich harvest. The last day of Maslenitsa is called Forgiveness Sunday .
Carnival is celebrated in our days. Of course, not on such a scale, but we are making pancakes, and even look closely at my son-in-law's pancakes. And in every city and village there are folk festivals with fairs, performances, with the ceremony of burning the stuffed pancake week. We ask each other's forgiveness on Farewell Sunday. We are pleased with the wires of the fierce winter and look forward to the tender spring.
We wish fun to celebrate Pancake week!
Maslenitsa is an ancient folk festival, celebrated by Slavic peoples from pagan times. It is a cheerful holiday with folk festivals, with certain rituals, with traditions and rituals, with baking and eating pancakes. Feast of wires bored, cold winter. Maslenitsa in 2012 will be celebrated from February 20 to 26.
