Marco Maslenitsa is the celebration of carnival in Russia. It comes from ancient time. It celebrate the end of the winter, the start of new season and the beginning of new year. I went to Moscow celebration!
Maslenitsa may be one of the oldest surviving Slavic holiday. The origin is in the pagan tradition. In Slavic mythology, Maslenitsa is a sun-festival, people celebrate the end of the winter. They prepare the start of new season, ready to plant new seeds and to go out from the darkness of winter.
Sunday of Forgiveness
The last day of Cheesefare Week is called “Forgiveness Sunday” (Прощёное Воскресенье). Relatives and friends ask each other for forgiveness and might offer them small presents. As the culmination of the celebration people gather to “strip Lady Maslenitsa of her finery” and burn her in a bonfire. Left-over pancakes may also be thrown into the fire and Lady Maslenitsa’s ashes are buried in the snow to “fertilize the crops”.
At Vespers on Sunday evening, people may make a poklon (bow) before one another and ask forgiveness. Another name for Forgiveness Sunday is “Cheesefare Sunday”, because for devout Orthodox Christians it is the last day on which dairy products may be consumed until Easter. Fish, wine and olive oil will also be forbidden on most days of Great Lent. The day following Cheesefare Sunday is called Clean Monday, because people have confessed their sins, asked forgiveness, and begun Great Lent with a clean slate.
paragraph from Wikipedia page
Celebration in Gorkij park (Парк Горького)
This park is one of the bigger green area in Moscow city center.
Click here for map.
The area of park is about 120 ha, it is situated across the Moskva river between three metro stations:
– Park of Culture (line 1 and 5)
– Oktyabr’skaya (line 5 and 6)
– Shabolovskaya (line 6)
During all over the year in this park you can have different celebrations. Summer or winter is not important, almost every weekend there is something. During the winter is located one of the biggest ice skate area I ever saw. During the summer people enjoy lake and woods.
Maslenitsa traditional games
During the last sunday of the week in many parks around Russia people discover and play old traditional games. Everything open air and everything with a great frozen temperature. They drink tea, hot wine or beer with honey. I lived the Maslenitsa in the capital, I’m sure in the village is different!
Of course pancake is the food, with every sauce, sweet or salty. It can be with Varenye (варенье), with chocolate, fish or sour cream Smetana (Сметана).
Celebration of fire (sun)
The end of celebration is the fire. Powerful. To clean everything from winter, to celebrate the energy and the sun. Winter is going to end and new season is starting. Sunlight is longer and darkness of winter is over. This is common in every culture, to celebrate the end of winter and beginning of spring.
