Maslenitsa Celebration Wraps Up Week Of Festivities Before Lent

Thousands of Moscow women and men have just finished up a week long celebration which is their equivalent of Mardi Gras – a holiday called Maslenitsa which is known for lots of sun-shaped pancakes, beer and honey ale and all types of celebrations that go on non-stop to celebrate the coming of Lent.

Maslenitsa was celebrated the week of February 12-18 to start off the seven week period of Lent. The holiday originated as a compromise between the ancient pagan rites of Russia and the Orthodox Church. The festival acts as a precursor to the fasting of Lent, Easter and the Spring Equinox. At one time, the festivities were a New Year celebration before Russia began to follow a western calendar system.

Some Moscow officials hope that Maslenitsa will become an internationally recognized event, like the carnival of Brazil or New Orleans Mardi Gras. They hope to attract foreign tourism by promoting a Russian festival week.

This year a main feast was held at the Vasilievsky spusk near the Kremlin which featured clowns on stilts who portrayed Prokofia-Zima, symbolizing winter, and Petrushka, the Russian version of Punch. And the free pancakes assured that many people would partake of the festivities.

Every year, free “bliny” or pancakes are given away near the Mausoleum of Lenin. You can also buy pancakes if you don’t want to wait in line and also fillings for the pancakes, like caviar. On the final day of the festival, the parade went from Triumphal Square down Tverskaya Street to Red Square and Vasilievsky spusk.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 19th, 2007 at 11:30 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.