MASLENITSA

MASLENITSA is a calendar holiday consisting of ritual cycles dedicated to the end of winter and coming spring. Its origin is connected to the pagan traditions of praying to deities and natural powers (see Earth-Water, Zoroastrianism). It correlates with the Solar calendar and is celebrated throughout the week during the spring equinox. It is widely celebrated among the Slavic peoples. Pancakes are the attribute of the holiday (as a symbol of the Sun. It was flavored with a huge amount of butter to “butter up” the Sun). A cart’s wheel is also the holiday’s attribute. It was decorated and carried down the streets on the top of a pole, or it might be rolled burning down a hill; the harbinger of spring is a costumed person in a bearskin. At the end of the holiday people burn the effigy symbolizing the passing winter. M. can be divided into a narrow one (small; Chuvash. – big) that included the first 3 days (beginning, zaigrysh time when people were entertaining, lakomka treatment); a wide one (late; Chuvash. – small) and the last days (bean-feast, mother’s-in-law party, sister’s-in-law party, seeing off M.) The festival includes sledging from a maslenitsa mountain on decorated troika-sledges, fist fights, jumps over a ritual fire and other activities accompanied by kolyadkas and ritual singing. During M. people have family feasts, hold commemorate rituals; match brides and grooms, grooms/brides meet the parents of their future spouse. The last day of M. coincides with a religious event – Forgiveness Sunday that is before Lent and the Great day. The Udmurt M. starts on Sunday: in the early morning women start to pray with pancakes in their yards, then they sledge down a hill on a spinning wheel, wishing for hemp to grow high; they go to their neighbors, take sleeping people and throw them into snow drifts; they also performed a bear’s dance etc. Some Chuvashes used to celebrate for a fortnight starting from the Thursday before the commemoration day (see Cults). In the early 1930’s M. celebration was restored by means of performances of the folklore collectives. It was called “seeing off the Russian winter”, “spring meeting”; M. became one of the most popular ethnic holidays including  local  ethnic  peculiarities  since  the 1990’s. Modern plans of M. celebrations have a lot of spectacular, entertaining elements of international form. Maris have had M. celebration as the distinctive event of Mishkinskiy District, RB since 2008.

I.G. Petrov, R.R. Sadikov