A Maslenitsa Festival as a Cultural Event

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Reflection on the Event
Research on the Event
Outside Influence and Historical Ways of Celebration
Secondary Cultural Events: Similarities
Secondary Cultural Events: Differences
Conclusion
References

Introduction

The culture of Eastern European countries varies from the American one. The present essay discusses a peculiar Russian cultural event called Maslenitsa that symbolizes the “awakening of Nature from hibernation” (Maltseva, 2020, p. 26). Initially, that is a pagan festival and means “miraculous transformation of the Sun – the son of the pagan Slavic god Kolyada, into a beautiful, flourishing young man – Yarilo-Sun” (Maltseva, 2020, p. 26). In other words, during this festival, people see off winter and meet spring. Every year the festival starts at different dates because this depends on the dates of celebration of the Passover that, in its turn, depends on the Vernal Equinox. Maslenitsa could be translated as a butter week. Apart from Russian Maslenitsa, the essay discusses the French Mardi Gras and Polish Tlusty Czwartek.

Reflection on the Event

I have learned about this cultural event from my Russian friend, who always cooks pancakes to celebrate it. Later, I watched a video from this festival on YouTube and found it immensely vivid and fun. In the video, one could see how people sing, dance, play the accordion, cook and eat pancakes, play team games, such as tug of war and king of the hill, and build a fortress out of snow (CCTV Video News Agency, 2018). While watching the video, what stood out for me is that adults are as willing to participate in it as children. It is curious to notice that this festival illustrates a great sense of unity because in games, commonly there are two teams, and while dancing, unfamiliar people hold hands.

At the beginning, the festival seems rather dull and resembles a fair where people eat food and buy goods. Nonetheless, later, this first impression disappears when people start playing and dancing. At the same time, what I have seen does not provoke a desire to join. Besides, the tradition of burning an effigy of Maslenitsa that takes the shape of a woman is a bit cruel.

Research on the Event

As it has already been mentioned, Maslenitsa is a pagan festival. At the same time, Russia is an orthodox Christian country, and religion is an inseparable component of its self-image (Curanovic, 2019). The week of celebrating a pagan Maslenitsa is followed by the orthodox Great Lent that lasts 40 days. Therefore, the festival of Maslenitsa shows a distinctive mixture and co-existence of worldviews within one country. Before Christianization in 988, ancient Russia was pagan, and the tradition to celebrate Maslenitsa has survived over centuries.

Another curious fact is related to the duration of this festival. More precisely, Maslenitsa lasts for one week, during which people every day eat pancakes to get prepared for the following Great Lent (Maltseva, 2020). It seems complicated for the representatives of other cultures to eat pancakes with butter, sugar, caviar and jams the entire week. The event described above is held on the last day of Maslenitsa. The majority of modern people celebrate only the last day and escape the traditional part of the festival that proposes to eat pancakes all week long. Russian pancakes are not the same as American ones, they resemble French crepes, and the thinner and leakier Russian pancakes are, the better.

Outside Influence and Historical Ways of Celebration

In recent decades, globalization and westernization have heavily affected cultures worldwide. As it is stated by Ergashev and Farxodjonova (2020), globalization has a substantial adverse impact on national cultures and deprives them of their distinctiveness. Undoubtedly, the overall Russian culture has experienced changes provoked by the influence from outside. Nevertheless, the power of this influence is not that strong to alter the centuries-old traditions of Maslenitsas celebration (Chetverikova, 2018). During this fest, people still wear national costumes, sing ancient songs, and play ancient games. Without a doubt, some organizers of such festivals might put popular western music in the background. Still, in most cases, people carefully follow the traditions of their Slavic ancestors.

From what is written above, one could infer that the event is being practiced the same as it has been historically in modern times. The minor difference is that over time this festival lost its pagan component. For instance, Slavic tribes associated Maslenitsa with the end of spring and the commemoration of the souls of the dead (Wijethunga & Abeysinghe, 2018). Currently, there is a separate day for visiting the graves of friends and relatives in Russian culture.

Secondary Cultural Events: Similarities

Maslenitsa has analogs all over European and Latin American countries. For example, in France, people celebrate Mardi Gras, and in Poland, this festival is called Tlusty Czwartek. The former event is translated as a Fat Tuesday and the latter as a Fat Thursday. Both these events are based on the ancient Slavic pre-Christian tradition of farewell with winter. Additionally, all three events, Maslenitsa, Mardi Gras, and Tlusty Czwartek, are followed by the Lenten. This way, these festivals are united by the fact that people eat, dance, and have fun before fasting.

Secondary Cultural Events: Differences

Despite the existing similarities, there are a lot of differences between Mardi Gras, and Tlusty Czwartek, and Maslentisa. The primary difference is that while in Poland and France these events last one day, Maslentisa is a week-long festival. Undoubtedly, it is true that the major celebration is held on the last day of Maslenitsa, in France and Poland there is no tradition of cooking and eating greasy food during the entire week.

Food

Another significant difference lies in the food that is prepared during the festival. In the Russian version of this event, the main dish is a pancake with various toppings because it resembles the sun. People might cook pies and cookies, but it depends on their wish and not is a necessary part of the festival. At the same time, apart from crepes, traditional Mardi Gras food includes king cakes, cannoli, doughnuts, waffles, crawfish étouffée, and dirty rice. To celebrate Tlusty Czwartek, Polish people cook doughnuts filled with rose or plum jam, a sweet pastry called angel wings. What is more, in Poland pancakes are not as popular as doughnuts.

Activities

Another difference between the events lies in the activities that people perform. In France, Mardi Gras is accompanied by masquerade processions and masked balls. This way, people are dressed in unique costumes and masks; they do not wear traditional clothes of peasants as Russian people do. Therefore, Mardi Gras has a lot of common with a carnival and a parade in eye-catching costumes. Tlusty Czwartek is closer to Mardi Gras than to Maslentisa because, similarly to the French tradition, masquerade balls are an indispensable component of the Polish fest. However, in contrast to Mardi Gras, during Tlusty Czwartek, people commonly present doughnuts to one another. This feature is close to Maslentisa because, during this week, friends and relatives invite each other to join their dinner and eat pancakes together.

Conclusion

Maslentisa is one of the funniest festivals in Russian culture and is associated with eating a lot of greasy and sweet food before the Great Lent. Children as well as adults celebrate this event: all of them have fun while playing games, singing, and dancing. Similar events exist all over the world, including France and Poland. Although Mardi Gras and Tlusty Czwartek have more similarities with one another than with Maslenitsa, all of them have the common ancient Slavic pagan origin.

References

Caridi, C. (2020). Chapter two: Russian Orthodoxy from the conversion of Rus (ca. 988) to Today. In C. Caridi (Ed.), Making Martyrs East and West (pp. 46-99). Cornell University Press. Web.

CCTV Video News Agency (2018). Russians in Siberia celebrate annual Maslenitsa festival. [Video]. Web.

Chetverikova, O. (2018). Holidays, fests and celebrations of the Bessarabian Region: Linguo-cultural Peculiarities. Journal of Danubian Studies and Research, 8(2), 103-109.

Curanovic, A. (2019). Russia’s mission in the world: The perspective of the Russian Orthodox Church.Problems of Post-Communism, 66(4), 253-267. Web.

Ergashev, I., & Farxodjonova, N. (2020). Integration of national culture in the process of globalization. Journal of Critical Reviews, 7(2), 477-479. Web.

Maltseva, L. (2020). Public holiday “Maslenitsa” in art exercises. Danish Scientific Journal, 33(2), 25-30.

Wijethunga, A.P.S.L., & Abeysinghe, Y.S. (2018). A comparative study of Slavian and Sinhala culture based on Sinhala New Year festival and Maslenitsa.4th International Conference on Social Sciences. University of Kelaniya.

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