| Maslenitsa | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Also called | Butter Week, Crepe week, Cheesefare Week, Syropust, Kolodiya, Masnytsia |
| Observed by | Eastern Slavs Mostly Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, as well as Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian diaspora communities |
| Type | Ethnic |
| Significance | Seeing off winter, last week beforeGreat Lent |
| Celebrations | Makingblini (crepes), making visits, sleigh rides, dressing up, bonfires,snowball fights, the capture of the Snow Fortress, burning of the Maslenitsa Scarecrow In Ukraine and Belarus: eatingvarenyky with cottage cheese |
| 2024 date | 11 March to 17 March |
| 2025 date | 24 February to 2 March |
| Duration | 7 days |
| Frequency | Annual |
| Related to | Mardi Gras |
Maslenitsa (Belarusian:Масленіца;Russian:Мaсленица[ˈmas⁽ʲ⁾lʲɪnʲɪt͡sə];Rusyn:Пущаня;Ukrainian:Масниця), also known asButter Lady,Butter Week,Crepe week, orCheesefare Week, is anEastern Slavic religious and folk holiday which has retained a number of elements ofSlavic mythology in its ritual. It is celebrated during the last week beforeGreat Lent; that is, the eighth week beforeEastern OrthodoxPascha, equivalent to the West'sSexagesima.
The date of Maslenitsa changes every year, depending on the date of the celebration of Easter. It corresponds to theWestern ChristianCarnival, except that Orthodox Lent begins on aMonday instead of aWednesday, and the Orthodoxdate of Easter can differ greatly from the Western Christian date.
The traditional attributes of the Maslenitsa celebration are the Maslenitsaeffigy, sleigh rides, and festivities. Russians bakeblini andflatbread, while Belarusians and Ukrainians cookpierogi andsyrniki.
According to archeological evidence from the 2nd century AD, Maslenitsa may be the oldest surviving Slavic holiday.[1] In theChristian tradition, Maslenitsa is the last week before the onset ofGreat Lent.[2]
During the week of Maslenitsa, work is already forbidden toOrthodox Christians, and it is the last week during which work is permitted, leading to its name of "work free week" or "Freedom week".
Since Lent excludes working, parties, secular music, dancing and other distractions from spiritual life, Maslenitsa represents the last chance to take part in social activities that are not appropriate during the more prayerful, sober and introspective Lenten season.[1]
In Ukraine Maslenitsa week was also called Babskyi Tyzhden (Women's Week) or Kolodiy. During this week, men humorously followed women’s wishes. Married women gathered to "birth," "baptize," and "bury" a wooden log (koloda) throughout the week, symbolizing marriage and family traditions. By the end of the week, unmarried men and women had logs tied to their legs as a playful punishment for not marrying before Maslenitsa. This tradition highlighted the importance of marriage in Ukrainian culture. Though this tradition is no longer widely practiced, Kolodiy still remains a symbolic reminder of festive Slavic customs and the value of strong family bonds.[3]
In some regions, each day of Maslenitsa had its traditional activity. Monday may be the welcoming of "Lady Maslenitsa". The community builds the Maslenitsa effigy out of straw, decorated with pieces of rags, and fixed to a pole formerly known asKostroma. It is paraded around, and the first pancakes may be made and offered to the poor. On Tuesday, young men might search for a fiancée to marry after Lent. On Wednesday, sons-in-law may visit their mother-in-law, who has prepared pancakes and invited other guests for a party. Thursday may be devoted to outdoor activities. People may take time off work and spend the day sledding, ice skating, conducting snowball fights and with sleigh rides. On Friday, sons-in-law may invite their mothers-in-law for dinner. Saturday may be a gathering of a young wife with her sisters-in-law to work on a good relationship.
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 abonfire. Left-over pancakes may also be thrown into the fire, and Lady Maslenitsa's ashes are buried in the snow to "fertilize the crops".[4]
AtVespers on Sunday evening, people may make apoklon (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 calledClean Monday, because people have confessed their sins, asked forgiveness, and begun Great Lent with a clean slate.[citation needed]
Due to cultural factors in theRussian Empire, large public celebrations of Maslenitsa were no longer as common by the turn of the 20th century. After theRussian Revolution in 1917 and the followingstate atheism in the Soviet Union, public Maslenitsa celebrations became even less common, although Maslenitsa continued to observed particularly in smaller private celebrations in homes and villages. In the 1960s and 1970s, as the USSR brought back some traditional folk holidays, Maslenitsa was again observed in large public celebrations that retained some of the holiday's secular elements, but with additional "contemporary socialist elements grafted onto it".[5]
After the start ofperestroika andfall of the Soviet Union in the 1980s and 1990s, large outdoor celebrations started up again, and much of the older Maslenitsa traditions began to be revived in a modern context. Since 2002, Moscow has staged a yearly Maslenitsa festival next to theRed Square, with that and other celebrations attracting around 300,000 visitors in 2011.[5]
With increasing secularization, many Russians do not abstain from meat and Maslenitsa celebrations can be accompanied byshashlik vendors. Nevertheless, "meat still does not play a major role in the festivities".[1] Many countries with a significant number of Russian immigrants consider Maslenitsa a suitable occasion to celebrate Russian culture, although the celebrations are usually reduced to one day and may not coincide with the date of the religious celebrations.[citation needed]
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in 2012, Russian-Canadian composerAirat Ichmouratov composed anOverture Maslenitsa. It was premiered inChicoutimi,Canada, on 24 February 2013 by L'Orchestre Symphonique du Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean under the baton ofFrench-Canadian conductor Jacques Clément.[6][7]
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