Pancake Festival week is already here, so if you decided to travel to Saint Petersburg in the last week of February, you are lucky to be immersed into Russian culture.
It has long been a tradition in Russia to celebrate the noisy Pancake week – to bake pancakes, to dance, and finally to burn a scarecrow, saying goodbye to a long winter.
Pancake week is a Slavic holiday with pagan rites. This holiday symbolizes the entry into force of bright spring and farewell to a long cold winter. This is a reason for you not to travel to Russia in summer.
Traditions and customs
The bright joyful holiday of Maslenitsa originated in pagan Russia when the Slavs worshiped many deities and continued in the Christian tradition preserving some elements of the ancient pagan rituals. Students who study Russian in Saint Petersburg immerse deeper into Russian culture while taking part in this event. The fact is that the traditional celebration of the arrival of spring coincided with the “Pancake week”: the week before the beginning of Great Lent. These two holidays were very successfully combined, and the tradition has been preserved even now. Not every Russian knows the traditions, but everyone loves to celebrate Maslenitsa. It means that even a student or intern in Russia can take part in it.
Why pancakes?
Pancakes have always been an indispensable and basic Pancake week treat. According to one version, pancakes symbolized the sun and were baked in honor of the god Yarilo. There is a more pragmatic version: before Lent, believers were already forbidden to eat meat, and oil pancakes became the main dish, as well as a symbol of the holiday this week. Leaning abroad will let you taste many unknown dishes, so for you it will be impossible to stick to the lent. All housewives bake pancakes during the week and there are celebrations in big parks almost in any district of Saint Petersburg. These hot round suns have become the main holiday treat in every home. Probably, many students with the host family accommodation in Russia are treated with the homemade traditional pancakes.
When is Pancake Festival?
The beginning is annually shifted, depending on the day of the beginning of Great Lent. Each day of the holiday week is traditionally held in a certain way: on Monday they celebrate Shrovetide, have fun all day, get married, eat pancakes with fillings and treat guests, and on Sunday they already say goodbye to Mastenitsa and winter. Sunday is the most cheerful day when people gather to celebrate. It is usually outside and the celebration includes games, treats and songs. Learning abroad gives you an opportunity to join it as well!
Cheese week, and this is what the holiday is called, the Slavs are used to spend their days meeting the long-awaited spring since pagan times. This week is usually spent eating a lot. Doctors, however, do not advise following the parting words of their ancestors and be moderate this holiday week: you should not overeat with pancakes, since you can gain extra pounds. For you as a tourist it is anyway impossible to resist as you must try pancakes when you travel to Saint Petersburg in the end of winter!
The final part of the celebration is when at the end of the day a scarecrow made of hey is burned, scattering its ashes across the fields. This rite is a kind of symbol, farewell to everything bad and old and the greeting of a new time.
Today, not all ceremonies and traditions of Maslenitsa are strictly observed, but in any house there are always hot pancakes on the table in Shrovetide.
