Maslenitsa

Boris Kustodiev: Maslenitsa, 1919

In only a few hours, with the burning of a straw effigy, the symbol of winter, ends Maslenitsa, the last week before the Orthodox Lent, which begins tomorrow. This week, you are already not allowed to eat meat, but milk and eggs are still permitted. Therefore, the festive meal for the week features pancakes, блины, from which the week takes its other name: Блинница, Pancake-week. This is the week of carnival amusements, traditionally with fairs, sledge races, and fire-jumping. And on Sunday – like all day today on the Russian internet – everyone begs for forgiveness and everyone forgives everyone.

The scene of Maslenitsa in Nikita Mihalkov’s The Barber of Siberia (1998).
Reconstruction by the Moscow Historical-Ethnographic Theatre.