A Successful Slavic Shrovetide by Sadovaya

It is now three days since the Maslenitsa celebrations and, coincidentally, St. Patrick’s Day. All of us have recovered from pancake-induced comas and the ‘irish’ among us from hangovers.

Now I shall tell you the tale of Maslenitsa in Saint Petersburg.

It was Iuspovoskii park (m. Sennaya Ploshad’/Spasskaya/Sadovaya) whither ‘Team-Let’s-Get-Cultured’ ventured to uphold their erudite name. A rather spectacular slip on the ice upon first arriving in the park might have given the Russians the impression the Team was combining two celebrations. However, upon seeing that we were merely too foreign to remain vertical in such frozen, icy conditions, our reputation remained intact.  

Onwards we moved, past brave Russian children sledging at break-neck speed down a treacherous-looking hill. The lake which formerly dominated the park was, naturally, a frozen white death-trap. In order to prove our foreign-ness does not extend to lack of courage, we took on such a mammoth task and succeeded. [Cue: ‘Why did the students cross the pond?’ jokes]

Smugly enjoying our success we were met by a Tsar and Tsarina singing traditional Russian songs, men taking turns in climbing up a tall pole and shirtless-in-the-snow young lads ‘wrestling’. Fascinated by the pluck of the latter, we resolved that we will never be quite as daring as the Russians.

After standing for fifteen more minutes transfixed by an improvised Ice-Skating Show, we left to warm ourselves in the stolovaya. Unfortunately our ability to stand the cold was not as finely-tuned as that of many Russians, and so we missed the burning of ‘Lady Maslenitsa’, who symbolizes winter. 

Nevertheless, culture was experienced and our mission was accomplished.  Excellent. 

Literally 'we congratulate'. A better translation would be 'Happy Shrovetide!'

A typical example of Maslenitsa dolls and ginger biscuits

Another take on the Maslenitsa doll, with breadstick-like 'sushki' rings

The Maslenitsa doll ready for burning Guy-Fawkes-style

A modern take on Russian fist-fighting

A Very International Shrovetide

Shrovetide officially began on Monday. However, things don’t really kick off until Saturday, since most people have school/University/jobs which means the inevitable pancake-induced food-coma has to wait until then.

Nevertheless, I have my own pancake party to share with you. This was a perfect example of Russian hospitality and tradition. The samovar was cleaned to shiny centre-piece perfection. There were mushroom pancakes, pancakes with caviar, garlic-mayonnaise pancakes and, just for the desperately English among us, pancakes with Golden Syrup. (Yes. I did.)

The Pancake Party also coincided with International Women’s Day (not so international since England doesn’t celebrate it?) This is a day when women are given flowers, chocolates and other presents and their existence is generally celebrated by all, themselves included. This is also a day when the men are supposed to do ‘women’s work’. I have learnt that it is unwise to bring up the word ‘feminism’ with my Russian friends, and so did not ask for them to expand on the definition of ‘women’s work’. (That is another story altogether.)

The students among us knew our place and so set up camp on cushions on the floor (after all, we all know you will become infertile if you sit on the cold floor). Since we (the students) hailed from all over Europe, English was the easier common-language than Russian. However, Russia was still in presence en masse, and so English was only used to summarize our long, convoluted Russian conversations. But, I do think we succeeded in not giving the impression we were rude or cunningly plotting Maslenitsa fist-fights all over the city. Excellent.

So, perhaps the only Russian part of our Shrovetide celebrations to date has been the presence of a samovar and some Russian friends? However, this weekend will surely correct our experience of Russian Orthodox Shrovetide and, hopefully, not involve too many hospitalizations from fist-fight injuries or pancakes. 

The Pancake Table

A few of us still-standing after the celebrations!

Apparently It's Spring In Russia

 ‘Spring’ is sunshine, bright yellow daffodils and fluffy white lambs. It is a cheery cheerfulness that, oh happy days, I can leave my cumbersome scarf, winter boots and coat at home today as the outside temperature is no longer sub-arctic.

Russia doesn’t know this yet.

Either that, or spring here really is -13°C temperatures, sleeping in gloves because the State-controlled central heating has been switched off and spending the majority of one’s student loan on medication for winter weather-related illnesses.

On the plus side of things, ‘Maslenitsa’ or Pancake Week begins on the 11^th of March. This is a week of Shrove Tuesdays, singing, dancing, visiting family/friends and having family/friends to visit, all the while eating an enormous number of pancakes (pancakes represent the sun, which is good because Piter currently has no sun).

The celebrations would not be complete without the straw effigy of ‘Lady Maslenitsa’. At the end of Pancake Week this effigy is burnt Guy-Fawkes style, signifying the beginning of spring and, of course, Lent. Back in the day it was also common practice for mass fist-fights to take place (very well depicted in the 1998 Russian-language film ‘The Barber of Siberia’). Such fights were banned then allowed then banned again. It is said that Peter the Great himself encouraged such fights in order to ‘show the strength of the Russian people’. Hmm…

These fights would (naturally) always be before ‘Forgiveness Sunday’, the final day of the celebrations. Then begins the ‘Fast’. I mentioned to a Russian friend the possibility of giving up meat and was met with an incredulous stare reserved only for ridiculous foreigners. Silly me.

So, spring may not have really started yet, but I’m sure the Pancake Week celebrations will be diverting enough that we can hold out a bit longer. Soon the majority of one’s student loan might even be spent on sun-cream. Imagine that.