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!
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