‘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 11th 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.
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