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
