The Presidential Library spotlights folk signs and traditions of Maslenitsa celebration

According to the calendar, Maslenitsa coincides with the Orthodox Shrovetide - the last week before the Lent - and its dates depend on the date Easter falls on. In 2023, Maslenitsa is celebrated from February 20-26. One can find out what traditions were associated with the celebration of Maslenitsa in different parts of our country by referring to digital copies of rare publications from the Presidential Library.

It is traditionally believed that in this bright folk holiday there is a mixture of an ancient pagan rite with a Christian custom. The personification and burning of Maslenitsa, buffoon games belong to the remnants of the pagan world, and the traditions of Forgiveness Sunday, including the commemoration of the dead, are borrowed from Christianity.

Every day of Maslenitsa week in the folk tradition had its own name.

On the first day of Maslenitsa, people watched the weather. "Tales of the Russian people, collected by I. P. Sakharov" (1885) spotlights folk signs.

The locality left its imprints on this holiday, and in different parts of our country it differed in some rituals and customs. In Pereslavl-Zalessky, Yuryev Polsky, Vladimir and Vyatka, a dressed-up peasant was carried on a huge sleigh, holding in his hands “half a bottle of wine and rolls”, he was accompanied by dressed-up musicians.

In Nerekhta, Maslenitsa amusements began on Wednesday. On this day, festively dressed women met together and rode separately from the men until the evening, then there was a lull, and on Saturday people from all the surroundings again gathered in the city.

In Siberia, several sledges were put together for Maslenitsa and arranged on them like a ship with sails and gear. 20 horses were harnessed to the sleigh and rode through the streets. This train was followed by crowds of children with songs and jokes. Interestingly, instead of pancakes, they baked brushwood.

In Penza and Simbirsk provinces, on Maslenitsa Saturday, peasant children and teenagers built a city with towers and two gates from snow on the river. The game started like this. The guys were divided into two parties - into the cavalry, which besieges the snowy town, and the infantry, which protects it. On a signal, the cavalry set off at full speed to take the town, where the foot soldiers, armed with brooms, tried to "scare the horses" and prevent them from reaching the town. When the “horses” manage to get into the gate, the game ends, everyone treats themselves to drinks and, singing songs, returns home.

In the cities, too, they tried to keep up with traditions. In Yaroslavl, on Maslenitsa week, according to Snegiryov, in addition to treating pancakes and riding on the mountains and along the streets, there was a tradition, probably the rest of pagan times, to sing carols, which are usually sung in Russia at Christmas time. From Thursday of this week, factory workers with tambourines, and rattles, horns and balalaikas went from house to house and congratulated the owners on the holidays. They received food in return.

According to Nikolai Matveev’s book “Moscow and life in it on the eve of the invasion of 1812” (1912), one of the main entertainments in Moscow was fisticuffs and wrestling. "Gypsy horsemen were great masters in wrestling". Historians also talk about the ice slides that were built on the Moscow River and on the Neglinnaya. In St. Petersburg, mountains and carnival booths were built on the Neva, between the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Winter Palace.

Since the 18th century, lubok comedies appeared in Moscow, where “foreign buffoons presented various tricks, pocus and outlandish things”, at the oil game there were dressed up as a goat with horns, on which bells were hung. The Russian proverb "They played a goat in a poke", which meant "to fool someone" appeared.

Maslenitsa ends with a farewell or seeing-off.

The main role played at Maslenitsa, of course, was pancakes, which were baked all week long. Guests were invited to pancakes, they were treated to pancakes everywhere. “According to the custom of the people”, - notes Snegiryov, “the dead were commemorated with pancakes; in Tambov and other provinces, the first pancake baked during Cheese Week was placed on the dormer window for the souls of the parents”.

The legendary book by Elena Molokhovets, a graduate of the Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens, “A Gift to Young Housewives, or a Means to Reduce Household Expenses” (1883), available in the Presidential Library, contains the very pancake recipes that were used to prepare treats in pre-revolutionary Russia. One has an opportunity to learn about the book in the remote access centers of the Presidential Library opened in the Russian Federation and 33 countries abroad.

Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:

И. Сахаров «Сказания русского народа, собранные И. П. Сахаровым»;

И. Снегирёв «Русские простонародные праздники и суеверные обряды»;

Н. Матвеев «Москва и жизнь в ней накануне нашествия 1812 г.»;

Е. Молоховец «Подарок молодым хозяйкам, или Средство к уменьшению расходов в домашнем хозяйстве».