Russian Holidays - Maslenitsa – Масленница2021

That's Veronika from eTours and this week Russia is celebrating a very old ancient festival, which is known as Maslenitsa. Maslenitsa has some pagan Slavic roots back to the times before the Christianity, but with the adoption of Christianity in Russia, it's continued to be celebrated by local people. Maslenitsa is a fun goodbye party when the winter is over, which is illuminated with a joyful expectation of spring and near warmth. It has some attributes, one of them is a scarecrow of Maslenitsa, or it's a ritual doll, which is going to be burned down on the main squares of the cities this Sunday or at the end of the week, as well as festivities, sledging, which is organized on the streets of the cities, and also pancakes, hot, ruddy, delicious pancakes, which we eat with different stuffings, including condensed milk, cottage cheese, meat. We eat them as much as possible because the week of Maslenitsa is just before the beginning of the Great Lent, which is going to be for the next 40 days. We came to Izmailovo Kremlin, which is located a bit further from the city center, but still in Moscow, and it's famous for the location of the largest souvenir shop, which works only when it's warm, so not today, and also the Izmailovo Kremlin is designed in quite a unique style. It's quite new, it was opened only in the beginning of this century, but today, this is, let's say, one of these few places which host a celebration of Maslenitsa, or the people's festivities of Maslenitsa, which consist of different activities outside, including tug of war, dancing in a round, or round dancing, and also eating pancakes. This is all what we do when it comes to Maslenitsa. One of the tradition games or customs is to pull yourself up on the stick to get the present from the top, as you can see right now, and the top is looking like the sun, it's a symbol of Maslenitsa, which brings different surprises and gifts. That's why the gift has to be taken from the top. Round shape of pancakes, or blini, as we call them, is a symbol of the sun, which brings light and also sets our hearts aflame when spring comes. That's why you may find little shops during Maslenitsa everywhere, and people standing in the line to get one, stuffed with either meat or sour cream or cottage cheese, so you can find them everywhere. A scarecrow of Maslenitsa, the ritual doll, was quite important symbol for the celebration of Maslenitsa. It was supposed to be burned down at the end of the week of Maslenitsa, on Sunday, just a symbol of saying goodbye to everything bad happened before, the year before, and as a symbol of beginning of the spring. So, it was usually wearing some dilapidated old torn clothes, which was given by the people from the village or from the city, as a symbol of also saying goodbye to everything old and getting ready for something new in their lives.