There are a lot of traditional holidays in Russia. “Maslenitsa” is one of them. It marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring and Lent before Easter.
There was a celebration of Maslenitsa in our town on Sunday, March 5. Many people came to the central square to listen to the national songs and play national games. On this day people cook pancakes and eat them with sour cream, honey, butter or caviar. During the festival people usually burn a scarecrow of winter. You can see a young man in a national Russian dress with a red bag collecting “bad things” which the people want to be burned together with the scarecrow. People usually write on a small piece of paper “bad things” and put them into the bag. Then the bag is usually burned in the fire.
There was a celebration of Maslenitsa in our town on Sunday, March 5. Many people came to the central square to listen to the national songs and play national games. On this day people cook pancakes and eat them with sour cream, honey, butter or caviar. During the festival people usually burn a scarecrow of winter. You can see a young man in a national Russian dress with a red bag collecting “bad things” which the people want to be burned together with the scarecrow. People usually write on a small piece of paper “bad things” and put them into the bag. Then the bag is usually burned in the fire.
After that there are all kinds of competitions and games. One of them is to get a present which is high on the tall pole. Young men have to climb up the pole to reach the bag with the present. In the bag usually there is a note with the name of the present. The present is usually a real cock.
