AEGEE is truly a European organisation. It is full of different cultures, traditions and names. When I first joined AEGEE, the “oldies” gave us a list of different words in “vocabulary” they gained from the time they joined. At that time, I have heard only perhaps one of the words from the long list. One truly does learn a lot about the different traditions of countries.
It is time to introduce a new word into your vocabulary – Maslenitsa!
Maslenitsa is the most popular holiday in Russia, although it is also widely celebrated in Ukraine. It is basically a week fest held in the end of February – beginning of March. Even though it had originated as a pagan holiday, it is now an integral part of the Orthodox tradition.
Activities during Maslenitsa – since this is a week-long holiday, it resembles what one in the Western tradition would call a festival. People dress up in traditional costumes, dance around a huge bonfire, sing, celebrate and eat. Now what they eat is what determines the name of the holiday.
Food to eat – Maslenitsa takes place a week before the Great Fast. According to the tradition, one is not allowed to eat meat which is where pancakes came to the rescue. To clarify, these are not just those maple syrup pancakes you see on TV. No, these are Russian pancakes – bliny. They are warm, round and golden. What does that remind you? The Sun. The holiday was created initially to welcome the spring and say goodbye to the cold winter.
Enough theory you say, more practice. It has already been two years that AEGEE-Moskva and AEGEE-St.Peterburg offer a chance for the AEGEEans to experience this great winter holiday for themselves. It all started with the Alice in Winterland event in 2011 and was continued by the Pancake fairytale in 2012 when for over a week the participants opened up to the Russian traditions. The participants got the chance to see two of the best known cities in Russia, do the traditional tour during the day and party all night. This was all spiced up by concerts in the open air, tasting of the holiday foods, learning new dances and turning them into reality.
Then you might think that the participants were freezing but truth is that it was not that cold. Besides, Adri Belzunce, member of AEGEE-Oviedo and one of this year participants, says that he got used to the cold in a couple of days. If a Spanish guy can do it, so can you! Luckily they got to spend some time inside. Just to take a quick break, they decided to take part of a ball. After a crash course in 19th century dancing, the participants got to dress up and go back in time.
Just to refresh! Maslenitsa – a Russian winter holiday to welcome spring. Most popular food – pancakes. And in brief, that is all you really need to know to get urged to ask – is that really all?
Special thanks for the photos to Olga Chukova.
Written by Olga Volovyk, AEGEE-Kyiv