Wide Carnival, Krivosheika, Pancake,The vigil, the Maslenaya week is one and the same holiday, which is celebrated almost all over the world. The meaning of this holiday is to distinguish between the winter and spring period for the common people and the definition of the Great Fast for Christians. For a whole week people are walking, singing songs, sledding, baking pancakes, going to each other's houses and burning a scarecrow at the end of the festival.
Maslenitsa is a traditional seven-daya holiday celebrated by the Slavs before the Great Lent. The name he received is due to the fact that during this period you can eat butter, dairy products, fish. This period in the Orthodox Church is also called Cheese Week.
The date of the holiday is constantly varying, but italways goes before the fast, at the end of winter. Therefore, in the people this holiday (Shrovetide Maslenitsa) marks the departure of winter and the meeting of spring. People make stuffed animals, prepare competitions, bake pancakes. On the squares arrange a whole show with songs and dances, where everyone can participate in any event.
Масленица празднуется 7 дней.This is a Meeting, Flirting, Gourmet, Razgul, Teschiny vesperki, Zolovkin, gatherings, Seeing off. The end of Maslenitsa always falls on Forgiveness Sunday. Therefore, the meaning of the holiday is not in simple mass walking around the guests, but in purifying the soul of offenses with sincere forgiveness.
Maslenitsa is divided into two periods:
In the first period it was allowed to work, and in the second period people were given a holiday. Shirokaya Maslenitsa began with rituals.
Congratulations with the Wide Carnival are relevant not only for the Russian people. This holiday is celebrated in other countries, only has a different name.
The meaning of the holiday is the same for all peoples,regardless of the differences in food and competitions. For example, in the Russian and Belarusian table, a mandatory dish is a flat cake or a pancake, and Ukrainians are preparing syrniki and vareniki.
Initially, Pancake week was a pagan holiday, the essence of which was to stimulate the beginning of a fertile cycle. That's why the peasants scattered the ashes on their fields.
Scarecrow made from birch stalk and straw,which symbolized the beginning of life. Fertility was associated with the birth of children. That's why childless couples were given home-carnival dolls, celebrating family feasts and condemning bachelors. In Ukraine and in Belarus, such bachelors were tied to a leg with sticks and forced to drag this pack. The meaning of this rite was that girls and boys should think about legal marriage.
And the third meaning of the holiday was associated with the commemorationof the deceased. That's why the first pancake was given to the deceased, and on the last day even crumbs were not removed from the table, since it was believed that at night the deceased relatives came and ate.
Harvest, fertility of livestock, the birth of children andcommemoration of the dead were associated with the fertility of the earth. However, many rituals in our time are purely symbolic in nature and enter as a historical reference in the script. Wide Carnival did not lose its scope and revelry.
A broad Maslenitsa in the old days had a number of customs, which were repeated from year to year. Burning stuffed and cooking pancakes - these are the main elements of the holiday. But the following rituals were performed:
Currently, the city administration orThe village organizes a folk celebration on the last day of Shrovetide. On this day, huge platforms are built, on which professional artists work. They not only sing songs, ditties, but also beat all the days of Shrovetide with all the walking and historical rites.
People can actively participate in differentsweepstakes and submission. In order to remove the tightness and encourage people, clowns are constantly darting, who seek out fervent and courageous people to participate in various competitions. In the old days, a wide Maslenitsa (pictures with disguised actors) was always accompanied by booths and parsley comedies.
In addition to competitive places, there are also severaltrays with hot tea and pancakes. From the administration of the city, food is usually free; private individuals have various dishes, but they are paid. Away from the view, they either install ice slides or provide horses with sleds for skiing. Order and discipline must be supervised by representatives of the police.
Despite the fact that many rituals and games are outdated,modern farewell winter also attract crowds of people. The scenario of the holiday "Broad Maslenitsa" is designed for different ages and needs. Some people watch the performance and go with the artists from one platform to another, going through all the Pancake weekly stages.
The second immediately participate in contests. The following events are organized more often:
Not a single Shrovetide (photos are presented in the article) is complete without a doll. There are several varieties of them:
The effigy of the old Winter was depicted as an old woman.Burning it meant the end of the old and the meeting of the new. It was especially important to make stuffed birch and straw with pancake in hand, as this meant fertility. Previously, people with this scarecrow threw their old clothes and clothes into the fire and said goodbye to their offenses. The fire helps to purify the souls of people before Lent.
The big doll of the young Maslenitsa participates in masssubmissions. It is made easy to be worn on a stick. This cheerful doll moves from a holiday to a holiday (Broad Maslenitsa). The songs then sound more fun and provocative.
Home Shrovetide helps to establish relatedrelations. When it is difficult for a son-in-law or daughter-in-law to apologize to his parents on Forgiveness Sunday, then gifts in the form of Maslenitsa help to melt the cold in the heart. A woman can in the case of quarrels and offenses to tell their doll and tie a bundle.
Wide Maslenitsa (pictures with pancakes and stuffedabove) includes memorial, agricultural and marriage and family rituals. In the first case, the burning of stuffed Marena, round pancakes, fish on the table, a ban on work, fires testified to the awe of people before the dead. In the second case, skiing from the mountains, burning an effigy made of birch and straw with pancake, scattering ashes on the fields indicated future harvest.
In the third variant they celebrated familystaged bride and punished bachelors. So, the young wife, married year, instead of horses had to roll their friends in a sleigh with songs and jokes. The captured were obliged to kiss publicly at the "kissing" pillar. And bachelors in pairs (girl and boy) were forced to walk with a hanging deck all day, enduring ridicule. All relatives should go to Shrovetide at the guests: first, the mother-in-law of the “butter” of the son-in-law, and then he should greet the mother in her home.
It turns out that the most family and funthe holiday is the Wide Maslenitsa! The songs for each day of the holiday were different, but everyone was playful and joyful. And there were a lot of pancakes with different fillings. The girls for him even chose his betrothed.
