MASLENITSA

Originating from pagan times immemorial, Maslenitsa celebrates the end of winter and the arrival of good weather. Everywhere in Russia, for a week, people eat blinis (round pancakes, therefore solar, cooked in butter), organize concerts, fairs, sleigh rides. It is the equivalent of the Slavic Mardi Gras and a whole ritual is associated with it: a large fire is lit, around which one dances while watching a rag doll burn, a representation of the winter that one hunts and the spring that one claims.