Here's a video of some people celebrating Shrovetide. (I love the little kid in the big fuzzy coat at the beginning.... Such a cutie!!!)
Shrovetide was an ancient pagan festival celebrating the arrival of Spring and the start of work on the land. People would dance around in masks and costumes and have rituals (burning a straw man, lighting fires, leaving food on graves) and of course there was a feast!
Later, the Orthodox Church included Shrovetide among its festivals. It's lost its ritual significance and is now a festival (pancake week) to say goodbye to Winter and welcome Spring! People do special performances and cook pancakes the entire week. Yum!
Can't wait until February! I do love pancakes....
1 comment:
hey, michelle, in the spring we'll do our annual 'bliny blitz' to mark the beginning of maslenitsa, russian lent. every year i make about 300 pancakes (7 or 8 gallons of batter!) for all the students in russian studies @ stetson. this year, my hope is to burn the kostroma (check out wikipedia!), too... we just have to find someone who'll let us burn an effigy in their yard...
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