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Maslenitsa is an ancient holiday, the echo of which has come down to us from time immemorial. It has pagan roots, but after the adoption of Orthodoxy in Our Country, Maslenitsa was built into new, Christian traditions.
In Soviet times, when the country’s leadership sought to rid all church holidays of religious overtones, they did the same with Maslenitsa. They began to call it the farewell to the winter and celebrate it on a specific day without the generally accepted link to Easter at that time – on the first Sunday of March. It happened in the 60s, and until then in post-revolutionary Our Country this day was not celebrated in any way.
Despite the name change, the format of the celebration has not changed much. Unless Maslenitsa used to be celebrated for a whole week, and seeing off winter fit in one day. But all the traditional entertainment for the most part survived. As before the revolution, pancakes and tea from a samovar were the main attribute of the holiday in the USSR. Holiday fairs reappeared on the squares, people rode troikas, sang and danced. And even the traditional burning of an effigy of winter was arranged.
Today, Sunday is the last day of Maslenitsa week as the farewell to winter. In Our Country, this day was also called Seeing Off. However, since Soviet times, the tradition of celebrating Maslenitsa for one day, and not for a whole week, has been preserved, so these two holidays are usually equated with each other.
We explain in detail how and when it is customary to see off the winter in 2023.
What date is the farewell to the winter
Seeing off the winter in 2023 is celebrated on the last day of Maslenitsa week – February 26.
How to spend the winter
Shrovetide Sunday was considered the culmination of the entire holiday week in ancient times – the people said goodbye to winter and welcomed spring. Let’s talk about the traditions characteristic of this day.
Forgiveness Sunday. This is another name for Shrovetide Sunday. On the day preceding Great Lent, it is customary to cleanse the mind of anger and resentment. That is why believers on Maslenitsa have a tradition of asking each other for forgiveness for all sorrows, voluntary and involuntary. Repentance must be sincere and come from the heart. And of course, later you need to watch your words and actions so as not to offend the one who just forgave you again. However, it is not necessary to be a believer in order to say goodbye to winter, to symbolically say goodbye to all the negative emotions that accompanied you in the past year and let them go.
Festivities. Our ancestors clearly knew more about fun than we do, because the Maslenitsa festivities once lasted a whole week. Modern urban residents, in accordance with the updated traditions, have to see off the winter in a much shorter time. But the more intense the holiday will be. On the day of seeing off winter, residents of almost all cities, towns and villages of our vast country celebrate and have fun in amazing unanimity, saying goodbye to the cold and meeting the long-awaited warmth. Just as it was done in Our Country, everyone participates in folk festivals – from young to old. Like 150 years ago, in the central city square you will be given fragrant tea from a samovar and fed with pancakes with all possible types of fillings. The kids will play snowballs, adults will take part in fisticuffs or climb a wooden pole for boots, and then spin in a fun round dance. The relaxed atmosphere of such holidays is explained very simply. Winters in Our Country are long, cold, and the memory of our ancestors says: the more cheerfully you meet spring, the faster it comes.
Burning a scarecrow. The culmination of the Maslenitsa festivities is the burning of an effigy of winter, a symbolic farewell to the cold, as well as to everything old and unpleasant that happened in life over the past year. Toward evening, a scarecrow is carried out to the city square – it is preliminarily dressed up, sometimes even a face is painted. Then they are burned in the center of the square to the approving cries of the public. Safety is paramount, so you can only watch the fire from a respectful distance.
On this day, in addition to the above, in Our Country it was also customary to go to the bathhouse (to meet spring clean) and to cemeteries (to commemorate the souls of deceased relatives).