{{short description|Slavic folk and Christian holiday}} {{Infobox holiday |holiday_name=Maslenitsa |nickname= Butter Week, Crepe week, Cheesefare Week, Syropust, Kolodiya, Masnytsia |type=Ethnic |image=Maslenitsa kustodiev.jpg |caption=''Maslenitsa'', [[Boris Kustodiev]], 1919 ([[Isaak Brodsky]] Museum, [[St. Petersburg]]) |observedby=[[Eastern Slavs]]<br/> Mostly Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, as well as Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian diaspora communities |date2011=28 February to 6 March |date2012=20 to 26 February |date2013=11 March to 17 March |date2014=24 February to 2 March |date2015=16 February to 22 February |date2016=7 March to 13 March |date2017=20 February to 26 February |date2018=12 February to 18 February |date2019=4 March to 10 March |date2020=24 February to 1 March |date2021=7 March to 14 March |date2022=27 February to 6 March |date2023=20 February to 26 February |date2024=11 March to 17 March |date2025=24 February to 2 March |date2026=16 February to 22 February |significance=Seeing off winter, last week before [[Great Lent]] |relatedto=[[Mardi Gras]] |celebrations= Making [[blini]] (crepes), making visits, sleigh rides, dressing up, bonfires, [[snowball fight]]s, the capture of the Snow Fortress, burning of the Maslenitsa Scarecrow<br/> In Ukraine and Belarus: eating [[varenyky]] with cottage cheese |frequency=Annual |duration=7 days }}
'''Maslenitsa''' ({{langx|be|Масленіца}}; {{langx|ru|Мaсленица}} {{IPA|ru|ˈmas⁽ʲ⁾lʲɪnʲɪt͡sə|}}; {{langx|rue|Пущаня}}; {{langx|uk|Масниця}}), also known as '''Butter Lady''', '''Butter Week''', '''Crepe week''', or '''Cheesefare Week''', is an [[East Slavs|Eastern Slavic]] religious and folk holiday which has retained a number of elements of [[Slavic mythology]] in its ritual. It is celebrated during the last week before [[Great Lent]]; that is, the eighth week before [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]] [[Easter|Pascha]], equivalent to the West's [[Sexagesima]].
The date of Maslenitsa changes every year, depending on the date of the celebration of Easter. It corresponds to the [[Western Christianity|Western Christian]] [[Carnival]], except that Orthodox Lent begins on a [[Clean Monday|Monday]] instead of a [[Ash Wednesday|Wednesday]], and the Orthodox [[Easter#Date|date of Easter]] can differ greatly from the Western Christian date.
The traditional attributes of the Maslenitsa celebration are the Maslenitsa [[effigy]], sleigh rides, and festivities. Russians bake [[blini]] and [[flatbread]], while Belarusians and Ukrainians cook [[pierogi]] and [[syrniki]].
==Traditions== According to archeological evidence from the 2nd century AD, Maslenitsa may be the oldest surviving Slavic holiday.<ref name=wilson>[http://www.sras.org/maslenitsa_blin Maslenitsa, Blin! The Food and Celebration of the Russians] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080109033440/http://www.sras.org/Maslenitsa_blin |date=2008-01-09 }} By Josh Wilson, Newsletter, The School of Russian and Asian Studies, 9 March 2005.</ref> In the [[Christianity|Christian]] tradition, Maslenitsa is the last week before the onset of [[Great Lent]].<ref name=mckibben>[http://www.scn.org/arts/russfolk/maslenitsa.htm ''Maslenitsa''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130107082859/http://www.scn.org/arts/russfolk/maslenitsa.htm |date=2013-01-07 }} by Margaret McKibben, Russian Folk Group of Seattle, WA, Seattle Community Network. undated.</ref>
During the week of Maslenitsa, work is already forbidden to [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christians]], and it is the last week during which work is permitted, leading to its name of "work free week" or "Freedom week".
Since Lent excludes working, parties, secular music, dancing and other distractions from spiritual life, Maslenitsa represents the last chance to take part in social activities that are not appropriate during the more prayerful, sober and introspective Lenten season.<ref name=wilson/>
In Ukraine Maslenitsa week was also called Babskyi Tyzhden (Women's Week) or Kolodiy. During this week, men humorously followed women’s wishes. Married women gathered to "birth," "baptize," and "bury" a wooden log (koloda) throughout the week, symbolizing marriage and family traditions. By the end of the week, unmarried men and women had logs tied to their legs as a playful punishment for not marrying before Maslenitsa. This tradition highlighted the importance of marriage in Ukrainian culture. Though this tradition is no longer widely practiced, Kolodiy still remains a symbolic reminder of festive Slavic customs and the value of strong family bonds.<ref>{{cite web | title=Масляна: історія, традиції та заходи | url=https://etnoxata.com.ua/statti/traditsiji/masljana-istorija-traditsiji-ta-zahodi/ }}</ref>
In some regions, each day of Maslenitsa had its traditional activity. Monday may be the welcoming of "Lady Maslenitsa". The community builds the Maslenitsa effigy out of straw, decorated with pieces of rags, and fixed to a pole formerly known as [[kostroma (tradition)|Kostroma]]. It is paraded around, and the first pancakes may be made and offered to the poor. On Tuesday, young men might search for a fiancée to marry after Lent. On Wednesday, sons-in-law may visit their mother-in-law, who has prepared pancakes and invited other guests for a party. Thursday may be devoted to outdoor activities. People may take time off work and spend the day sledding, ice skating, conducting snowball fights and with sleigh rides. On Friday, sons-in-law may invite their mothers-in-law for dinner. Saturday may be a gathering of a young wife with her sisters-in-law to work on a good relationship.
==Sunday of Forgiveness== [[Image:Maslenitsa in Belgorod 2015 28.JPG|thumb|right|220px|Burning of the Maslenitsa effigy, during the Celebration of Forgiveness Sunday in [[Belgorod]], February 21, 2015]] The last day of Cheesefare Week is called "Forgiveness Sunday" (Прощёное воскресенье). Relatives and friends ask each other for forgiveness and might offer them small presents. As the culmination of the celebration, people gather to "strip Lady Maslenitsa of her finery" and burn her in a [[bonfire]]. Left-over pancakes may also be thrown into the fire, and Lady Maslenitsa's ashes are buried in the snow to "fertilize the crops".<ref name=Rusla>{{cite web|url=http://www.russian-moscow.com/maslenitsa-a-week-of-festivities/|title=Malenitsa, a Week of Festivities|date=22 February 2012|author=Ruslanguage School Moscow|access-date=26 February 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130201154954/http://www.russian-moscow.com/maslenitsa-a-week-of-festivities/|archive-date=1 February 2013}}</ref>
At [[Vespers]] on Sunday evening, people may make a ''[[poklon]]'' (bow) before one another and ask forgiveness. Another name for Forgiveness Sunday is "Cheesefare Sunday", because for devout Orthodox Christians it is the last day on which dairy products may be consumed until Easter. Fish, wine and olive oil will also be forbidden on most days of Great Lent. The day following Cheesefare Sunday is called [[Clean Monday]], because people have confessed their sins, asked forgiveness, and begun Great Lent with a clean slate.{{cn|date=February 2015}}
==Modern times== [[File:Девушка с кокошником.jpg|thumb|right|A girl wearing a traditional Russian [[kokoshnik]] hat for Maslenitsa in Slovenia]] Due to cultural factors in the [[Russian Empire]], large public celebrations of Maslenitsa were no longer as common by the turn of the 20th century. After the [[Russian Revolution]] in 1917 and the following [[Soviet anti-religious legislation|state atheism in the Soviet Union]], public Maslenitsa celebrations became even less common, although Maslenitsa continued to observed particularly in smaller private celebrations in homes and villages. In the 1960s and 1970s, as the USSR brought back some traditional folk holidays, Maslenitsa was again observed in large public celebrations that retained some of the holiday's secular elements, but with additional "contemporary socialist elements grafted onto it".<ref name="Celebration">{{cite book |last1=Hudgins |first1=Sharon |editor1-last=McWilliams |editor1-first=Mark |title=Celebration |date=2011 |publisher=[[Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery]] |isbn=9781903018897 |chapter=Buttering Up the Sun: Russian Maslenitsa from Pagan Practice to Contemporary Celebration}}</ref>
After the start of ''[[perestroika]]'' and [[fall of the Soviet Union]] in the 1980s and 1990s, large outdoor celebrations started up again, and much of the older Maslenitsa traditions began to be revived in a modern context. Since 2002, Moscow has staged a yearly Maslenitsa festival next to the [[Red Square]], with that and other celebrations attracting around 300,000 visitors in 2011.<ref name="Celebration"/>
With increasing secularization, many Russians do not abstain from meat and Maslenitsa celebrations can be accompanied by [[shashlik]] vendors. Nevertheless, "meat still does not play a major role in the festivities".<ref name=wilson/> Many countries with a significant number of Russian immigrants consider Maslenitsa a suitable occasion to celebrate Russian culture, although the celebrations are usually reduced to one day and may not coincide with the date of the religious celebrations.{{cn|date=February 2015}}
== Gallery == <gallery widths="200px" heights="175px"> File:SurikovSnowFortress.jpg|[[Vasily Surikov]]. Взятие снежного городка Taking a Snow Town, 1891. File:Соломаткин Масленица 1878.jpg|[[Leonid Solomatkin]]. Maslenitsa, 1878. File:Крыжановский Прощеный-день.jpg|K. Kryzhanovsky. Sunday of Forgiveness, 19th century. File:Scenery at Celebration of Maslenitsa 01.jpg|Scenery at Celebration of Maslenitsa File:2014. Харьков 062.jpg|Maslenitsa celebrations in [[Kharkiv]], 2014 File:St. Petersburg, Russia, IMG 8506 (40616996172).jpg|Maslenitsa festivities in [[St. Petersburg]], 2018 </gallery>
==Adaptations== in 2012, Russian-Canadian composer [[Airat Ichmouratov]] composed an [[Maslenitsa Overture (Ichmouratov)|Overture Maslenitsa]]. It was premiered in [[Chicoutimi]], [[Canada]], on 24 February 2013 by L'Orchestre Symphonique du Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean under the baton of [[French Canadians|French-Canadian]] conductor Jacques Clément.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |author1=Arthur Kaptainis |title=Ichmouratov; Overtures/Symphony |url=https://www.eclassical.com/shop/17115/art86/5054586-49a268-095115217221.pdf |access-date=20 September 2023 |website=www.eclassical.com |publisher=Chandos Records Catalogue CHAN 20172- Booklet}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Beaucage |first1=Réjean |title=Orchestre de la Francophonie & Jean-Philippe Tremblay Airat Ichmouratov: Symphony |publisher=panm360.com |url=https://panm360.com/en/records/airat-ichmouratov-symphony/ |access-date=20 September 2023}}</ref>
==See also== *[[Candlemas]] *[[Slavic carnival]] *[[Fašiangy]] (in [[Slovakia]]) *[[Rio Carnival]] (in [[Brazil]]) *[[carnival in the Netherlands|Carnaval]] (in the [[Netherlands]]) *[[Fat Thursday]] (in [[Poland]]) *[[Mardi Gras]] (in other countries) *[[Mărţişor]] (in [[Romania]] and [[Moldova]]) *[[Marzanna]] (in [[Poland]]) *[[Meteņi]] (in [[Latvia]]) *[[Patras Carnival]] (in [[Greece]]) *[[Tsiknopempti]] *[[Shrove Tuesday]] or "Pancake Day" (in the [[United Kingdom]] and [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]]) *[[Petrushka (ballet)]] *[[Užgavėnės]] (in [[Lithuania]]) *[[Farsang (Hungarian carnival)]]<ref>[[Busójárás]]</ref>{{Circular reference|date=May 2020}} *[[Shrovetide]]
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{commons category|Maslenitsa}}
*[http://oca.org/saints/lives Lives of the Saints] The Orthodox Church in America, undated. * {{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ojc4Uker_V0C&q=food+encyclopedia%2C+blintz&pg=PA57 | title=Encyclopedia of Jewish Food | publisher=Wiley | date=2010 | access-date=April 18, 2012 | author=Marks, Gil | pages=56–58| isbn=9780470943540 }} {{ISBN|9780470391303}} {{Easter}}
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