When is Shrove Tuesday in the year. Pancakes in the old days: how they were prepared. rules for delicious pancakes for Maslenitsa

is rooted in pagan times. Initially, the holiday was associated with the day spring equinox, but with the adoption of Christianity began to anticipate great post and depend on timing. Christian church in fact, she added Maslenitsa to her calendar, calling it Cheese Week, so church and folk traditions were closely intertwined in the holiday.

Proto-Slavic Maslenitsa is associated with the cult of fertility. The rites were designed to sanctify the earth and fill it with strength, so that it would give good harvest. In the popular mind, the fertility of the land was inextricably linked with the fertility of people and livestock. These days, boys and girls were looking for a mate for the purpose of procreation. The funeral essence of Shrovetide was closely connected with fertility. The departed ancestors, according to the peasants, were both in another world and in the earth, which means that they could influence its fertility. Therefore, on Maslenitsa, the departed ancestors were cajoled in every possible way, including pancakes. They were considered a funeral meal.

Today, the sacred meaning of Maslenitsa is almost lost, and we perceive it primarily as a holiday of pancakes. However, until now, each of the seven days of the holiday has its own name, which tells us what to do. But this applies only to the folk tradition of the holiday.

People's schedule of Maslenitsa

Monday - Maslenitsa meeting

On this day, a scarecrow was made of straw, put on an old women's clothing, put this stuffed animal on a pole and, singing, drove it on a sleigh through the village. Then Maslenitsa was set on a snowy mountain, where sleigh rides began.

Tuesday - win

On this day, brides were held. Girls invited young people to ride from the mountains and invited them to eat pancakes.

Wednesday - gourmet, mother-in-law pancakes

On this day, mothers-in-law invited their favorite sons-in-law to pancakes.

Thursday - revelry, broad Thursday

Day of fisticuffs. The blood spilled during such battles was perceived as a sacrifice to the spirits of the dead or to the gods themselves.

Friday - mother-in-law evenings

If on Wednesday the sons-in-law visited their mother-in-laws, then on Friday it was the other way around. At the same time, since the evening, the mother-in-law had to transfer everything to the son-in-law's house necessary products for making pancakes.

Saturday - sister-in-law gatherings

On this day, the young daughter-in-law invited her relatives to her place and treated them to guess what? That's right - pancakes.

Forgiveness Sunday

On the last day of Maslenitsa, it is customary to ask for forgiveness from all relatives and friends, to which they usually answered "God will forgive!".

Sayings for every day of Shrovetide:

Monday: Maslenitsa is coming, damn it, honey is coming!

Tuesday: Pancake is not a sheaf - you can’t stick it on a pitchfork

Wednesday: Pancakes and kisses don't like bills!

Thursday: Have fun on Maslenaya and treat yourself to a pancake!

Friday: Shrovetide is not given forever!

Saturday: Pancakes are relatives of the sun!

Sunday: Not all Maslenitsa for the cat, there will be Great Lent!

Maslenitsa is an ancient Slavic holiday preserved after the adoption of Christianity.

The date of the celebration of Maslenitsa, after the adoption of Christianity, is tied to Orthodox Easter and changes every year. Maslenitsa falls on the week preceding Great Lent, respectively, in 2019 it begins on March 4 and will last until March 10 inclusive.

According to one version, the name "Shrovetide" arose because during the whole week meat was excluded from food, and dairy products could still be consumed.

History of Maslenitsa

Celebrating Maslenitsa in Russia began long before the adoption of Christianity. Before the baptism of Russia, the holiday was celebrated seven days before the day of the spring equinox and a week after. Two weeks of festivities on Maslenitsa were devoted to saying goodbye to winter and the awakening of spring.

In those distant times, people believed that pancake feasts and fun festivities contributed to the rapid arrival of spring.

Since time immemorial, people have compared spring with new life, glorified the Sun, which revived all living things. It was in honor of the Sun that the housewives baked sweet cakes, and later they learned to make pancakes from fermented dough - a kind of symbol of the Sun, just as round, yellow and warm.

© photo: Sputnik / Vladimir Trefilov

The Maslenitsa holiday was accompanied by general fun - fairs were held on the squares these days, booths were exhibited. The people had fun riding sleighs from the ice slides. The most daring took part in fisticuffs, and the most hardened dived into the hole.

Richer people rolled around the village on new painted sleighs, showing off to the people their horses, dressed up with ribbons and ringing bells.

Pancakes were and remain the main treat for Maslenitsa - they are baked every day from Monday, but especially a lot from Thursday to Sunday. Each hostess traditionally had her own special cooking recipe, which was passed down from generation to generation through the female line.

They baked pancakes mainly from wheat, buckwheat, oatmeal, corn flour, adding millet or semolina, potatoes, pumpkin, apples, cream to them.

Shrovetide traditions

In Russia, there was a custom - the first pancake was always for the repose, it was usually given to a beggar to remember all the dead, or simply put on the window. Pancakes were eaten with sour cream, eggs, caviar and jam from morning to evening, alternating with other dishes.

© photo: Sputnik / Maxim Bogodvid

On Sunday before Maslenitsa, according to tradition, they paid visits to relatives, friends, neighbors, and also invited them to visit. Since it was forbidden to eat meat on Shrovetide week, last sunday before Maslenitsa they called "meat Sunday", on which the father-in-law went to call the son-in-law "to eat up the meat."

Sunday is the final "forgiveness day", when they ask for forgiveness from relatives and friends for insults. On this day, a straw effigy, personifying the passing winter, is burned on a huge fire.

The scarecrow is set in the center of a huge fire and they say goodbye to him with jokes, songs, dances. They scold winter for frosts and winter hunger and thank for cheerful winter fun. After that, the effigy is set on fire to cheerful exclamations and songs. Then the youth jumps over the fire and this competition in dexterity ends the Maslenitsa holiday.

The Church decided to leave this holiday so as not to enter into an argument with folk traditions, but moved it a bit. Thus, Maslenitsa does not contradict Great Lent and is celebrated for only one week.

At the same time, Maslenitsa did not become part of the church tradition. AT Orthodox calendar this name is not indicated, but it contains Cheese Week. Days of Orthodox Cheese Week and folk Maslenitsa are the same, but different in meaning.

Cheese Week is a week of preparation for Great Lent, and is dedicated to one goal - reconciliation with neighbors, forgiveness of offenses and preparation for a repentant path to God.

The Holy Church calls the Cheese Week "a bright prelude to abstinence" and believes that true Christians should not indulge in revelry, worldly amusements and entertainment on Maslenitsa.

Material prepared on the basis of open sources

Shrovetide is an annual Slavic holiday that combines pagan and Christian traditions. Its invariable attribute are round and ruddy pancakes, hot as the spring sun. In paganism, the celebration of this celebration marked the beginning of spring and a new natural cycle. According to Christian canons, Maslenitsa week precedes and is interpreted as a week of forgiveness and reconciliation. What date will Shrovetide be celebrated in 2017, sets Orthodox Church. Whenever the festive festivities begin, everyone is looking forward to them - from young to old.

Maslenitsa - from antiquity to the present day

Originally pagan holiday Maslenitsa united three semantic components - the meeting of spring, the acquaintance of the young for marriage and procreation, the veneration of the dead, who have become part of the earth and the natural cycle. In pagan times, celebrations lasted two weeks - the last seven days before the spring equinox and the first seven days after. This time period, as the ancient Russians rightly believed, exactly corresponded to the change of seasons and the awakening of nature after the winter cold. The pagan Maslenitsa was celebrated among the people in order to help the young spring drive away the insidious winter and fully come into its own. Right after public holidays the peasants set to hard agricultural labor in the hope of a fertile year.

With the adoption of Christianity, the date of Maslenitsa was tied to the Easter cycle, and the duration of the festivities was reduced to one week. Christian leaders did not consider it necessary to cancel the pagan holiday, which was firmly rooted in the people's environment, but endowed it with a completely different spiritual content. Orthodox Maslenitsa is a week of preparation for Great Lent. On the days of Shrovetide week, also called cheese or meat-fare week, believers should not eat meat, but they can eat cheese and dairy food.

On parental Saturday, believers should visit the temple to commemorate the dead, and on Forgiveness Sunday, ask each other for forgiveness in order to begin fasting with a pure soul.

Holiday characters

Modern Maslenitsa is impossible to imagine without colorful Slavic symbols and traditional pagan characters. Among the ancient Slavs Shrovetide days it was customary to glorify Yarila - the pagan god of the sun and fertility. Yarilo was presented to the Russians as a young attractive young man who died every year in the fall, but always resurrected with the advent of spring. Having resurrected, he gave the peasants the long-awaited sun, warmth and a plentiful harvest. On the holiday decorations Yarila is depicted as a sun with a human face.

Another required attribute holiday - a Shrovetide doll or a scarecrow of winter. Pagan Slavs sincerely believed that she had magical properties. Since the scarecrow represents cold winter, which is so eager to say goodbye, it is customary to make it funny and ridiculous - shabby clothes, a straw head, a mouth to the ears, bright flashy accessories. A cartoon doll is carried through the streets, shouting funny jokes to her address. At the end of the holiday, the effigy is burned at the stake or torn apart, which marks the final victory of spring over winter.

In pagan times, the current Maslenitsa was called "komoeditsa" (from the word kom - bear). Before the start of a noisy celebration, our distant ancestors performed a ceremony of honoring the honey beast and brought pancakes into the forest as a treat, laying them out on stumps. By the way, this is where the well-known saying “The first pancake is comAm” originates, which today has been remade into new way. Eating juicy pancakes and circling in round dances, many did not even think about ancient traditions national holiday. But now it becomes clear why the stern Russian bear dances so merrily on Maslenitsa in a crowd of people walking around!

Meeting and seeing off Maslenitsa

Shrovetide week begins with a narrow Maslenitsa, which lasts the first three days. In Russia during this period, active pre-holiday work was carried out. On Monday, housewives started baking pancakes, young people built snow towns and swings, young married women they made an effigy of Maslenitsa from improvised means, rags and straw. On Tuesday, the bridesmaids and matchmaking took place. On this day, young girls and boys gathered for a walk, treated each other to pancakes and touted Maslenitsa. On Wednesday, sons-in-law, among other guests, came to their mother-in-laws for pancakes.

The last four days of the festive week are usually called the broad Maslenitsa. For the peasants, Thursday served as a day of real revelry. There were fairs, sleigh rides, fire jumping, fistfights, noisy feasts. General fun was accompanied by singing and carols. On Friday, the mother-in-laws made a return visit to their sons-in-law. On Saturday, young daughters-in-law invited the husband's sisters to visit for gatherings. The culmination of the celebration was the last day of Maslenitsa - a scarecrow of winter was burned, and its ashes were scattered across the field. Spring has fully come into its own.

Treats for Maslenitsa

The celebration of Maslenitsa in 2017 means wide selection entertainment and goodies. But the main treat festive table still stay round like solar disk, appetizing pancakes. In order to bake a beautiful juicy pancake, it is not necessary to be a skilled chef, but it is enough to follow a simple recipe exactly:

1. Three chicken eggs mix with three glasses of warm water.
2. Add one tablespoon of sugar, half a teaspoon of salt and the same amount of soda.
3. Pour in 500 gr of flour.
4. Beat the resulting mixture with a whisk until smooth.
5. Half a teaspoon citric acid dilute in a glass of water and add to the dough.
6. Stir the dough.
7. Start baking immediately.

Pancakes should be served freshly baked, in such quantity that all guests can eat them to their heart's content. A dish with pancakes is placed in the center of the table, and sockets with sour cream, caviar and melted butter are placed around it.

Video recipe for pancakes without eggs

Maslenitsa 2017 is one of the most revered holidays among the people, symbolizing the farewell to winter and see you soon long-awaited spring warmth. Fun, sincere joy, provocative mass celebrations - this is what is typical for a special week of the year, filled with preparation for Great Lent and the anticipation of spiritual and physical cleansing. Maslenitsa in 2017 begins on February 20 and ends on the 26th.

Holiday features: history and customs of appearance

These days in Orthodoxy are imbued with a special meaning and symbolism. main feature approved church charter- refusal of meat and the use of dairy products, which is associated with the first calving of cows after the winter "downtime", as well as cooking pancakes, which are so similar to the sun. Another interesting detail is connected with the Ukrainian and Belarusian customs of the "reel life" - dressing up a thick stick in the form of a man. She was tied to all single guys and unmarried girls. By the way, it was on these days that engagements and marriages were most often made, and for already married youth they arranged public bridesmaids, with passionate kisses under the snow.

Shrovetide is also typical women's holiday. Seven days of festivities are sometimes called Babskaya week, because the main role was devoted specifically to the fair sex, the theme of girlish purity, host hospitality and motherhood.

Of key importance have always been the “seeing off Shrovetide”, which was accompanied by a symbolic lighting of a fire with the further destruction of the effigy of Winter, made of rags and straw, in the fire. Instead of a doll, a living personification of the holiday was carried through the villages - a smartly dressed girl or woman. The most important day of the Cheese Week has always been considered Sunday - the day of the incantation for the post, which received vernacular name Forgiven. On this day, relatives and friends wholeheartedly asked for forgiveness from each other for all the troubles and insults caused for last year. It was also customary to visit deceased relatives in cemeteries and “treat” them with pancakes.

Every day is a holiday: symbolism of 7 days

Maslenitsa 2017, by historical tradition, will consist of 7 days, each of which is imbued with a unique meaning.

1. The beginning of the narrow Maslenitsa, or Meeting - Monday, February 20. On this day, it is customary to start baking pancakes, giving the first failed pancake to the dead, go out into the streets to build snowy mountains, make a winter scarecrow, send the daughter-in-law to parental home, and in the evening go to visit the matchmakers.
2. Tuesday, February 21 - Flirting is a time of entertainment filled with positive in the form of skiing, dressing up and organizing theatrical performances, fun concerts, visiting guests, skiing down icy slides, bridesmaids.
3. Skoromnaya Wednesday, February 22, also called Gourmet, should be held under the motto of hearty feasts at the mother-in-law with all sorts of goodies (homemade beer, honey gingerbread, sbitny) and, of course, pancakes with a variety of fillings.
4. On a turning point, or "Wide" Thursday, February 23, also called Revelry, the middle of the festivities falls. At this time, it becomes really “hot”: from fisticuffs, funny dances, horse races and riding through the streets - all the negativity spills out through these actions. Household chores are replaced by all sorts of fun - swings, songs, competitions in jumping over fire and revels.
5. Friday is Mother-in-law's evenings, with the tradition of visiting sons-in-law, by personal invitation, as a symbol of honor to the wife's family. Each custom of this day is aimed at speeding up weddings and finding a couple for still free young people, so you can safely go “to the people”.
6. Saturday is also gatherings, but already Zolovkins, when not only the husband's sisters are invited to visit, but also all his other relatives, who are given gifts. For unmarried girls you can invite your friends. The culmination of the holiday is coming - farewell to Maslenitsa, the maximum bright and unforgettable, so that it will be remembered until next year.
7. February 26 closes the Cheese Week with the Requested Resurrection or kisser - the day of cleansing from everything sinful and remission of all voluntary and involuntary insults. On this day, it is advisable to thoroughly wash the dishes and burn all the remnants of the festive food, and scatter the ashes of the burnt effigy over the fields so that the coming year is fruitful.

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What date does Maslenitsa begin in 2018, what are the days called Pancake Week, what are the traditions, customs and essence of the holiday, read on this page.

Maslenitsa: the history of the holiday

For most residents of our country Maslenitsa is the most fun party which marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring. Celebrating Maslenitsa in Russia began long before the adoption of Christianity. Then it was a pagan holiday, the main role in which was assigned to the worship of the Sun. In the past, the holiday was timed to coincide with the vernal equinox, and was celebrated seven days before it and seven after. Two weeks of festivities on Maslenitsa were devoted to saying goodbye to winter and the awakening of spring.

Today Date of Maslenitsa celebration tied to Orthodox Easter and changes every year. In 2018 Maslenitsa begins on February 12, a days of Pancake week, respectively, falls on February 12-18.

Maslenitsa and Cheese Week 2018: what not to do and what you can

The church tradition does not consider the Maslenitsa holiday to be “its own”, there is no position with such a name in the Orthodox calendar. But there is Cheese Week and Cheese Week (Sunday). The days of the Orthodox Cheese Week and the folk Maslenitsa coincide, but they have a completely different meaning.

Cheese Week (Shrovetide) for the Orthodox is a week of preparation for Great Lent, when it is no longer possible to eat meat and play weddings, but you can still have fun and get the joy of communication. This week in the Christian sense is dedicated to one goal - reconciliation with others, forgiveness of offenses, preparation for the repentant path to God.

Maslenitsa 2018: traditions and customs of celebration

Traditionally, an integral part carnival festivities are fun on fresh air involving people of all ages.

The final event of the celebration is traditionally the burning of the Maslenitsa figure. The scarecrow is collected from straw, dry branches, which are put on old clothes. The remaining ashes must be scattered to the wind. It is believed that this brings prosperity and good luck for the next year.

According to tradition, not only everyone's favorite pancakes are eaten on Maslenitsa, but also milk and cottage cheese, cheeses.

• See also:

Days of Maslenitsa with their names and meaning: calendar

Traditionally, Shrovetide week is divided into the Narrow Maslenitsa (from Monday to Wednesday): these days are allowed chores, and on Wide Maslenitsa(Thursday to Sunday): No work of any kind. Every day of Maslenitsa has special traditions and name. Let's tell the meaning of each day of Maslenitsa.

1st day of Maslenitsa. Monday - meeting

On this day they started to bake pancakes, and the first one was always given to the poor. Girls and boys sang songs and walked around the village with a straw effigy. Usually, by the first day of Maslenitsa, swings, slides were built, tables with sweets were set.

2nd day of Maslenitsa. Tuesday - "tricks"

On the morning of the second day Oil week girls were invited to sled and eat pancakes. The kids rode on ice-boats on old calfskins in whole companies. According to tradition, this day was arranged by brides.

3rd day of Maslenitsa. Wednesday - "gourmet"

On the third day of Pancake Week, everyone ate pancakes and other delicious food. They needed to be eaten heartily. On Wednesday, mothers-in-law invite their sons-in-law to pancakes.

4th day of Maslenitsa. Thursday - "revelry"

On this day, the celebration was gaining full force. People rode from the icy mountains, swung on carousels and swings, rode in painted sledges pulled by horses. The newlyweds were put on a sled and lowered from the mountain, while they had to kiss in front of everyone. On the same day of Maslenitsa, men went out for fisticuffs. Young people stormed the snow fortresses, made fires and jumped over the fire. The mummers went from house to house, congratulated the hosts on the holiday, and the hosts fed the guests with pancakes.

5th day of Maslenitsa. Friday - mother-in-law evenings - guest day

On the fifth day of Maslenitsa week, sons-in-law should treat favorite mothers-in-law pancakes. Other relatives are also invited to dinner that day.

6th day of Maslenitsa. Saturday - "sister-in-law gatherings"

On Saturday, the farewell to the aged Maslenitsa is celebrated. On this day, the young daughter-in-law should call her relatives. In the evening, an effigy of Maslenitsa is burned. Everyone walks and eats.

• See also:

7th day of Maslenitsa. Sunday - seeing off, kisser - Forgiveness Sunday

From morning to afternoon godfathers go to each other with gifts. The effigy of Maslenitsa was burned, and the ashes were scattered across the field. On the seventh, last day of Shrovetide week, which is called Forgiveness Sunday everyone asks each other for forgiveness: “Forgive me, a sinner, for Great Lent!”. In response, they said: "God will forgive, and I forgive." The farewell ends with a low bow and a kiss. Children should ask their parents for forgiveness for all their grief. On this day in the old days, after dinner, everyone gathers at the church for the service, which opened Great Lent.