What are they - the carnival games

The antiquity of this holiday is confirmed by the fact that the rites of Shrovetide in one form or another have been preserved in most Indo-European peoples.

In Switzerland, for example, put on awesome, personifying spirits masks. According to Swiss ethnographers, these masks were associated with the cult of ancestors and served as the embodiment of the dead. The mummers poured in with counter water or smeared with soot, which was associated with the ancient cult of fertility.

In Poland, mummers wore shrouds turned out by the fur outside, smeared their faces with soot and walked around the yards with "turony" and "goat". Similar games for carnival were common in Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Serbia, and many other European countries.

But, what is very interesting, rituals similar to Maslenism are observed in the traditions of India, which came from ancient times. These facts confirm that the origins of the carnival, as a holiday of the beginning of the agricultural year, are in the general Indo-European period, at the turn of the 3rd millennium BC.

In Russia, the carnival was celebrated noisily and cheerfully. This cheerful folk and most hearty holiday lasted a whole week. Entertainment for Shrovetide was charged with fun for a whole year, because it was believed that if you do not get enough fun - then a year to live in misery - trouble! Ritual games for Shrove Tuesday slightly varied depending on the terrain, but everywhere had similarities.

Every day of the week had a special name. Monday was called "meeting"; Wednesday - "gourmet". The most significant were Monday, Thursday and Sunday.

The oven pancakes started on Monday. The first pancake "to remember the soul" was given to the poor. The stuffed Shrovetide was made of straw, dressed up in women's clothes. He was planted on a pole and carried around the village with songs, and then installed on a hill.

Tuesday was called "scam". The people had fun and played, buffoons appeared, Were taken with an attack "snow towns", fisticuffs were organized. On Tuesday, games for Shrovetide were gaining momentum.

On Wednesday, "gourmet", covered rich tables. On Wednesday, my mother-in-law's mother-in-law is treated. Young women hung wooden blocks for unmarried boys, and they tried to buy off pancakes and sweets from them. Particular attention was paid to young couples. They dressed up, rolled on sleighs, sledges from the mountains, had to kiss.

On Thursday, the entertainment for Shrovetide is in full swing. This is the day of the widest merriment, which they called "wide quarters" or "roam - quarters". Taking snow fortresses, skating with songs, fisticuffs and buffoonery games - everything is possible for Shrovetide!

On Friday - "teschiny evening", on a visit to pancakes already go mother-in-law.

On Saturday, the relatives of her husband come to the daughter-in-law, this day was called - "zolovkin gathering".

On Sunday, "heading for Lent", carnival accompanied. Young people with songs skated with stuffed carnival on the sleigh until the very darkness, and in the evening the scarecrow was burnt. Ashes scattered over the field to wake the earth.

On Sunday, before sunset, they go to the cemetery, visit the graves of their relatives, leave pancakes on them. In the "forgiven" Sunday for the injuries inflicted on each other, they ask forgiveness and leave for Lent.