Wide Carnival. Celebration of the Shrove Tuesday

Wide Carnival, Krivosheika, Pancake, Obyeduha, Maslenaya week - this is the same holiday, which is celebrated almost all over the world. The meaning of this holiday is to distinguish between the winter and spring period for the common people and the definition of the Great Fast for Christians. The whole week people walk, sing songs, ride a sleigh, bake pancakes, go to each other's houses and at the end of the festival they burn a scarecrow.

What is this holiday - Wide Carnival?

Maslenitsa is a traditional seven-day holiday celebrated by the Slavs before the Great Lent. The name he received is due to the fact that during this period you can eat butter, dairy products, fish. This period in the Orthodox Church is also called Cheese Week.

The date of the holiday is constantly varying, but it always goes before the fast, at the end of winter. Therefore, among the people, this holiday (Shrovetide Maslenitsa) marks the departure of winter and the meeting of spring. People make stuffed animals, prepare competitions, bake pancakes. The squares arrange a whole performance with songs and dances, where everyone can participate in any event.

Maslenitsa is celebrated for 7 days. This is a Meeting, Flirting, Gourmand, Razgul, Teschiny Vespers, Zolotkin gatherings, Seeing off. The end of Maslenitsa always falls on Forgiveness Sunday. Therefore, the meaning of the holiday is not in simple mass walks around the guests, but the purification of the soul from offenses by sincere forgiveness.

Narrow and Wide Carnival

Maslenitsa is divided into two periods:

• From Monday to Wednesday - this is a narrow Pancake week;
• From Thursday to Sunday is the Wide Carnival.

In the first period it was allowed to work, and in the second period people were given a holiday. The Shrove Carnival began with rituals.

• On Monday early in the morning the daughter-in-law was sent to her parents. In the evening, my mother-in-law and father-in-law came to the pancakes to the soviets and discussed what composition and where they would celebrate Shrove Tuesday.
• On Tuesday, bride-groomes were arranged. People went to their houses, ate pancakes, and slept.
• On Wednesday, the mother-in-law invited her son-in-law and other guests to the pancakes.
• Mass festivities began on Thursday. These days people participate in fisticuffs, ride horses, sing songs, carol, jump through the fire, storm snow towns, frighten passers-by, play each other (prop the door with a log, drag the cart onto the roof, etc.).
• On Friday the son-in-law was to greet his mother-in-law and her relatives.
• On Saturday, the daughter-in-law invited her sister-in-law and other relatives of her husband.
• On Sunday they asked everyone for forgiveness, washed in a bath, burned a stuffed animal, said goodbye to the dead in the cemetery.

In which countries celebrate this holiday?

Congratulations with the Wide Carnival are relevant not only for the Russian people. This holiday is celebrated in other countries, only has a different name.

• The Finns carnival called Laskiainen.
• The Croats celebrate the Facome.
• The Greeks have Apocryes.
• Estonians, Norwegians, Germans in the north, Latvians, Danes celebrate Vastlavia.
• Americans and French-speaking Europe celebrate Mardi Gras.
• Anglophone Europe and Australia call this holiday a Penitential or Pancake Day.
• The Armenians are Boone Barekendan.
• The Germans in the south and German-speaking Europe celebrate Fastnacht.
• In Czechs and Slovaks Maslenitsa is called Meat Pust, or Fashankom. By the way, the Catholic Slavs also call this festival Meat.
• The Poles mark the Remains, or the Zapas.

The meaning of the holiday among all peoples is the same, regardless of the differences in food and competitions. For example, in the Russian and Belarusian table, a mandatory dish is a flat cake or a pancake, and Ukrainians are preparing cheese cakes and vareniki.

The connection of the Carnival with fertility, childbirth and the deceased

Initially, Pancake week was a pagan holiday, the essence of which was to stimulate the beginning of a fertile cycle. That's why the peasants scattered the ashes on their fields.

Scarecrow made from birch stalk and straw, which symbolized the beginning of life. The birth of children was associated with fertility. That's why childless couples were given home-carnival dolls, celebrating family feasts and condemning bachelors. In Ukraine and in Belarus, such bachelors were tied to a leg with sticks and forced to drag this pack. The meaning of this rite was that girls and boys should think about legal marriage.

And the third meaning of the holiday was associated with the commemoration of the dead. That's why the first pancake was given to the deceased, and on the last day even crumbs were not removed from the table, since it was believed that dead relatives came and ate at night.

Harvest, fertility of livestock, the birth of children and commemoration of the dead were associated with the fertility of the earth. However, many rituals in our time are purely symbolic in nature and enter as a historical reference in the script. Wide Carnival did not lose its scope and revelry.

Unsaved or rare rites

• Grandfather's funeral. Belarusians on the first day of the holiday, when the first pancake should be taken to the cemetery, the effigy of a grandfather with a pronounced male organ is buried. At this event, children and bachelors were not invited, since the hypertrophied funeral was accompanied by caustic jokes and ambiguous ditches. Today, this rite is not preserved.
• Bear fun. Traditionally, the bear danced with a masquerade artist, then "parodied" a girl who dresses up, and then fought with her master. Nowadays, this rite is sometimes described by buffoons and masquerade artists.
• The Cooker. The rank-and-file youth frightened passers-by and went to their homes. Some people arranged Maslenitsa leprosy: they would drag the cart on the roof, pivot the log door ... Nowadays this rite passed to Kolyada, and sometimes it is played by artists in the performance.
• Street trading. Earlier congratulations with the Shrove Carnival were accompanied by the trade in pancakes, drinks and other goods. Currently, the event is free of charge from the city administration (usually pancakes without stuffing and tea), but there are also private trays.

Traditional Maslenitsa Games

Wide Shrovetide in the old days had a number of customs, which from year to year were repeated. Burning stuffed and cooking pancakes - this is the main elements of the holiday. But they did the following rituals:

• Taking of snow towns. They made small towns out of the snow covered with water. People were divided into two teams, where one part was to defeat the "inhabitants" of the city. Such a city had to be built near the river bank, so in some villages a post was put on which gifts were hung and water was poured.
• Fist fight. The traditional kind of fist fight was "wall to wall". When boys first came out to fight, then unmarried boys and then older men. Its meaning is to show the removal of men. These days they are replaced by boxing or tug of war.
• Catania from the mountains. From the steep mountains on a huge painted sled for six people skated two teams. Sledges were very heavy, so, whose team was riding the most, the crop will be richer in the fields. Nowadays, riding from the mountains is replaced by riding on horses.

Celebration of the Shrove Carnival in Modern Russia

Currently, the city or village administration organizes a national celebration on the last day of Maslenitsa. On this day, build huge platforms, which are working professional artists. They not only sing songs, ditties, but also beat all the days of Maslenitsa with all walks and historical rites.

The people can actively participate in different rallies and performances. To relieve the zazhatnost and cheer people, constantly darting buffoons, who seek out fuss and brave to participate in various competitions. In the old days, a wide carnival (pictures with actors riched) was always accompanied by buffoons and petrusher comedies.

In addition to the competition places, there are also several trays with hot tea and pancakes. From the administration of the city, the food is usually free, the private owners have various dishes, but they are paid. Away from the performance or set ice slides, or provide horses with sleighs for skating. The order and discipline must be observed by the police.

What competitions are on the holiday

Despite the fact that many rituals and games are outdated, modern winter send-offs also attract crowds of people. The script of the festival "Shrovetide Maslenitsa" is designed for different ages and needs. Some people watch the performance and go with artists from one platform to another, passing through all Maslenitsa stages.

The second immediately participate in competitions. More often the following events are organized:

• Icy pillar with gifts. People should undress to the waist and climb the top of the ice slippery pillar to the top. The competition is considered fulfilled if the package with a gift was not ripped off, but taken off the hook. They hang absolutely different things on the pillar, there have been occasions that from the height the grunting of a pig was heard.
• Tug of war. People are divided into two teams and must pull all the opponents to their side.
• Dousing with water. Men show their daring: several brave men undress and pour water.
• Street fighting. These are contests for men. Previously, crowds fought each other. At the moment, civilized fighting is organized.

What stuffed Carnival are?

No Wide Carnival (photos presented in the article) can not do without a doll. There are several varieties of them:

• A large scarecrow for burning. They made it from two crossed in the form of a cross sticks, which were "stiffened" with branches and straw, then they put on clothes and painted their faces. Here they made two versions of scarecrows: the image of Winter, where the clothes were old, and the image of the young Carnival with ribbons and beautiful outfits. Usually with a scarecrow Winter burned old things.
• The average Shrovetide doll. It is made small, for children's and student's performances, when teachers and children go with songs, poems and nursery rhymes for classes and introduce the audience to the Shrove Carnival. Do it the same way as a large scarecrow, only small size.
• Home Carnival. It is a small pupa no more than 20 centimeters. Do such for gifts to young childless couples or as a charm to the newlyweds. A homemade pupae is made without needles, scissors and other stitching objects. The fabric is torn on the flaps by hand, the details are wrapped in threads.

What is the point of the scarecrow?

A scarecrow of the old Winter was depicted as an old woman. Her burning meant the end of everything old and the meeting of a new one. It was especially important to make stuffed animals out of birch and straw with a pancake in your hand, as this meant fertility. Earlier, people with this scarecrow threw their old clothes and clothes into the fire and said goodbye to their offenses. The fire helps to cleanse the souls of people before Lent.

A large doll of the young Maslenitsa participates in mass performances. It is made easy to be worn on a stick. This cheerful doll passes from a holiday to a holiday (Broad Maslenitsa). The songs then sound more cheerful and fervent.

House Maslenitsy help to establish family relations. When a brother-in-law or a daughter-in-law is difficult to ask forgiveness from parents on a Forgiven Sunday, gifts in the form of Maslenitsa help to melt the cold in the heart. A woman can in case of quarrels and resentments tell their dolls and tie a knot. Such dolls were burned with a scarecrow to say goodbye to the negative. There were also those to whom the red ribbons with concealed desires were tied. They were also burned in the fire to fulfill their dreams.

Brief conclusions

Wide Maslenitsa (pictures with pancakes and stuffed are given above) includes memorial, agricultural and marriage-family rituals. In the first case, the burning of the effigy of Marena, round pancakes, fish on the table, a ban on work, bonfires testified to the reverence of people before the dead. In the second case, riding from the mountains, burning a stuffed animal made of birch, and straw with pancake, spreading the ashes in the fields indicated a future harvest.

In the third version, they were honored by the family, held a bride and looked at bachelors. So, a young wife who is married a year, should instead of horses to roll their girlfriends in a sleigh with songs and jokes. Oblivious were obliged to kiss publicly at the "kissing" pillar. And bachelors in pairs (girl and boyfriend) had to walk with a suspended deck all day, enduring ridicule. In Shrovetide, all relatives should go to the guests: first the mother-in-law "oil" the son-in-law, and then he should greet the mother in his house.

It turns out that the most festive and happy holiday is the Wide Carnival! Songs for each day of the holiday were different, but all - fervent and joyful. And pancakes with different fillings were many. Girls on them even chose a betrothed.