Maslenitsa is a week long tradition of celebrations falls on the last week before the Great Lent. The time varies each year and linked to the Holly day of Easter.
Its origin comes from pagan times, with pancakes as main dish on every day of that week symbolizing SUN and the end of the winter! Ukrainian pancakes (blini) are golden and thin, deliciously buttery, served with caviar or honey, or anything you wish - endless variety of fillings (na-chin-ka).
Blinis are equally tasty with sweet or sour filling; or just by themselves...Maslenitsa also includes masquerades, snowball fights, sledding, riding on swings and plenty of sleigh rides. In some regions, each day of Maslenitsa had its traditional activity: one day for sleigh-riding, another for the sons-in-law to visit their parents-in-law, another day for visiting the godparents, etc
Christianity, as being Ukrainian identity for more then 1000 years unites with paganism in Maslenitsa. Big straw statue (baba) portraying winter is burned on last day with people forming circle around the fire, throwing left over blinis in.
I visited Soviet Era Exhibition Center were Maslenitsa held place this year. Nowadays monumental constructions are quite a surrounding for all what Maslenitsa had to offer: merchants from all regions of Ukraine brought many sorts of honey, pancakes were cooked on a plain air, free kapustniak (cabbage soup) was cooked right there in a huge casserole!!! Ingredients were provided by sponsors and mécénats-apparently 10 000 portions were served!It was very tasty - I ate it with great pleasure!!!
made blinis at home during Maslenitsa week. At least i did.
Blinis are everywhere you go this week. Every cafe, every restaurants, literally every corner of the city; and at home people had blinis.
I love making blinis (photos). Everybody has own recipes for blinis, but basically it's a mix of water/or milk, eggs, flower, vegetable oil, little salt and sugar; and voila! Nothing compares to big pile of blinis on your dining table! Mmmmmmmmmmm.....
On Sunday evening, all the people make poklon (prostration) before one another and ask forgiveness, and thus Great Lent begins in the spirit of reconciliation (in the era of virtual communications emails do as well.) .
40 days of no meat, milk, cheese, sweets, music, dancing, spirits in order to clear your own spirit before Easter.
Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten. Cheap Flights to Bangkok
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