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I?ve updated the photoblog with some pictures I took at a Maslenitsa celebration last night.

For those of you who aren?t familiar with Maslenitsa, it?s a weeklong Russian holiday that symbolizes the arrival of spring. It has pagan roots and traditionally involves eating a lot of bliny (pancakes), drinking vodka, and the burning of a chuchelo (scarecrow). The bliny, which are round, represent the sun and the warmth that spring will bring. The vodka, however, isn?t symbolic of anything; Maslenitsa is just another good excuse for Russians to drink.

The chuchelo is set in a public place and burned at the end of the week, similar to how things were done in Salem. In the past, people would write down on small pieces of paper regrets or bad things they had done and stick them in the pockets of the chuchelo?s clothing. People don?t write those things down anymore, but they still do burn the chuchelo.

That reminds me of a funny story from my freshman year of college back in the southern United States. My university?s Russian Club wanted to do something to celebrate Maslenitsa, so we decided to have a bliny dinner and afterwards burn a chuchelo. Our chuchelo was made with a dress from Goodwill, which we draped over some old two-by-fours that had been duct-taped into the shape of a ?T?. We then stuffed the dress with crumpled-up newspaper to give it some shape.

After dinner we drove out to the woods to burn our scarecrow. We were quite proud of our makeshift chuchelo as we lit it on fire, but it didn?t take long to realize the flaw in our plan. As the clothe and paper burned away, pieces of it fell to the ground leaving the wooden frame, essentially a burning cross, as the only thing standing.

This year, the city of Moscow has planned a good deal of festivities. Behind St. Basil?s Cathedral they?ve made what they call ?Maslenichnii gorodok? (Maslenitsa Town), complete with nightly concerts, blini stands, an ice skating rink, a few carnival games, and more. They also plan to make the largest stack of bliny ever, a feat that will involve both President Putin and representative from the Guinness Book of World Records.

Happy Maslenitsa to those who celebrate it!