Exchange experience: Maslenitsa in Russia
One of the many exciting experiences of going on an exchange semester is the chance to experience in-depth, authentic cultural practices, festivities, and traditions in your host country.
I’m currently on my exchange semester in Moscow, and given that Spring is at last upon us all in the northern hemisphere, I wanted to share about my experience of the festival Maslenitsa, which I attended with several new friends made here at my host university, the Higher School of Economics. I hope it will be encouraging to students who have yet to go on exchange, are considering whether or not to do it, or have already commenced and perhaps have not partaken of as many cultural activities as they may be able to.
Maslenitsa, also known as Butter Week in English, is a folk holiday celebrated by several Slavic communities in varied iterations. Originating as a pagan festival, it is meant to celebrate the end of winter and herald the imminent arrival of spring. While celebrations take place everywhere, including the Red Square in Moscow, we learned of a gathering an hour’s train ride from the city that took place in mid-March. We trekked through a beautiful snowy forest for about an hour, and with the good spirits of everyone on the path, the gentle Narnia-esque snowfall, and the activities along the way - hit a bell with a snowball to call spring, high-five a glove on a branch, hunt for the faces drawn on to hewn logs which represented the spirits of the forest - we were truly transported.
Entrance into the event was predicated on singing a folk song or rolling across logs, which was an apt preview of the day to come. We elected to sing, but as none of us knew local folk songs, we ended up singing ‘Я не говорю по русски’ (‘I don’t speak Russian’) to a nonsense melody, and they were - thankfully, very pleased and excited to welcome us to the event.
There were so many activities, most of which probably wouldn’t pass a safety standards test in the EU, but were perhaps all the more fun and encouraging of derring-do because of it. There were seesaws made of logs, swings suspended high between the towering trees, and an 11-metre pole that men scaled, without harnesses or anything, and in nothing but their underwear (reminder: it was still many degrees below zero at the time) to capture a prize at the top. There was dancing and circle games and contests of physical strength in groups of men and groups of women.
A particular highlight for me was around lunchtime, when we went to the cooking area that had been set up in the forest. The idea of this event was to bring your own food and cook it there yourself, and to leave no waste behind, and so the stoves were made from wood fires, upon which water was also boiled for tea. The biggest tradition of Maslenitsa is eating blini, Russian-style pancakes, and so having brought no batter of our own, we decided upon wandering through the families happily making their blini in the hopes someone would take pity upon us poor foreign students. It did not take long. We were swiftly welcomed by a woman named Lola and her family, who offered us blini before the polite request had even left our mouths, complete with smetana (a type of sour cream), a homemade Jewish dip, and rosehip tea to warm us up - as well as a special bottle of something else to warm us up, too, though for most of us it was far too early in the day for that!
The next big highlight was the main event that began with a man dressed as a bear sleeping on a stage carved from snow. We surrounded him and yelled at him to wake up while throwing snowballs (and occasionally blini), the idea being that the bears wake from hibernation at the coming of spring. When he at last rose, the effigy of the Lady of Maslenitsa constructed of straw and dressed in traditional clothes was brought to the castle, also made of snow, on a decorative troika.
Thus the traditional ‘storming of the fort’ began (pictured above), in which men attempted to scale the nearly 3 metre high snowy walls as a team on the top attempted to push them down, while the women and children threw snowballs at the group defending the fort - the idea being that we were reclaiming spring from the fortress of winter. After seven intense attempts, the attackers triumphed just as the sun finally broke the clouds for the first time that day.
The effigy was brought to a pyre in the centre of the activity space. We danced around it in a great circle, singing traditional folk songs (us foreigners la-la-la-ing instead) as the effigy was burned and the ashes fell into the snow, symbolising the fertilisation of the soil for the growth of new things in the coming spring. We ended the day with more circle games, scaling the fort ourselves with the help of the victors, building our last snowman for the season, and drinking tea after a man named Sergei offered to share his fire with us.
The entire atmosphere was one of generosity, sharing, and simple fun spent among family and strangers alike, all of whom were there to appreciate good company, good food, friendly competition, and celebrate the long-awaited arrival of spring. I was very grateful that the people we met there were so welcoming to us. I encourage anyone going on exchange to see what cultural festivities may be open to them to participate in, and go and explore them with an open mind and an open heart. The experiences you may have will be unforgettable.