At the end of the February till beginning of March, Russians celebrate, the Shrovetide. It’s the Slavic holyday a week before Lent. We cook pancakes and crops, we ride sledges, and lastly, we burn a scarecrow.
First of all, we cook pancakes and crops that symbolize the Sun. this part is actually about the Lent. The monks and people who believed in Gog so much eat those pancakes with syrup, sugars or whatever for a week and after that, they stop eating any kind of animal products for the whole forty days! That’s a lot isn’t?
During the Shrovetide, children enjoy the last days of winter by riding the Sledges downhill. All kids love doing that together, but as you may know, I am not a friendly person and my family does not do that sort of thing. But once, we went somewhere and I rode my sledge all day. I remember that it was fun until you fell down and hurt yourself. But it’s okay. Most kids who fell went up the hill and rode again. Some of them rode without any sledges.
Finally, at the end of the party we burn the scarecrow that is dressed up as an old woman. This ‘woman’ symbolizes winter. When all the people come and watch, the lucky person carefully puts a little fire to burn it. During the time when the ‘winter’ is burning, people sing. Some children go to ride the sledges again. When it finally burns, people slowly go home.
The conclusion is I like the Shrovetide holyday! My Grandmother cooks the best crops ever every holyday. Riding the sledges is fun when you’re the kid, but not really when you grew up. For some people the burning part is the best. I don’t really understand why. Maybe it is fun for them watching the scarecrow burning.
