Maslenitsa: Russian-style “Spring Festival“

Maslenitsa(also known as Butter Week or Pancake Week) is one of the most popular Russian traditional festivals that usually falls at the end of February. The festival is an ancient Slavic holiday that marks the end of the winter and the start of the spring. On the Christian side, it’s the last week before the onset of Great Lent. The theme of the holiday makes it vaguely similar to the Spring Festival in China. It also reminds people of Pancake Day in the UK, as the most characteristic food of Maslenitsa is a kind of round and golden pancakes called blini. This video shows how locals in the central city of Nizhny Novgorod celebrated the festival this year. The celebration ended with the burning of a Maslenitsa scarecrow representing winter!