My first Maslenitsa, part 3

From 2010-02 Maslenitsa

The best part of Maslenitsa was a full-on traditional feast with recitations and games, not to mention the traditional burning of a scarecrow filled with all the stuff that bugged you from the previous year. Our hosts, Sergey and Irina Merkulov, asked us to bring our own scarecrows because there would be a prize for the best one.

Alla, bound by Russian traditions, set out to make her scarecrow out of found materials. I, bound by American traditions, set out to make my scarecrow as beautiful as possible; even if that meant burning something I had just bought. I went out and bought a long strip of fabric woven with a traditional Belarusian pattern. This cost me over two dollars, and it really bothered Alla. How could I burn such a beautiful piece of fabric? It was to her almost as if I were asking an American Boy Scout to burn the American Flag. I heard a lot about this before getting out the scissors, but once I’d started my project she got very enthusiastic about its progress. (And begged me not to burn the finished product.)

Dolls in hand, we took a taxi out to Priluki, where the Merkulovs live. I knew their area was really pretty in the summer, but I had no idea it would be so beautiful in the winter too. The taxi ride pretty much took my breath away.

From 2010-02 Maslenitsa

Sergey and Irina prepared an amazing feast. I won’t try to describe it, but if you click on the link under the picture it will lead you to more pictures and you can get an idea for yourself what I’m talking about.

Irina also prepared lots of good games to play around the table between courses. One of my favorites was a collection of funny little poetical sayings. I knew we had something like that in English that I should know from childhood, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it during dinner. Had I remembered in time, I might have recited a Limerick or two. As it was, I enjoyed the fact that everybody seemed to know these little poems, or at least their style.

We had tickets to Philharmony and had to leave before the party was over. We left at dusk, just after we burned the big Maslenitsa scarecrow. Stealing a tradition from a different Russian holiday, almost everybody jumped over the fire after the scarecrow fell over. Alla and I did not. We are also unique around here in that we wear seat belts in the car. I probably would have jumped over the fire if I did not have such an aversion to smelling like smoke, but since I only have a few sets of clothes here I wasn’t tempted. Nobody offered to burn the dolls Alla and I made, and we didn’t offer. As far as I know, they are still there in Sergey and Irina’s party barn.