Spring has finally started to come to Volgograd. After months of mostly gray days with a blanket of ice and snow covering the ground, I was very excited about three weeks ago to see temperatures begin to rise above freezing and the snow begin to melt during the day. To celebrate, I opened a window. Last week I was glad to see days in which, in a 24 hour period, never got below freezing. This helped to melt away all but the densest of icy patches. Now, this week, we are looking at normal day temperatures above 50 and even hitting 60. So now my balcony doors are open and I can look out at the park along the river and see Russians strolling, enjoying the beginnings of spring. Plants are also starting to take notice. Though very little is green yet, I can see buds on many trees and some plants on the ground, yellow from being covered in snow, are becoming a little brighter each day.
This is not to say, however, that all the people here have left their furs and boots behind. While many have switched to shorter jackets and there are fewer knee-high boots to be seen in the streets, bundling up still seems to be the rule rather than the exception. Sunday I decided that, as it was the first Sunday in Spring, I should be able to wear short sleeves under my wool coat. This seemed like a good plan to me and I was perfectly warm on my way to church, but as soon as I took off my coat to hang it up, several old ladies came straight towards me with shawls outstretched. I tried to explain, first in broken Russian : "no, thank you. No cold. I Okay" and then through the help of Olya's interpretation, that I would be fine. It was to no avail. A lady put her shawl on me, pronounced the effect beautiful, and then made sure I understood to stay warm. As I tried to return it, I noticed another woman ready to put her own on me, so I conceded. I just hope I don't have to continue to wear long sleeves through June.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
Burning winter
While a thick blanket of icy snow still covers the ground, Russians here in Volgograd are starting to mention spring a little more often. This is a result, not so much of the rising temperatures, though it looks like we will be above freezing most of this week, but of the lengthening days and the holidays that come with them.
Masleneetza is a week long holiday that was the same week as Mardi Gras, with roughly the same original meaning. For the Orthodox, it is a time of celebration leading up to a Sunday service which I believe centers on contrition and then about 45 days of fasting. Their version of fasting has to do with not eating meat or other animal products, and probably some other things as well. I've talked to a few people who are fasting, but haven't really gotten the whole list. The Masleneetza events aren't as crazy as a New Orleans Mardi Gras. The celebration mostly consists of eating lots and lots of blini, known in America as blinzes. These are a very thin pancake topped with either sweet or savory fillings and then wrapped up. They resemble, but taste nothing like, a small burrito or a flat eggroll. And they are really, really good. One of our Russian friends, Pasha, got his mom to make us some since we had only had the kind that come from the blini stands. These had tvorg (like cottage cheese) and fruit filling.
The other aspect of Masleneetza, which I heard about but didn't get to see, consists of crazy winter games. These are apparently very ancient in origin, and I think they were encouraged during Soviet times as they weren't religious. One tradition is for men to climb tall poles, bare chested, to retrieve a pair of shoes from the top. Another is to build a large snow fort and to have a pitched battle over it. Ivor attended one of these near Moscow last year and said that grown men were literally pushing each other off large snow battlements and one had to be carted away by ambulance.
Those who celebrate from this perspective see Masleneetza as marking the end of winter. In keeping with this, effigies of Winter (which happens to be female) are burned. Not too many people participate in this tradition outside of the villages or school festivals, according to my students, but Pasha did. The next day, the first day of Lent, we had a very heavy snowfall. We've been told that we should blame it all on Pasha's inability to properly burn Winter.
In addition to this festival, we've had 2 public holidays: Defender's of the Fatherland Day, also known as Men's Day, and International Women's Day, which was yesterday and is why I'm not at school now. I haven't been able to learn of any traditions associated with these holidays, other than enjoying a day off of work or school, but they've been fun. We had people over at our apartment until about 2:30 this morning. There are some British students here to study Russian, and three girls from that group came, and about 10 or so Russians who were friends or friends of friends. It was the first time I'd every met most of them, but lots of them spoke good English and one even spoke pretty good German. I was surprised none of our neighbors complained, but I don't think we were the only ones having a party in our block. Maybe our older neighbors just expected noisy parties and escaped to their dachas for the extended weekend.
Masleneetza is a week long holiday that was the same week as Mardi Gras, with roughly the same original meaning. For the Orthodox, it is a time of celebration leading up to a Sunday service which I believe centers on contrition and then about 45 days of fasting. Their version of fasting has to do with not eating meat or other animal products, and probably some other things as well. I've talked to a few people who are fasting, but haven't really gotten the whole list. The Masleneetza events aren't as crazy as a New Orleans Mardi Gras. The celebration mostly consists of eating lots and lots of blini, known in America as blinzes. These are a very thin pancake topped with either sweet or savory fillings and then wrapped up. They resemble, but taste nothing like, a small burrito or a flat eggroll. And they are really, really good. One of our Russian friends, Pasha, got his mom to make us some since we had only had the kind that come from the blini stands. These had tvorg (like cottage cheese) and fruit filling.
The other aspect of Masleneetza, which I heard about but didn't get to see, consists of crazy winter games. These are apparently very ancient in origin, and I think they were encouraged during Soviet times as they weren't religious. One tradition is for men to climb tall poles, bare chested, to retrieve a pair of shoes from the top. Another is to build a large snow fort and to have a pitched battle over it. Ivor attended one of these near Moscow last year and said that grown men were literally pushing each other off large snow battlements and one had to be carted away by ambulance.
Those who celebrate from this perspective see Masleneetza as marking the end of winter. In keeping with this, effigies of Winter (which happens to be female) are burned. Not too many people participate in this tradition outside of the villages or school festivals, according to my students, but Pasha did. The next day, the first day of Lent, we had a very heavy snowfall. We've been told that we should blame it all on Pasha's inability to properly burn Winter.
In addition to this festival, we've had 2 public holidays: Defender's of the Fatherland Day, also known as Men's Day, and International Women's Day, which was yesterday and is why I'm not at school now. I haven't been able to learn of any traditions associated with these holidays, other than enjoying a day off of work or school, but they've been fun. We had people over at our apartment until about 2:30 this morning. There are some British students here to study Russian, and three girls from that group came, and about 10 or so Russians who were friends or friends of friends. It was the first time I'd every met most of them, but lots of them spoke good English and one even spoke pretty good German. I was surprised none of our neighbors complained, but I don't think we were the only ones having a party in our block. Maybe our older neighbors just expected noisy parties and escaped to their dachas for the extended weekend.
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