#maslenitsa

bliny for solovushka

Some snaps from the local Maslenitsa celebration.

Eating blini in the park

Open fire where anyone could make their own blini

Maslenitsa, 1916 - oil on canvas

It's Maslenitsa tomorrow! So I wanted to make some folk outfits for Performance troupe. But I couldn't think of perf's and stagehand's costumes. (read as: I wanted to play dress up with my fav chars then got bored at school and drew musician too)

Get a rest and eat blini tmrw✌️

In honor of the holiday, I present you with the new artwork for the series of "RWBY characters in Slavic folk costumes", sponsored by @carn-project.

The week of Maslenitsa has just started! It's a delicious Eastern Slavic folk holiday, especially famous for blini, syrniki, and the burning of the Lady Maslenitsa's effigy on Sunday.

Adam is wearing a Belarusian costume. And look, the ornaments have even moved to his mask! He's holding a mug of kvass, a traditional Slavic low-alcoholic beverage made of rye bread.

And Cinder has a very unique outfit – the traditional costume of Bistra, the region of Croatia. I managed to find this outfit while looking for an interesting winter version of the Croatian costume. The ornament on the eye patch is the red checkerboard, one of Croatia's national symbols.

Croats don't celebrate Maslenitsa, but they have a similar holiday called fašnik or poklade.

MASLENITSA

Very soon (February 16 - 22), Maslenitsa will be celebrated in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and some other Slavic countries!

Maslenitsa is one of the most vibrant and archaic holidays in Russian folk tradition, deeply rooted in pre-Christian symbolism that was later reinterpreted within the Orthodox calendar. It is much more than just a "pancake week"; it's a complex ritual cycle connected to seeing off winter, welcoming spring, commemorating ancestors, and ensuring a future harvest.

This was not just a dressed-up doll but an anthropomorphic image of the holiday, Winter, and death itself. It was created, honored (paraded, "fed" blini), and then ritually killed—burned, drowned, torn apart. This rite aimed not just to "see off winter" but to ensure the rebirth of life through sacrifice, echoing ancient rituals of a dying and resurrecting deity.

Each day of Maslenitsa week had a specific name and strict ritual purpose:

· Monday – "Meeting" (Vstrecha): People built snow hills and forts, dressed up a Maslenitsa effigy (the embodiment of Winter/the holiday itself), and paraded it on a sleigh around the village. Baking of blini began.

· Tuesday – "Flirting" (Zaigrysh): Festivities started in earnest. Young people went sledding, men flirted with girls looking for brides, and merry play-acting took place.

· Wednesday – "Sweet Tooth" (Lakomka): Sons-in-law visited their mothers-in-law for blini. The mother-in-law's pancakes were a folklore symbol of special feast and hospitality.

· Thursday – "Revelry" (Razgul, "Wide Thursday"): The peak of public festivities. This included the "Capture of the Snow Fortress" (a symbolic battle of Winter vs. Spring), fistfights "wall against wall" (a ritual fight to "awaken" the earth's force), and horse-drawn sleigh rides ("combing" the earth to make it fertile). All restrictions were lifted; ritual chaos reigned.

· Friday – "Mother-in-Law's Evening" (Tёshchiny vecherki): Now the son-in-law had to invite his mother-in-law to his home, demonstrating reciprocal respect.

· Saturday – "Sister-in-Law's Gatherings" (Zolovkiny posidelki): The young wife invited her husband's relatives, especially his sisters, strengthening family bonds.

· Sunday – "Forgiveness Sunday" (Proshchenoe Voskresen'e), the Farewell to Maslenitsa: The most important day in terms of folk magic. People asked each other for forgiveness to enter Lent with a pure heart. The climax: The burning (or sometimes tearing apart and scattering across fields) of the Maslenitsa effigy. Its ashes were often spread on fields—a classic ritual of "returning" the symbol's power to the earth for fertility. Old junk was sometimes burned too, symbolizing the disposal of the old.

Maslenitsa doll.