Men's Day and the Beginning of Maslenitsa

(yep, you got it: backlogged)

Today officially began Maslenitsa. Maslenitsa is a very big holiday in Russia which symbolizes the end of winter and beginning of spring. Russians celebrate this holiday in a week long festival filled with lots of blini-eating (blini are crepes of sort that symbolize the sun because they are round). In other words, it's an excuse to get off work and drink vodka.

Coincidentally, today was also Men's Day! Ok, fine, so it's officially called Defenders of the Fatherland or some other such title, but everyone calls it Men's Day. Again, It is basically an excuse to get off work and pat all the guys you know on the backs for their excellent work defending the homeland. Good job, chaps! There is also a Woman's Day in March during which time men do the housework for one day and pat themselves on their backs for being such splendid, helpful creatures. Are you getting the pattern? (And, no, this is not a “feminist” thing. Ask anyone who is familiar with this and they will same the same thing – even Russians).

Anyways, we decided to go out to celebrate Men's Day/Maslenitsa by watching fireworks in the Red Square and eating lots of blini. Everyone ignored my freakish guidebook-like knowledge (completements of, you guessed it, my guidebook) about how you are not supposed to start eating blini until Tuesday and they aren't free until Sunday. By the time we got to Red Square, it was deserted. The fireworks were over and all was left was the freakish doll they are going to set on fire later in the week. Dishearted, we decided to still go get blini – again, through my ranting of “TRADITION! You must respect TRADITION!” After some admittedly tasty blini, we wandered around until it got too cold and went home. (It's getting colder. Monday was -18 Celsius. Blech.) Tuesday started official blini-eating time, at which point I ate more blini. All is now right in the world.