Maslenitsa festivals and carnivals to be held between 9 and 18 February

The Moscow Maslenitsa (Pre-Lent Week) festival celebrating the Sun and the pancakes that symbolise it will be held between 9 and 18 February at 25 sites around the city this year.

The main venues will be Manezhnaya and Tverskaya squares, Revolution Square, Tverskoi Boulevard, Kamergersky Pereulok and Novy Arbat. The programme includes fairs, carnivals, folk music concerts, stage shows and historical re-enactments. Kolomenskoye Park will offer an unusual programme.

There will be festival venues in all city districts, where people will be able to see how the imminent end of winter was celebrated in the past and which Maslenitsa traditions are still honoured in Russian regions.

Participating in a performance on Manezhnaya Square 

Manezhnaya Square will be transformed into a huge open-air stage during the Maslenitsa festival, where visitors will be able to take part in performances. Tsar’s Maslenitsa, an interactive performance staged by theatre director Vitaly Borovik, includes elements of folk dances and comic musical plays by skomorokhs (strolling performers). A 12 Maslenitsas exhibition of national costumes, traditions and customs of Russian ethnic groups will be on view in display cases.

The passage between Revolution and Manezhnaya squares will be turned into a huge sports ground with brightly painted equipment for active outdoor games and competitions. Visitors will be able to test their skills and agility on swings, balance beams and spring rockers.

Learning to play croquet and the game of graces on Revolution Square

Revolution Square will be decorated in the style of Emperor Alexander I, because the Maslenitsa festival acquired its current outlook after Russia defeated Napoleon in the Patriotic War of 1812. Actors dressed in military and civilian uniforms of the 19th century will entertain visitors, inviting them to join a game of croquet, a French game that involves hitting plastic or wooden balls with a mallet through hoops, or a game of graces (RingStix), when a hoop is tossed in the air using special rods (sticks) for the other player to try and catch. There will be a school of etiquette, where people will be able to learn the code of 19th century behaviour, as well as a chalet where visitors will learn how to make their own prints or a carnival mask.

Circle dancing on Tverskaya Square

The Maslenitsa traditions of Moscow and the Moscow Region will be presented on Tverskaya Square by folk and professional music groups and theatre artists. Visitors will learn how to dance circle dances and sing roundelays, folk songs and Maslenitsa carols.

Other events prepared for children and adults on Tverskatya Square include painting wooden dishes and red horses, which symbolise Maslenitsa, learning goldwork embroidery and attending workshops held by Hlebny Dom to learn to use mill stones to grind flour and to bake bread with it. Visitors to the Potter’s Shop will learn the art of making glazed tiles under the tutorship of professional ceramists.

A carnival in Novy Arbat and Tsargrad on Tverskoi Boulevard

Novy Arbat will host a carnival of Russian and global cultures, ranging from mummers of the period when the Muscovy Principality was established to the carnivals that were held in Moscow and other European cities in the early 20th century.

Visitors will be able to learn to make carnival masks and accessories at workshops held by graduates of the British Higher School of Art and Design, such as the traditional Czech bear and horse masks, jester’s hats and bauble marottes that are still popular in Germany, as well as several types of delicate Venetian masks. Anyone will be able to join the vibrant parades from many countries and eras, which will be held by costumed and masked actors and musicians at 6 pm and 7 pm daily during the Maslenitsa festival. Each festive procession will be prepared in keeping with the styles of a specific period from the history of Russian carnivals as well as based on European traditions.

An ancient Russian Detinets, which is a stronghold that was located in the centre of ancient Russian cities, and a model of Tsargrad, which is what Slavs called the city of Constantinople, will be on display on Tverskoi Boulevard. The Detinets will be set up near the Sergei Yesenin monument. Visitors will be able to train in traditional arts under the guidance of skilled masters, for example, to bake bird buns or to make wooden birds, yarn dolls or mummers’ leather masks. Street theatres will stage various performances, for example a tale of the Firebird.

A town resembling Tsargrad, where merchants went for exotic goods, will be set up near the Kliment Timiryazev monument. Visitors will be able to make a metal Bird of Luck in a forge and learn about game birds, study the ancient system of weights and measures, try making jewellery or ceramics, or simply buy something to eat and drink (tea or coffee) or souvenirs. An archery range and a beam for sack fighting are installed nearby. Fighting and battle fans will have a chance to fight with synthetic practice swords or to take part in a tug of war competition. There will also be a field for playing an ancient winter game similar to ice hockey and an area for lapta (an ancient Russian bat and ball game that is similar to baseball) and gorodki (similar to bowling) games.

City of Masters in Kamergersky Pereulok and Tsar’s City in Kolomenskoye Park

Numerous workshops and interactive programmes where children will learn about the ancient traditions of celebrating Maslenitsa will be held every day in the City of Masters in Kamergersky Pereulok. The children will learn about various types of folk painting, patterns and wood carving, and can also try painting dishes, souvenirs and household items, as well as making carved casing, jambs, and lintel for doors or windows and protective dolls.

The Tsar’s City in Kolomenskoye Park is a garrison of the tsar’s army, Streltsy, which will be 10 metres high and over 30 metres wide. During the Maslenitsa festival, visitors will be able to shoot bows, take part in sack fighting, or take a ride on sledges or a wooden prototype carousel. As they walk around the wooden fortress, they will encounter Streltsy in period costumes. Beyond the garrison there will be simulated trading quarters, where visitors will be able to take photographs with mummers dressed as the spirits of winter.

The Moscow Maslenitsa festival is becoming a good tradition. During the 2017 festival, which was held between 17 and 26 February, visitors could taste 120 types of pancakes, take part in the simulated storming of a large ice fortress in central Moscow, admire the eight-metre high Tsar Maslenitsa made of lake ice, as well as attend 845 folk arts and cooking workshops. Over 4.5 million people attended the Moscow Maslenitsa festival last year.