Seeing Winter Off or Russian Maslenitsa

This week we are celebrating an ancient holiday, a purely Russian one, which dates back to the pagan times. The idea of the holiday is to see the winter off and welcome spring with the nature revival and warm sunshine. People have always honored the Sun, so one of the main symbols of Maslenitsa (or Pancake week) is a pancake. It is as round, gold and warm as the sun. People enjoy eating pancakes served hot with either butter, or sour cream, or caviar, or mushrooms, or sturgeon – to any exquisite taste, for a whole week. On the last day it is traditional to burn down the scarecrow symbolizing winter thus saying goodbye to winter till the next year. (For more information about this nice Russian tradition see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslenitsa)

At Sibers, we decided to celebrate this holiday having eaten about 100 pancakes altogether. BTW, the last day of Maslenitsa is called the Forgiveness Day. Everybody asks one another for forgiveness in order to redeem themselves from their sins before the Great Lent. We hope you forgive us for any possible inconveniences, which we strive to avoid, and pass pieces of sun’s warmth and power to you.