Students celebrate Russian Mardi Gras

In New Orleans, it’s Mardi Gras. In Russia, it’s Maslenitsa. At IU, students, faculty and community members celebrated the Russian holiday with music, games and plenty of traditional pancakes.

Maslenitsa, which marks both the pagan celebration of winter’s end and the beginning of the Russian Orthodox Lent, is an important holiday in Russia, said Mark Trotter, Russian and East European Institute assistant director and outreach coordinator.

The Maslenitsa celebration Wednesday in the Indiana Memorial Union University Club was jointly sponsored by REEI and the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures.

Trotter said the event was open to anyone, but for Russian parents in particular, it offered a way to keep their culture and heritage alive for their children.

Katie Hiatt, a graduate student in Russian history, said she experienced Maslenitsa while living in Russia. She explained that special dietary restrictions imposed on Orthodox Christians during Lent don’t allow meat to be eaten during the week of Maslenitsa.

After this time, dairy products like cheese and butter are banned as well.

To celebrate their last week with these foods, Russians make bliny.

“The most traditional food is bliny,” said Veronika Trotter, a graduate student and Russian language instructor who coordinated the event.

She explained that the thin pancakes, which are more similar to thin French crepes than to their fluffy American cousins, are served with a variety of sweet and savory toppings.

“The best is caviar of course, but not so much here, maybe,” Veronika Trotter said.
A variety of cold salads and Russian drinks, like the fermented rye cola Kvas, were also on the menu.

First-year Russian language student and freshman Chris Luba played traditional
Balalaika songs.

Veronika Trotter said she was surprised by the small number of American students who know about Maslenitsa. Although quashed under Soviet rule, the event is gaining prevalence again, Veronika Trotter said.

“It’s really popular again, and if they go to Russia again, they’ll encounter it,” Veronika Trotter said.

Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures lecturer Olena Chernishenko said the event was also a chance to spread cultural understanding. In Russia, the holiday is traditionally celebrated as a week of feasting between “Little Lent” and “Big Lent.”

Chernishenko explained that “Maslenitsa” can be loosely translated as “Butter Week.”

“Basically, it’s a week of gluttony,” Chernishenko said. “People stuff themselves.”