Shrovetide and Women's Day

We learned of a new holdiay today in Russia. Shrovetide. Not new to them, but to us. At the end of winter Shrovetide (a pancake week) comes. In Russia, Pancake week is called "Maslyanitsa". Shrovetide is an ancient festival dating from pagan times. The Christian historians say that those were really "mad" days in the past. People wore funny masks and costumes, sometimes, men wore women's clothing and vice versa. Such masquerade anticipated a merry festival, when delicious food and a lot of wine was consumed. At first it was a festival that celebrated the arrival of spring and the start of work on the land. It included many rituals (burning a man of straw symbolizing winter, lighting fires, leaving festival food on the ancestors' graves) and feasts, the main food at which were blini. The feast fighting was one more great fun that helped to get warm on cold winter days. Later, the Orthodox Church included Shrovetide among its festivals. Shrovetide has lost its ritual significance and has become a symbolic festival of saying good-bye to winter and welcoming spring. At present special performances are held during Pancake week. Throughout the whole week people cook pancakes (blini).

On Saturday, the celebrations conclude with Women's Days--Not Mothers Day, but Women's Day. One of the Pieper's daughters, in her second year in Russia, was quick to discover the merits of Women's Day when she told her dad she wanted breakfast in bed. She was 6 years old!!

Some new converts, friends of the Piepers, were in the office on Friday and they brought blini for everybody. We ate them warm with honey. Very tasty.

We bought chocolates for all the women in the office. Flowers are coming on Tuesday. In Russia flowers is the most appropriate gift for a woman, but you should never give an even number. That number is saved for furnerals.

The Prices flew out on Thursday in the most beautiful weather. Clear skies. We walked to work on dry ground. Almost all of the snow was gone. We wanted to believe that Spring had actually arrived (the Russians celebrate the first day of Spring on March 1), but the snow returned the next day, about 4 inches and we were back to sloshing to get to work!!

On Friday, we went home with Elder Paul who dropped us off at the Gibbons. We went out for Italian food with the them and the Piepers. We played games and had dessert back at the Gibbons, where we slept. We got up early the next morning and went shopping at Metro. Then the Gibbons dropped us off at home.

On Monday, the girls are going shopping in the Arbat district and some of the guys will hang out together. I am going to try to make macaroni and cheese, but there is no sharp cheddar in Russia and it is white cheddar to boot! No Rotel tomatoes, but I do have diced tomatoes and a little chili sauce that might make up the difference. (We are not in Kansas any more!!)

Mom discovered today that what she thought was fabric softener was actually just another brand of soap. Our towels are very stiff!!

The dollars decline means that it costs more dollars to purchase Roubles. The other day, I was trying to get Roubles so that we could pay our rent. I normally try to get 24,000 on a given day. Usually that is about 950 dollars, which is below my daily limit of 1,000 with Schwab. But on Tuesday, it gave me 8,000 Roubles twice, then shut me down. I was over the limit. At first, I thought that the machine was not working properly. It was a little while later that I discoverd that the weak dollar was my real enemy!!