On February 26, international students from China, Myanmar, Iran, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan joined Maslenitsa (Butter Week) festivities in the museum complex of Dudutki dedicated to ancient folk crafts and technologies. The excursion was arranged for them by BSTU International Students Office, Pre-University Department, Department of Belarusian Philology and the Centre for International Relations of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus.

 

Maslenitsa is an old Slavic festival symbolizing the farewell to winter and the joyful expectation of spring. It is originally a pagan festival and not a Christian Orthodox one, but since the Christianization of the Rus it corresponds to the Christian festival cycle. Now its date depends on Easter - the Orthodox world observes the Cheesefare Week one week before the Great Lent.

 

The students had a guided tour of the museum complex and took part in hilarious Maslenitsa activities: pillow fights, mace tossing, wall to wall, log-pole climbing, historical fencing. 

 

The celebration also included pancake (blini) tasting, bonfire making and the traditional rite of burning the effigy of winter – a symbol of the departure of winter and the onset of spring.