Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year, starting from the topic of the Spring Festival, we talked about the similarities between the traditional festivals of China and Russia, which easily reminds us of a particularly grand traditional festival in Russia - the Winter Festival, also known as the Meat Appreciation Festival.

"Massip" originated from the Orthodox Church. During the Orthodox 40-day Lent, people are forbidden to eat meat and entertainment. Thus, a week before the start of Lent, people indulge in joy and eat meat to make up for the ascetic life of Lent. Hence the name "Thanksgiving Day".

"Thanksgiving Festival" is also called the Winter Festival. The Slavic peoples of the Middle Ages believed that spring would come when the sun god Arila overcame the cold and the night. For farmers, this means that spring ploughing is about to begin. Therefore, at the end of February and the beginning of March every year, the ancient Slavs held a grand ceremony to welcome spring and send winter, and thus gave rise to the winter festival.

According to traditional folk customs, the seven-day "Thanksgiving Day" is celebrated in a different way every day:

Monday is the day of spring, and people tie up dolls that symbolize winter with strips of straw and cloth and place them at home. At night, people light bonfires and sing and dance around them.

The next day is Entertainment Day.

Wednesday is Food Day, the day when sons-in-law go to their mother-in-law's house to eat pastries.

The following day is Drunken Day, on which the festival culminates.

Friday is the day when the son-in-law invites his mother-in-law to eat bread.

Sister-in-law Day is on the sixth day.

The last day is Forgiveness Day, where people ask each other to forgive themselves, put aside their old grievances, and reconcile. On this day, people burned the dolls that had not yet had time to be burned, indicating that they had completely bid farewell to the cold winter and ushered in the sunny spring.

Winter in many parts of Russia lasts for about half a year. Winter in Russia is cold, everything is depressed, and there is ice and snow everywhere. To a large extent, this has restrained the lively and active nature of Russians. And the advent of the "Thanksgiving Day" gave the Russians hope for spring.

The oldest and most important tradition of the festival is the cooking and eating of baked pancakes called blini. This crepe has a golden yellow color, symbolizing the sun and signifying the arrival of spring and the growing days of daylight.

Sports activities such as dancing, singing, skiing, skating, boxing, etc., are also essential programs for Thanksgiving Day.

There is a set of descriptions of the indulgence of the Thanksgiving Festival that is very good: the food should be full until you burp, the indulgence should be drunk to the throat, the song should be sung until the intestines break, and the dance must be danced to the ground.

As the times have changed, the old rules and precepts of the Russians have been discontinued, but the custom of baking bread and tying and burning dolls has remained. Whenever the "Thanksgiving Day" comes, Russians spontaneously organize costumed parades, folk songs and dances, games, ice skating, skiing, and a ride in three horse-drawn carriages.

At the end of the 60s of the 20th century, the Soviet government changed this holiday to the Winter Festival, also known as the Russian Winter Carnival.

The ancient customs and religious significance of the festival are diluted. But the festival is still an important festival for Russians, the wape symbolizing the sun is still a staple of the festival, and the circle dance is still the main folk dance danced during the festival.

During the festival, costume parades are also held in various places, and floats carry mythological figures such as the goddess of cold winter and the three warriors of Russia, and people sing and dance to bid farewell to the cold winter and welcome the warm spring.

According to tradition, most Russians believe that if a person is not happy with Masmassa, he will be unlucky for the rest of the year. Therefore, this week of the holiday, all the sorrows and troubles must be thrown out of the clouds, and you can live as happy as you want. Only in this way can we give a good "lottery" to the peace, success and development of the following year.

Ivan said that he especially liked the program of Moscow to celebrate the Meat Appreciation Day from TV, and envied Sergey that he could participate in such an event.

Sergei shook his head and said that he hadn't seriously celebrated Masmasa for many years. I said I'm the same, I've only seen a boxing match once or twice at the festival, and it's really not as formal as the festival at my cousin's house.

We all feel that in the modern pace of life in Moscow, I am afraid that it is rare for someone to truly enjoy a full Masculpa Day.