At a Glance

People often write “Rissian” when they mean “Russian,” and the festivals described here are the real ones celebrated in Russia. The main seasonal celebrations are:

  • Maslenitsa (late February/early March) — a week of pancakes, sledding and fun that ends by burning a straw figure of winter.
  • Zhavoronki (22 March) — baking bird-shaped buns to call back the spring.
  • Easter (Пасха, PAS-kha; date varies) — the most important feast of the Orthodox year, with kulich, paskha and dyed eggs.
  • Krasnaya Gorka (the Sunday after Easter) — a traditional day for weddings and spring youth gatherings.
  • Trinity / Troitsa (50 days after Easter) — homes and churches decorated with birch branches and greenery.
  • Ivan Kupala (night of 6–7 July) — midsummer bonfires, flower wreaths and swimming.

Maslenitsa: Pancake Week

Maslenitsa (Масленица, MAS-lye-ni-tsa) takes its name from масло, butter. It is the week before Great Lent, the long Orthodox fast before Easter during which meat, and traditionally dairy, are avoided. Meat is already off the menu during Maslenitsa week, but butter, milk, cheese and eggs are allowed — so people eat as many bliny (thin pancakes) as they can. Round, golden and hot, bliny are often said to symbolise the returning sun, though that is a folk interpretation rather than a documented origin.

The festival combines church and folk traditions that predate Christianity in Russia. Each day of the week traditionally had its own name and customs:

The Days of Maslenitsa

  • Monday — Vstrecha (Встреча, “welcome”): the straw effigy of Lady Maslenitsa is made and set up; baking begins.
  • Tuesday — Zaigrysh (Заигрыш, “games”): sledding, fairs and matchmaking among young people.
  • Wednesday — Lakomka (Лакомка, “sweet tooth”): feasting, with sons-in-law invited for pancakes.
  • Thursday — Razgulyay (Разгуляй, “revelry”): the peak of the fun — troika rides, sledging, and in old times snow-fort battles and fist fights.
  • Friday — Tyoshchiny vechyorki (Тёщины вечёрки, “mother-in-law’s evenings”): sons-in-law host their mothers-in-law.
  • Saturday — Zolovkiny posidelki (Золовкины посиделки): young wives entertain their husbands’ sisters.
  • Sunday — Proshchyonoye voskresenye (Прощёное воскресенье, “Forgiveness Sunday”): people ask each other for forgiveness before Lent, answering «Бог простит» (“God will forgive”). The effigy is burned.

The burning of the Maslenitsa effigy (чучело, CHU-che-la) is the climax: a straw figure dressed in women’s clothes is carried through the crowd and set alight, sending off winter. Vasily Surikov’s 1891 painting Taking the Snow Town shows another old Maslenitsa game, in which riders storm a snow fortress. Stravinsky’s ballet Petrushka (1911) is set at a Shrovetide (Maslenitsa) fair in St Petersburg — see our article on Russian folk music.

Today many cities hold public Maslenitsa festivals with pancake stalls, concerts, folk-costume performances and the effigy burning on the final Sunday. At home, families make bliny with sour cream, butter, jam, honey, red caviar or salted fish.

Simple Maslenitsa Bliny

  • 500 ml milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tbsp sugar and a pinch of salt
  • 200 g plain flour
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil, plus butter for serving

Whisk the eggs, sugar and salt, then add half the milk. Whisk in the flour until smooth, then the rest of the milk and the oil — the batter should be thin, like single cream. Rest it for 15–20 minutes. Heat a lightly oiled frying pan over medium-high heat, pour in a small ladle of batter and tilt the pan to spread it thinly. Cook about a minute until the edges lift, flip and cook 30 seconds more. Brush each blin with melted butter and stack. Makes about 12–15. Serve with sour cream, jam or honey. (As the proverb says, первый блин комом — the first pancake is always lumpy.)

Zhavoronki: Calling Back the Birds

On 22 March (9 March in the Julian calendar), the Orthodox Church commemorates the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste. In Russian folk tradition this was the day when the larks returned, and people baked zhavoronki (жаворонки, “larks”): small bird-shaped buns with raisin eyes. Children put them on poles or tossed them into the air, singing songs (zaklichki) to call the spring. More in our guide to Russian bread.

Easter: The Feast of Feasts

For Orthodox Christians, Easter (Пасха) is the most important celebration of the year, more central than Christmas. Its date is calculated using the Julian calendar, so it usually falls later than Western Easter. After the seven weeks of Great Lent, the Easter midnight service is held on Saturday night: at midnight the church bells ring, the congregation walks around the church in a procession with candles, and the priest proclaims “Христос воскресе!” (“Christ is risen!”), to which everyone answers “Воистину воскресе!” (“Truly He is risen!”).

Easter Foods

  • Kulich — a tall, sweet yeasted bread with raisins, topped with white icing, often with the letters «ХВ» (for “Христос воскресе”).
  • Paskha — a rich, pyramid-shaped dessert of tvorog (farmer’s cheese), butter, sugar and cream, pressed in a wooden mold.
  • Krashenki — hard-boiled eggs dyed red; the classic dye is onion skins, which give shades from gold to deep red-brown.

On Holy Saturday people take baskets of kulich, paskha and eggs to church to be blessed. On Easter Day and the following Bright Week (Светлая седмица), people exchange eggs and greetings, play egg-tapping (knocking eggs together; the one whose egg does not crack wins) and roll eggs down slopes. Bell towers are traditionally open during Bright Week for anyone to ring. The famous jewelled Fabergé Easter eggs, created for the imperial family from 1885, grew out of this custom of giving eggs at Easter.

Krasnaya Gorka

Krasnaya Gorka (Красная горка, “Beautiful Hill” or “Red Hill”) is the popular name for the first Sunday after Easter, known in the church calendar as St Thomas Sunday. Weddings are not held in Orthodox churches during Lent or Easter week, so Krasnaya Gorka became a traditional, and still popular, day for church weddings. In villages it was also a time for spring round dances and gatherings of young people on hillsides — the old word красный meant “beautiful” as well as “red.” Read more in our article on Russian wedding traditions.

Trinity: Birch Branches and Greenery

Troitsa (Троица, Trinity or Pentecost) falls on the fiftieth day after Easter, in late May or June. Churches and homes are decorated with young birch branches, and church floors are strewn with fresh grass and flowers. Folk custom linked the preceding Thursday (Semik) and Trinity with the birch tree: girls decorated a birch with ribbons, wove wreaths and sang songs. The folk song “Во поле берёза стояла” (“In the field a birch tree stood”), later quoted by Tchaikovsky in his Fourth Symphony, is a well-known khorovod (round-dance) song.

Ivan Kupala: Midsummer Night

Ivan Kupala (Иван Купала, i-VAN ku-PA-la) is technically a summer festival, but it closes the spring cycle and is too famous to leave out. It falls on the night of 6–7 July — 23–24 June in the Julian calendar — and combines the church feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist (Ivan) with much older midsummer customs.

  • Bonfires: young people jump over the fire, sometimes in pairs holding hands.
  • Wreaths: girls weave wreaths of wildflowers and float them on a river; folk belief held that where the wreath drifted foretold marriage.
  • Water and dew: night-time swimming and washing in the morning dew were believed to bring health.
  • The fern flower: legend says a fern blooms for a single moment on Kupala night, and whoever finds it will find treasure. Ferns do not actually flower, which is rather the point of the legend.
  • Herbs: medicinal herbs gathered that night were thought to be especially potent.

Ivan Kupala is shared by Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and Polish traditions, and folk festivals re-create the bonfires and wreaths in many regions today.

Taking Part

Tips for Visitors

  • Check dates: Maslenitsa, Easter, Krasnaya Gorka and Trinity move every year with the Orthodox Easter date.
  • Large cities run public Maslenitsa festivals; small towns and open-air museums often have the most traditional ones.
  • For Easter services, dress modestly; women usually cover their heads in Orthodox churches.
  • Learn the Easter greeting and reply — it is warmly received.
  • Try the food: bliny at Maslenitsa, kulich and paskha at Easter. Our Russian food guide has more.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is Maslenitsa?

Maslenitsa is the last week before Great Lent in the Orthodox calendar, so its dates move each year with Easter. It usually falls in late February or early March and ends on Forgiveness Sunday.

Why is Russian Easter on a different date?

The Russian Orthodox Church calculates Easter using the Julian calendar, while most Western churches use the Gregorian calendar. The two dates sometimes coincide, but Orthodox Easter is often one or more weeks later.

What do you say to someone on Russian Easter?

The greeting is “Христос воскресе!” (khris-TOS vas-KRYE-sye, “Christ is risen!”) and the reply is “Воистину воскресе!” (va-IS-ti-nu vas-KRYE-sye, “Truly He is risen!”), often followed by three kisses on the cheeks.

When is Ivan Kupala?

Ivan Kupala is celebrated on the night of 6–7 July. It corresponds to the feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist on 24 June in the Julian calendar used by the Russian Orthodox Church.