Maslenitsa

Reading notes

• Pancakes §11 масленицы

  Maslenitsa ("Butter Week"), the pre-Lenten festival during which Russians traditionally eat their fill of blini before Great Lent's fasting begins -- the occasion for which this piece was written.

• Two Scandals §36 Shrovetide

  Maslenitsa, the pre-Lenten carnival week in Russia, traditionally the theater season's busiest and most festive stretch -- hence the packed house.

• From the Notebook of Ivan Ivanych (Thoughts and Notes) §62 Shrovetide sermon

  Maslenitsa, the pre-Lenten carnival week when blini (pancakes) are the ritual food -- the mock-sermon's setting for a gluttony that ends, true to its "transience" theme, in sudden death.

• On the Eve of the Fast §40 taking your leave of meat

  "Заговляться" (zagovlyatsya) means to eat one's fill of rich ("scoromny") food -- meat, butter, eggs, dairy -- for the last time before a fast begins; the family's frantic late-night supper is this ritual "leave-taking" meal, treated with mock-solemn urgency because skipping it means seven weeks without such food.

• An Evil Deed §57 at Shrovetide

  Maslenitsa (Shrovetide), the pre-Lenten carnival week, is invoked here only as a time-marker for when the locksmith is supposed to have died, in keeping with the peasant habit of dating events by the church calendar rather than by month.

• On the Transience of Things §2 blini

  Blini -- thin, golden Russian pancakes -- are the ritual food of Maslenitsa (Shrovetide), the pre-Lenten carnival week; their round, buttery shape was traditionally likened to the sun. Gorging on them, as Podtykin does here, was the season's expected excess before Lent's fasting began.

• To N. N. Obolonsky, 12–13 February 1889. Moscow. §2 to eat bliny

  Bliny (thin Russian pancakes) are the signature dish of Maslenitsa, the pre-Lenten Butter Week festival of feasting, already established in this corpus. Chekhov's wry aside that Pleshcheyev "has come to Moscow to eat bliny" places the visit during Maslenitsa, which both corroborates the February date and explains -- comically -- both the occasion for the name-day pie and the resulting illness.

• The Triumph of the Victor §2 Butter Week

  Maslenitsa, the pre-Lenten carnival week in the Russian Orthodox calendar, traditionally marked by feasting on pancakes (blini) before the fasting of Lent begins.

• In the Ravine §32 Shrovetide

  Maslenitsa, the pre-Lenten carnival week in the Russian Orthodox calendar, mentioned here only to date Anisim's unexpected visit home.