Magic, Monasteries, and Maslenitsa

The past while has been quite the adventure: that is for sure. I guess the highlight of the last month or

so has been Maslenitsa, but I'll save that for the end. My life over the past two weeks has been dominated by work and translation, and that's been good, I guess, but I am glad to have today as a break from it all. I decided to take my honors thesis in a new direction, so I'm now translating and analyzing Russian verbal charms, which has been a lot of fun. My analysis is based on the confluence of Christianity and paganism within these spells, which will likely be pretty apparent to you in the short charm that follows:

94. Charm against bleeding
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. There is a sea-ocean, from the sea-ocean rides out a man so old, the steed beneath him brownish-gold, but thou, blood, stop for all time. For ever and ever. Amen.

Anyway, so that's that. It's been super interesting and super difficult at times, because a lot of the terms and ideas are pretty old. The texts themselves are from the 17th century, and I would say that I know only about half to two-thirds of the words. For the rest I spend forever guessing roots and modern variants and then looking them up in one of four or five dictionaries, both print and electronic. I've had some good success so far, though, and it's honestly been a lot of fun. I like the old, magic-esque quality that they all have. It seems right up my alley in terms of interests.

We made a trip to Sergiyev Posad, which is a big monastery complex from like the 14th century. It was pretty neat as a whole. I had never been in a monastery before at all, but it was cool to see the monks walking around, and the different churches were all really neat. One of them had a ton of depictions of Adam and Eve, and that's kind of out of the ordinary in most Orthodox temples. Anyway, I really liked it there. This will sound rather asinine, but my favorite part of it all was a drink that we bought on the way out. It's called sbiten, and it's pretty much what I imagine the Greek gods drinking. It's like a honey-ginger-cinnamon-cardamom drink, and I can't get enough of it. We made some for Maslenitsa, and everyone really liked it a lot. Here's the recipe we used, if anyone's interested. 

Anyway, I've been putting off long enough, so now, it's on to Maslenitsa! Maslenitsa is a big holiday that was originally connected with pagan ritual, but modernly, it seems to have taken on more so the idea of family, friends, and food. The location of Maslenitsa changes every year, and it's strictly prohibited to print where it will be held, so the whole thing ends up being passed person to person, a fact that on its own creates a pretty interesting sense of mystery behind the holiday as a whole. Besides that, though, it's held in the forest, and you have to walk about three miles through the snow to get there. There was just one long line of people trailing off into the forest, and when we at last arrived, the clearing was surrounded by a snow wall and standing guard outside the entrance was a skomorokh, a Russian jester/keeper of magic and folksongs. He made us sing a song to get in, but then we were past the snowy arch and before our eyes were thousands of elated Russians and a shining, wintry wonderland, complete with snow sculptures, log swings, snow castles, and a thirty or forty foot high fortress made entirely of-- you guessed it-- snow!

We played a bunch of games and took a ride on the log swings, but my favorite part-- without doubt-- was the storming of the fortress. The old men climbed on top of the fortress along with a guy in a bear suit, and they took their positions along the battlements. The young men had to try to climb the fortress, erecting a human ladder of sorts, while the old men repelled the attacks. When, at last, the younger generation made it atop the battlements, they seized the effigy of winter, apparently the queen of the snow fortress, and she was brought down to be burned. After all the official festivities came to a close, we went off with Elena and some other friends to share a meal. There, in the middle of the forest, they had build a table of packed snow, and we each put out whatever food we had brought and then we all shared it together and sang songs and told stories. It was a really fun time, and I felt, more so than any other time here in Russia, that I was a part of the family, that there was somewhere where I really belonged.

When we got back to Moscow, I looked at the signs and the advertisements and the buildings, and it all seemed so unreal compared to what I had just experienced. Russia isn't about the trains or the vodka or the cold winters or anything like that: it's about the people, and I don't I've ever really seen the Russian in the way that I saw them that day. I don't think I've ever had more affection for them or understood them better then that afternoon, as we stood together around the table singing and swapping tales. I don't think that I'll soon forget Maslenitsa, but in my memory, it will remain not as ice castles or snow fortresses but as faces and people that I love and that I will really miss when I have to go back to the U.S. I never thought that in three months, I would grow to love and appreciate these people so much, but it's going to be very difficult to say goodbye to the wintry east and the friends that I have made here.