How Russians Celebrate Maslenitsa

In pre-Christian times, Maslenitsa was a pagan festival welcoming the arrival of the new year, marked in the old calendar by the Spring Equinox. Maslenitsa celebrated the waking of the earth, banishing winter and welcoming spring. To bless the upcoming harvest, a scarecrow (representing fertility of the land) was burnt on the last day of the festival and its ashes scattered on the fields.