Language department celebrates spring in style

The Maslenitsa festival was held in the Language Center last Thursday. The holiday, also known as “butter and pancake week,” is the Russian celebration of the coming of springtime, and it is traditionally practiced with the eating of a lot of—you guessed it—butter and pancakes. “Maslenitsa is seven days of celebration. Each day is a sign for a particular activity,” said Russian professor Liliana Judge, who was responsible for the event. “Since we celebrated [last] Thursday, it was the day to paint the town red, as we say; go have fun, play with snowballs, go riding on horses.” The holiday is meant to, as Judge puts it, “say goodbye to winter.”

Part of the celebration includes the building of a large hay effigy representing winter; the effigy is burned to symbolize the end of winter and the coming of spring. Those who celebrate Maslenitsa, which is translated from the Russian word for “butter,” are free to partake in eating as much milk, butter and blini (pancakes that symbolize the sun) as they like.

Soon afterward, the Christian tradition of Lent, the fast leading up to Easter, is observed, and dairy products are not eaten during the fast. At the celebration held at school, students were given the opportunity to dress in traditional Russian clothes, build a miniature effigy of their own (burning optional), and learn about the cultural significance of the holiday. Maslenitsa is not only about the eager approach of springtime, but is also about friendship and community. “[The event] was very successful, even more than we anticipated,” Judge said. “It was fun to have students who [do] not necessarily study languages show up because of their curiosity, and I feel like it was a success for me as a Russian teacher to present a longstanding tradition of Russia and have fun, you know? See that Russians have fun, too!”

In Seegers Union this past Tuesday, the Spanish, Italian and French clubs got together to celebrate Mardi Gras and Carnaval, more examples of “one last hurrah” holidays before the Lenten fast begins. “We started this event originally as a mask-making event for the French Mardi Gras,” said French Club president Dylan Ashton ’18, “and upon hearing further interest from other clubs that also celebrate similar holidays around this time... the whole language and culture departments decided to have multiple groups come together...and bring different aspects of different cultures into one event.”

Each club contributed to the mask decorating offered at the event, along with maraca-painting and a bake sale set up by the Italian Club. “We’re selling bugie, which is a traditional Italian Carnaval snack; it’s a fried dough, and it’s called that because in Italy that means ‘lies’ because they look bigger than they are,” said Catherine Barrow ’18, president of the Italian Club. “They’re eaten during Carnaval, which is very similar to Mardi Gras where you eat whatever you would like before the Lenten fast, and every donation we make is going to the Italian American Relief Fund.”

The fund was set up to help people after the recent earthquakes in Italy. “We want people to know that there are a lot of other people hurting around the world...this is something that’s been going on and a lot of people aren’t aware that there have been earthquakes in Italy.” The earthquakes hit the country in August, October, and most recently in January. Barrow is happy the club was invited to participate in the event. “It was something fun to do, but [it was also an opportunity] to bring awareness to people aren’t quite aware of, and what brings people together better than food?”

Mardi Gras is a pre-Lent celebration, but over the years it has gained a reputation for being a chance to get drunk and party. “It used to have religious roots,” said Spanish Professor Mirna Trauger. “People would clean out their cupboards and clean out their homes of all the things that they were going to fast from, so they would get rid of all the eggs and all the meat and all the fat that they were going to be giving up for the next 40 days for Lent before the celebration of Easter.” Rather than throw away the food, people would have big parties and eat the food while they could before Lent began—that’s how the holiday earned the nickname “Fat Tuesday.”

This is very reminiscent of the Jewish tradition of Passover, during which time the eating of leavened bread and yeast is not allowed. To prepare, the family cleans out every piece of bread and every crumb from their homes before the holiday begins; rather than eating them, however, the bread and crumbs are burned. Mardi Gras has become “more humanistic, more hedonistic” as time has passed, according to Trauger. “The most important Carnavals are those of Brazil, of course, Rio, and Trinidad in the Caribbean. But there are Carnavals all over [the world], from Europe all the way to Latin America.”

“This event [is meant to] unite all languages and celebrate the Carnaval or Mardi Gras,” said Spanish Professor and Spanish Club advisor Amelia Moreno. “In Spanish-speaking countries, Carnaval is all about fiestas and parties...the idea is to have this Carnaval, where all people of different nationalities celebrate the same thing and stay together. It’s very fun, especially in these times that we’re living [in].”

The students of the participating clubs submitted ideas for how to best demonstrate the ways in which each culture celebrates the same holiday. “Mexico has one of the largest Carnavals in the world,” Moreno said. “It is in Veracruz, Mexico, and people get together with costumes, there are big parades, and they pretty much dance and drink the whole night! It brings happiness to people.”

It may be February (despite the weather these days), but the Muhlenberg Language Department is already ringing in spring with celebrations of the Russian Maslenitsa Festival and Mardi Gras and Carnaval. The events focused on bringing students together to learn about cultures all over the world, raise awareness about people in need, and, more than anything, have fun and share cool experiences.

Photo courtesy of Liliana Judge

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