Rus: Festivals, Feasts and Events

on the fibrous plants like hemp & flax rather than grain & cereal. The usual entertainment as part of such rituals was sleighing. It was believed that the more times you sleighed down the hill, or the farther from the hill you sleigh, the richer the flax harvest you will grow, by autumn. Therefore people used to say they were going "to go sleighing for flax".

Hemp & flax are the plants that were somehow associated with women's labour, which is why in most cases Maslenitsa was considered to be a women's holiday and women often played leading parts in it (e.g. Good-Sisters' Evenings, Pancake Parties, etc.)

Russian Holiday of St. John the Baptist also called Ivan Kupalo

In Russia the holiday of St. John the Baptist is called Ivan Kupalo it is considered a special feast day tro be shared with any who may be present including all strangers.

Everything in the holiday relates to water. In the past boys & girls used to swim in rivers till late at night, when they burned fires & taking each-others hands, jumped over the fires. If after the jump they still held their hands together, it considered to be a good sign saying that the wedding is close.

Russian Independence Day

June 12 is Russia's newest holiday, Independence Day, which commemorates the adoption in 1991 of the Declaration of Sovereignty of the Russian Federation. It is much akin to the American 4th of July in nature & has the same sort of activities. Parades, fireworks, cookouts (Barbeques in the USA & shashlik cookouts in Russia. In Ukraine this is celebrated on 24 August in the same way.

Troitsa Festival

The folk holiday called "Troitsa" is widely celebrated in Russia. On Troitsa the houses are usually decorated with fresh green branches. The maiden's clothes are put on the young birch-trees and songs and dances round the birch-trees take place. Garlands made of birch branches & flowers are put into water for fortune-telling.

Spas

In August, last month of the summer season, when the harvest is begun, is the time they usually celebrate the 3 holidays called "Spas".

The 1st. "Spas" is called Honey Spas which is celebrated on August 14
The 2nd. "Spas" is called Apple Spas which is celebrated on August 19)
The 3rd.one is called Nut Spas which is celebrated on August 29

Spas brings cold dew to lands & meadows. After the first Spas honey is collected, the second Spas

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