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Maslenitsa, the celebration to bid farewell to winter, precedes the Great Lent of forty days leading up to Easter. Mardi Gras lasts an entire week here, separating the two most important seasons in the Slavic calendar: winter and spring. Seven days of celebrations and dances, an occasion to eat one's fill before the long period of abstinence that forbids the consumption even of butter and eggs.

The official dish of Maslenitsa is a stack of Russian blini, thick, round, golden pancakes, that are a pagan symbol of the sun made from ingredients permitted by Orthodox tradition: butter (symbol of plenty), eggs and milk. Home-made blini are served with hot melted butter, cream (smetana), red caviar, smoked salmon or anchovies, or eaten as a dessert with honey. All accompanied, of course, by chilled vodka. The first blini is always dedicated to the departed and placed near the window or given to beggars. There is no meat, except on the final day before the fast.

Each day of the week has its own theme: mother-in-law's day, when she hosts her son-in-law for a pancake meal, son-in-law's day, sister-in-law's day, etc. Sunday is the day of pardon and the end of the carnival celebrations with the ceremonial burning of winter in effigy. In the old days, people would throw the last pancakes and leftovers from the celebrations onto a bonfire. Children would be told that all the rich heavy food had been burned in the fire because during Lent, one had to fast and abstain.