Russian Holidays

The last weeks in Russia were full of holidays. Starting on the 23. February with the celebrations for the day of the Red Army and ending two days ago with the international women‘s day. Last week Russia celebrated Maslenitsa for one week, which is sort of a pancake week to celebrate the end of winter. My friends and I prepared Russian blinis (pancakes) on various occasions with various kinds of fillings, side dishes and beverages. However, the negative side effect of Maslenitsa is that you eat far too many Blinis, so that you are not able to eat any more blinis for the next couple of weeks. The international women‘s day is a very important and big event in Russia. Every man has to make or buy presents (in most cases tulips) for all the women who are important in their life - be it a good friend, your wife or your working colleague. We also celebrated all these holidays at work, with a lot of alcohol and food. However, there is a difference to how holidays and bridging days are handled in Russia in comparison to Europe. When a holiday falls on a working day, you don’t have to work on that day, but you have to work on Saturday the following week.