National Russian Week - the date?

Inna Caron caron.4 at BUCKEYEMAIL.OSU.EDU
Wed Jan 27 21:56:21 UTC 2010 

Maslennitsa does sound like a winner. Other than the lack of fixed dates, I for one don't see any other downsides.

I would disagree that it has strict Orthodox connotation. Of all pre-Soviet holidays it was easily the most secular one. And while the official rationale was to offset the upcoming Great Lent, given the shape and color of a blin I would wager that the roots go back to the indigenous worship of Iarilo the Sun.

Agreed, not everyone celebrates it, but the same can be said about any holiday in any country in our age of global migration. It is, as several people pointed out, authentically Russian, though.

________________________________________
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] on behalf of Edward M Dumanis [dumanis at BUFFALO.EDU]
Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 3:59 PM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] National Russian Week - the date?

I want to add another downside:
Maslennitsa is appropriate only if you identify Russian with the Russian
Orthodox Church, which occupies only one of the segments (though it is a
major one there) in the religious sector of Russian culture.
I personally know many Russian families who never carried this tradition
either being related to different religious traditions or rejecting them
all together.

Sincerely,

Edward Dumanis <dumanis at buffalo.edu>

On Wed, 27 Jan 2010, Josh Wilson wrote:
........../snip/.............

> I propose Maslinitsa for discussion, which has lots going in its favor:
>
> 1. It is a modern and historical holiday - giving a chance to discuss to
> discuss at once modern Russia and its ancient roots
> 2. It is distinctly Russian
> 3. It has established and ongoing traditions (which are fun for the whole
> family)
> 4. It's already a week long
> 5. It comes with blini - probably the single best intro to Russian culture
> ever (who can say "No" to blini?)
>
> Downsides would be:
>
> 1. It can come early in the spring semester, which may make it logistically
> challenging for profs, etc.
> 2. Its dates change every year - which means you need to keep up (though as
> someone who has lived in Russia for sometime, this seems actually
> appropriate, to tell the truth...)
>
> Maslenitsa for this year is Feb 8-14, btw - just around the corner.
> http://www.sras.org/russian_holidays
>
> Anyone else have ideas?
>
>
>
> Josh Wilson
> Assistant Director
> The School of Russian and Asian Studies
> Editor in Chief
> Vestnik, The Journal of Russian and Asian Studies
> SRAS.org
> jwilson at sras.org
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
> [mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Inna Caron
> Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 5:53 PM
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] National Russian Week - the date?
>
> What about September 8th? Historically, it has been a great Russian holiday
> (Rozhdestvo Bogoroditsy/The Nativity of the Theotokos), and it is also the
> date of the epic Kulikovo Battle (1380) and of the opening of the
> Tysiacheletie Rossii/1000 Years of Russia memorial in Velikii Novgorod
> (1862).
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
> [SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] on behalf of David Powelstock
> [powelstock at BRANDEIS.EDU]
> Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 8:08 PM
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] National Russian Week?
>
> A great idea, Devin! Maybe we could get the folks at Russian Life Magazine
> involved. As for a date, I don't know. There really isn't any consensus
> national holiday, is there? International Women's Day? We tend to celebrate
> IWD at Brandeis -- partly because it's amusingly sentimental, partly because
> it comes as the weather starts getting warmer, but while school is in
> session. Ivan-Kupala, pagan edition? Falls in summer, no good.
>
> David Powelstock
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
> [mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Devin Browne
> Sent: Monday, January 25, 2010 9:04 AM
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> Subject: [SEELANGS] National Russian Week?
>
> Has the profession (whatever that means) ever considered establishing a
> National Russian Week in the U.S.?  As a French and Russian teacher, I've
> seen how effective National French Week can be in raising awareness in my
> school about what kinds of things are going on in the French-speaking world
> as well as in my classroom.  It would be helpful to have something similar
> in Russian.  I've contemplated doing my own thing and coinciding it with...
> well, um.... the only thing I could find on the internet was Russian Fashion
> Week in April and October.  Maybe that's a little over the top, but I'm open
> to suggestions!  :-)
>
> Devin
>
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