Maslenitsa

In 2025 Shrove Tuesday falls on the same period in the Lutheran and Eastern Orthodox calendar, so we can celebrate two festivals at once, and they were considered to have a connection to women in both traditions.

In the old days it was around Shrove Tuesday that rural families in Estonia usually ran out of meat stocked for the winter. The best-known Shrove Tuesday tradition is sledging down a slope as a somewhat magical ritual: it was believed that a long slide meant good flax harvest, which would bring prosperity to the farm. As the majority of flax processing jobs were done by women, Shrove Tuesday was when women were not supposed to work and could party and have fun, and this is why Shrove Tuesday is also known as women’s festive day.

Eastern Orthodox Christians use the Julian calendar to hold traditional festivals. The festivities last for the entire week known as Maslenitsa. This is the time to eat rich foods, pay visits, play folk games and enjoy winter pastimes before the long seven-week Lent. Setos, who are Eastern Orthodox believers, also consider this period to be meant for women’s festivities with a special celebration held on the Thursday of this week.

Härjapea farm – Newest Shrove Tuesday trends of the 1930s

The hostess and her younger sister are discussing how Shrove Tuesday traditions have changed and how get-togethers of the old times held at the inn have been replaced with masquerade balls at the community hall. Together, the women are cooking the traditional pea soup with pig trotters, baking cookies by the latest recipes and drinking red-coloured liquor. In the back room, you can have a look at the gorgeous hats and masks for the masquerade ball.

Lau shop – Red liquor and sweets

Come on in, dear guests! This is where you can buy red-coloured liquors to enjoy on Shrove Tuesday – for women’s good health and lively complexion throughout the year! There is also a nice selection of hard candy, pastila and marshmallow for kids.

Kuie school – Spinners to ward off spirits; Shrovetide song workshops

Pig trotters were traditionally cooked as Shrove Tuesday food, and their bones were used to make spinners. When these spin, they make a distinct buzzing sound, which was believed to scare away evil spirits. In the school building, you can make a spinner and see if its buzzing will protect you from evil.

Folk musician Leanne Barbo will be teaching a workshop on Shrovetide songs. Songs to accompany traditional sledging down the slope were sung in various regions of Estonia to make the ride more fun and ensure good flax growth for the summer.

Kolga farm yard – Games to warm you up 
If you feel a bit chilly, try skiing on historical wooden skis and playing fun Shrovetide games: there’s rag ball chasing (to repel bad luck), a game of “chasing pigs to the field”, a game of oxen or a game of horse-drawn carriage. From the farm yard, you can see the sledging slope and make it your next stop.

Kolga barn-shed building houses the exhibition ‘Every little step counts’.

There’s a guided tour in the shed to see the museum’s farm animals at 11.00, 12.00. 13.00, 14.00 and 15.00. Did you know about the tradition of throwing three heaps of manure into the field on Shrove Tuesday to make it nicely fat?

Kolkhoz apartment building – Shrovetide beauty tips, fluffy ‘vastlakukkel’ rolls, and ‘wind bunnies’

Shrove Tuesday was considered a women’s festive day in the folk calendar, and great attention was paid to beauty.

In the 2019 apartment, the traditional culture enthusiast Piret Kutser will be telling the visitors folk tales about how women in the past took care of their beauty and what options we have today. The talks start at 11.30, 12.30 and 13.30. We will be discussing soap as well as herbal treatments for the skin and hair and making skin cream.

In the 1978 apartment, Laine is baking traditional Estonian semla rolls known as ‘vastlakukkel’.

 
In the basement, there’s a workshop on making ‘wind bunnies’. Come by to learn who or what these are!

Village green between Setu farm and the Russian house from Peipus – Shrovetide festivities

The last days of the Shrovetide week in the Russian Orthodox tradition are meant for great outdoor festivities. We, too, will light bonfires on the village green, heat up our samovars, tell the fortune judging by the way pancakes look, play folk games and enjoy life.  

At 15.00, we’ll hold the ritual of burning a straw doll that symbolises the leaving winter. Spectators can bring small cloth ribbons and throw them in the fire to dispose of anything unpleasant in their lives.

Old building on Setu farm – Making straw dolls and flax processing

In the old building on Setu farm, we’ll be making ritual straw dolls to send the winter off.

In the shed on Setu farm, you can see the stages of traditional flax processing and learn what it has to do with Shrove Tuesday.

New building on Setu farm – Making pancakes in the Russian stove and fortune-telling

Hearty pancakes made in the Russian stove and eaten with various fillings are the traditional Shrovetide food for Eastern Orthodox believers. Certain fillings have to be used on each day of the Shrovetide week, and pancakes have certain meanings. The browned pancake symbolises the sun, which will hold victory over the long winter and bring along the long-awaited spring.

Russian house from Peipus – Cooking Shrovetide foods of Russian Old Believers and talking about Shrovetide traditions

Sledging slope and ice merry-go-round – Let’s go down the slope! 

You can bring your own sled on the sledging slope and have a nice long slide and try riding a Finnish sled or other popular sled substitutes, for example, fir branches, pans, or washbasins.

There will be an ice merry-go-round if the pond freezes over.  
Just like in old times, there will be a bonfire on our sledging slope to protect future flax plants from anything bad.

Horse rides are common ways to celebrate both Shrove Tuesday and Maslenitsa. The stops are located on the usual spot opposite Kolu inn and on the village green between Setu farm and the Russian house from Peipus. Horse rides are available from 11.00 to 16.00.

Kolu inn – concert and Shrovetide foods

Performance by the Chuvash indie-folk band Tarai at 13.00.

The inn will be offering pea soup, ‘vastlakukkel’ rolls and lots of other delicious dishes.

HOW TO FIND US?

• By car: free parking at the parking lot at the main entrance of the museum and the back gate of the museum (about 1 km in the direction of Kakumäe).

• By public transport: buses No. 21 and 21B will bring you to the main entrance of the museum (bus stop Rocca al Mare) or to the rear gate closer to the event location (bus stop Õismäe raba). Buses No. 41 and 41b will get you from the museum to the city centre.