Carnival always seems to be a strange concept to the mainly protestant English. I was surprised to find that in Somerset, carnival is held in November, and seems to have no religious background at all, being merely an excuse for dressing up and collecting money for charity.
However, wherever I have lived, there seems to be some celebration at this time of the year, whether religious or pagan.
Shrove Tuesday, (or Mardi Gras) the beginning of Lent, has a religious purpose and so one can understand a little fun goes a long way when preparing for a 40 day fast till Easter. But as always, where there is a fun pagan festival, then the Catholic Church manages to coopt it into the religious event at the same point of the calendar. The Protestants don't manage to have quite so much fun.
Pancakes racing in Britain on Shrove Tuesday
Shrove Tuesday is the day you confess all your sins before Lent and get shriven by the priest. It's also a time for pancakes, to use up the flour and eggs, and other rich food which is banned in Lent. Pancake races are thought to have begun in 1445. A woman had lost track of the time on Shrove Tuesday, and was busy cooking pancakes in her kitchen. Suddenly she heard the church bell ringing to call the faithful to church for confession. The woman raced out of her house and ran all the way to church; still holding her frying pan and wearing her apron. One of the most famous pancake races is held at Olney in Buckinghamshire over a 415 yard course. The rules are strict; contestants have to toss their pancake at both the start and the finish, as well as wearing an apron and a scarf. The race is followed by a church service.
But there is also a sadder explanation of the focus on pancakes. Shroving is an English tradition that is several centuries old. It originated as the way the poor survived through the difficult time in the New Year before Spring. Little food could be found at this time of year, even the ingredients for a basic pancake was more than most could afford. There was only one way that the food needed to survive could be gathered; by begging. Not only pancakes were asked for, any donation of food and money was welcomed. Gradually, over years, this expression of the needs of the poorest developed into a more relaxed, and enjoyable, tradition, until eventually it was mainly children who took part in what had become a yearly ritual. On the early morning of Shrove Tuesday, the children would dress up, and go from house to house, singing the local version of the Shroving song, to sing for their Shrove Cakes and other treats. They would call only at the houses of the gentry and farmers, those most likely to be able to afford the ingredients necessary.
After that, one could ask whether this great fast arose out of religious fervour or economic necessity.
Uzgavenes In Lithuania
The Lithuanians were the last Europeans to convert to Christianity as late as 1387. This means that today, they still keep some of their pagan traditions. For Uzgavenes the holiday consists of processions, costumes, tom foolery, games, and plays. The main parts are: receiving guests with treats; rides and races; processing the More statue and then destroying her by fire; plays with people costumed as animals, strangers and mythological beings; performing the war of Winter with Spring symbolized by the Lasininis (the bacon-being) with the Kanapinis ( the hemp-being); portraying weddings or funerals; spraying people with water; fortune-telling.
The main foods of the holiday are pancakes, jelly-filled french-fried dumplings and a hodgepodge stew of groats, peas and meat. While driving and racing in sleds, everybody tries to tip over so that everybody rolls around in the snow. Sledding about the village(s), the sleigh-riders splash and spray anyone they meet with water.
Costumed people visit their neighbors and neighboring villages. The head of the household greets the strangers by asking "What are you, do you have your papers?" The costumed people respond with "We are poor people from a land that has been pinched away. This land lies on the other side of running water, two weeks away." In each house the entourage visits, one of the guests steals something from the household and tries to sell it to the head of the household, who buys it with food and drink
The traditional costumes are as follows. To act as crane, someone holds a pole with a beak on the end through a sleeve of a fur coat. The crane hops about and tries to pinch people and peck at them. The goat walks around making goat sounds. Children block its way, asking for milk. When someone tries to milk it, the goat kicks over the bucket. The horse tries to kick people. The Hungarian doctor tries to sell his medicine (bottled water), saying "Whoever drinks my potion will regain health with the sweep of a hand." The Death Goddess, Giltine, dressed in black with a white veil over her face, carries a sickle and tries to kill the doctor. The Gypsy carries a baby and a bottle. The Gypsy asks for alms and predicts the future, while the baby cries ceaselessly and pees (pours water) over everything. The beggars sing songs, carry bags and ask for alms. The soldiers wear straw ties as belts and carry straw swords. The wedding party consists of a small fat woman as the groom, a tall thin man as the bride, and others.
In addition to pouring water on people, the wanderers spew ashes all around, carrying them in a sock, which they hit on people's backs. One person carries around a hen's bone and tries to hang people on it. Someone constantly rattles. A group of children buzz like bees under a cloth, and others sprinkle them with water. Someone sells herring from a vat filled with water, but buyers merely get splashed. People go swinging on swings.
The holiday ends with the burning of the straw More which symbolizes the old and is made from the last sheaves from the previous year. Her burning culminates in the victory of the Kanapinis over the Lasininis. 
(From Bieska on Flickr) (From kikasrules on webshots.com)
Maslenitsa (from Wikipedia)
For the Orthodox Church, preparations for Lent require a full week. The essential element of Maslenitsa celebration are bliny, Russian pancakes, popularly taken to symbolize the sun. Round and golden, they are made from the rich foods still allowed by the Orthodox traditions: butter, eggs, and milk.
Maslenitsa also includes masquerades, snowball fights, sledding, swinging on swings and plenty of sleigh rides. In some regions, each day of Maslenitsa had its traditional activity: one day for sleigh-riding, another for the sons-in-law to visit their parents-in-law, another day for visiting the godparents, etc. The mascot of the celebration is usually a brightly dressed straw effigy of Lady Maslenitsa, formerly known as Kostroma.
As the culmination of the celebration, on Sunday evening, Lady Maslenitsa is stripped of her finery, and put to the flames of a bonfire. Any remaining blintzes are also thrown on the fire. Lady Maslenitsa's ashes are buried in the snow (to fertilize the crops), all people ask for forgiveness from each other, and the Great Lent begins. This last day of Maslenitsa is also called 'Forgiveness Sunday'. To devout Orthodox Christians, it is the last day on which dairy products, fish, wine and oil may be consumed.
I seem to remember that the film Barber of Siberia has a big carnival celebration for Maslenitsa.
By now, doesn't all this burning of females sound familiar? Must be something to get rid of the old pagan female religion, and bring in the new Christianity.
Carnival in Slovenia
Kurentovanje is a ten day long rite of spring and fertility, celebrated in Slovenia. The origins of Kurentovanje are not certain, but it is likely connected to Slavic paganism. The central figure of Kurentovanje are Kurents (Kurenti, singular: Kurent), who are characteristically dressed in sheep skin. They wear masks, which are richly decorated. Kurent is believed to be an ancient god of hedonism. Organized in groups, Kurents go through town, from house to house, making noise with bells and wooden sticks, symbolizing scaring off evil spirits and winter. The rite resembles a carnival and lasts for 10 days.
In fact there seem to be two sorts: the pagan variety, as at Ptuj, (which is why I want to go) and the dressing up and having a good time as in Venice, which happens in the south of Slovenia, where there is a bilingual population. In practice, they seem to get a bit mixed up.
This is the pagan variety at Ptuj. As well as these hairy fellows with long snouts, there were also cows, (as in pantomime horses) which could also spray you with water from their rear end. All of them had belts with bells on, so it was a noisy procession. Cracking whips also made a lot of noise. There are plenty more official photos here.
When we arrived on Saturday, there was a short procession with these characters, but also with groups of pirates, local farmers, girls not unrelated to American cheerleaders, and local traditional dress and bands. Many of the audience were also in fancy costumes, especially the children.
My photos were taken by a mobile phone over people's heads, as you can see.
But down in Koper (Capodistria), the TV was showing a full scale carnival with everybody in very elaborate costumes. Unfortunately the Koper municipality website has a lot of broken links so I couldn't find any photographs.
Here is what it says about Rijeka and Carnival on the Rijeka (Croatia, but you get the picture) Municipal website:
International Rijeka Carnival
City of Rijeka is known for its carnival festivities since the Middle Ages. Carnival customs of Rijeka are a particular blend of European middle-class carnivals, foremost Venetian and Austrian carnivals with elements of old Slavic folklore and mythology. Carnival events traditionally take place in squares and streets of the City regardless the weather conditions.
When in 1982 three masked groups paraded through the main street of Rijeka, Korzo nobody could imagine that in course of some years the Carnival would reach the present day proportions and become well known as the International Traditional Rijeka Carnival. In 1990 the masked parade on Korzo was seen by about 80.000 people and in 1994 there was a truly spectacular masked procession with about 100.000 spectators and 4.000 masks from the country and from abroad, which allowed Rijeka to become a member of the Federation of European Carnival Cities (FECC) in 1995. At Rijeka Carnival 2001 there were 72 children carnival groups with 4.200 participants and 144 carnival groups of adults with 10.000 participants from 12 countries, watched by about 110.000 spectators. Thus, the International Rijeka Carnival has been established as one of the biggest in Europe.
Note the "middle class"!
Conclusion
So is the end of winter a cause for celebration or just survival? Is the fast of Lent making a virtue out of necessity, or good for your soul (and cholesterol)? Has the old female religion not yet died out? And don't the traditional costumes look like those that are involved in traditional shamanism?
