On the last day of Maslenitsa (26 February), Tsaritsyno museum and park will hold a grand tea party. It is expected that on Forgiveness Sunday, Tsaritsyno visitors will drink over 200 litres of tea from 30 samovars for free.
The museum’s press service reports that fire-heated samovars holding five to 10 litres each will be put on a long line of tables covered with a tablecloth. The tables will be located near the main entrance. The tea party will begin at 2 pm and last for two hours.
The tea party will be preceded by a festive parade across the park with comic minstrels and other traditional Maslenitsa entertainment, including a felt boot throwing contest and a tug of war. During the festival week, the park will host a fair selling pancakes with various fillings and much more.
At Victory Park on Poklonnaya Gora, the traditional effigy burning on the last day of Maslenitsa will be replaced with a “sun” hovering five metres above the ground on a three-metre pole.
The sun will be set on fire on Sunday, 26 February, on the hill at the park entrance. The show will begin at 8 pm. The sun will be surrounded by windmills powered by fire fountains that will make them turn and whistle. The windmills will look as if they have sparkling silhouettes. Each windmill will be fitted with whistles and torches. These will be replicas of fireworks that entertained the public in the 18th century Moscow.
“Unlike the sun that will burn down, the windmills will burn with cold fire that doesn’t destroy them,” the Victory Park press service reports.
The fire show site will be fenced off for safety. Visitors can watch the burning sun and swirling windmills from a distance.
Last year, the Maslenitsa festival in Moscow included 1,500 events at 500 venues. The main festivities took place on 5-13 March in city parks. Manezhnaya Square hosted a video mapping show on the exhibition centre’s façade.