Feast your eyes on the craziest Maslenitsa celebrations to rock Russia this year. Yes, that is an elephant made of bliny.
Eduard Kornienko / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA Maslenitsa, the traditional Slavic end-of-winter festival, isn’t just about eating bliny (crepe-like pancakes) with caviar or jam anymore. It’s also about finding new ways to celebrate the coming of spring that can hopefully garner a few likes on Twitter or VKontakte. For example, in the Leningrad region, one group performed their traditional burning of the chuchelo , a large effigy placed on a stake, using a flamethrower.