The Birch

IF America did not exist, Russia would have to invent it. In a sense it already has: first as a dream, then as a nightmare. No other country looms so large in the Russian psyche. To Kremlin ideologists, the very concept of Russia’s sovereignty depends on being free of America’s influence.

fyeaheasterneurope:

Kurentovanje, held in Ptuj, is Slovenia’s largest Carnival celebration. Participants this year dressed as traditional mummers, poked fun of politicians, and dressed as scantily as possible in the February cold.

(Source.)

Kaunas, Lithuania 

(Smithsonian Photo of the Day) 

In Soviet Russia you don’t find love, love finds you… 

David Banks and Nathan Jurgenson on that disturbing Russian export: dashcam crash videos

This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent for the Catholic Church. Traditionally, during the forty-day long season of Lent, Catholics were required to abstain from all meat, dairy and egg products. (Since Vatican II, however, these regulations have diminished to meatless Fridays only.)

In the days before Ash Wednesday, it was requisite to clean out one’s cupboards of all the butter, eggs, milk and cream that had accumulated.
Hence, the week before Lent became a time of donuts, fried dough, and other calorie-rich, fat-saturated foods.

Here are the Polish standards:

Paczki: 

— and even with some whipped cream on top —

Also, how Packzi’s are made:

(The website also offers a recipe, in case you’re feeling particularly adventurous.)

Chrusciki (Angel Wings) are also a popular pre-Lenten fare:

They’re much simpler than Puszki: just dough, fried and coated in confectioner’s sugar. Source. 

In the US, Chicago is the city to be when you’re looking for these Polish treats. One bakery alone will be making 80,000 donuts for Fat Tuesday. Detroit and Buffalo also have enthusiastic Paczki fans.

In NYC, Greenpoint is the place to look for these traditional treats.

Tuesday, February 11th, NYU’s Jordan Center presents “Siberian Mestizos: Nation and Race in Asian Russia, 1860s-1920s.” The lecture, by David Rainbox, will discuss the idea of “Siberian nationality,” and reflect on Russia’s eighteenth and nineteenth-century political culture. More information can be found at the Jordan’s website.

Wednesday afternoon, David L. Phillips, director of the Program on Peace-building and Human Rights at Columbia’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights and former advisor in the U.S. Department of State, will be discussing “Intervention”. The talk will address issues regarding the US’ intervention in foreign conflicts, focusing on Kosovo, the subject of Phillip’s recent book. More details can be found on the Harriman website.

This year is the 400th Anniversary of the House of the Romanov, and the Harriman Institute, along with the Slavic Department of Columbia University, will be devoting two days, from Feb. 14th to Feb. 16th, to examine the Romanovs’ history and legacy. During the conference, panels will discuss various aspects of Romanov rule (“Romanovs and the Jewish Question,” “Romanovs and Art”…). The conference opens Thursday afternoon with a keynote address from acclaimed historian Richard Wortman. More information can be found here.

If you’re still looking for that perfect Valentine’s, the Brooklyn Banya (602 Coney Island Ave.) will be hosting “A Steamy Valentine’s Night at the Russian Baths”, with the Hungry March Band, plates of pierogies, and (achem) an open vodka bar. The New Yorker writes: “the only [party] where you’ll come out cleaner than when you came in…” The party goes from 7pm-2am on February 14th.

On a more serious note, Sunday Feb. 17th is the last day to see Renata Poljak’s exhibition “Uncertain Memories” at the Stephan Stoyanov Gallery. Through video and photography, the Croatian artists examines history, memory, and the power of political ideologies. More information, and links to several of Poljak’s works, can be found at the Gallery’s website.

Last week, I was awoken at 3 a.m. by a frantic “Zuzka, are you okay?” In the middle of the week, when I had to get up at 7 the next day, my dear, very FOB-y, and very Slovak mother was calling me because she just had a nightmare. She dreamed that I fell off a white horse, which all sane people interpret as a symbol of death. Or at least so says my mom and all her friends. Fortunately, my grandmother’s dream dictionary interprets the white horse as a “broken promise,” so I might make it after all.

Later that day, my mother called to complain that my Brazilian stepfather only gave her a blank stare when she told him about her premonition – white horses are apparently not a harbinger of death in Brazilian dreamology. This episode, along with my mother’s constant nagging about my imminent death, got me thinking: why does she react this way to a dream? Moreover, to what extent is her reaction an expression representative of a cultural value?

And so, I turned to the source of all knowledge *~the internetz~* and started googling. Naturally, when I typed in “EasternEurope+superstition,” I was flooded with results detailing the various different “superstitions” practiced in Russia and the surrounding region. Yes, yes, I know not to hug someone over a threshold (you and your close one will experience emotional separation), not to buy any baby items before the baby is born (my mother still refuses to go to her American friends’ baby showers), and I know I am doomed for the day if I return home to pick up something I forgot. I was not surprised: I grew up with these superstitions and I know many people who follow them. But are Eastern European superstitious traditions in any way different from the rest of the world?

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Found this poking around The Birch’s web traffic report for last month and was wondering what the hell was going on. Why so much love for “woman kvass?” Turns out we have the top google image search result for “woman kvass.” Congrats us!

(via quienesestanina-deactivated2013)