South Kazakhstan residents celebrate Maslenitsa

SHYMKENT. KAZINFORM - The Pancake Week is over. This year South Kazakhstan residents saw the winter off to the fullest, Kazinform reports.

A lot of guests from the districts took part in the partying at the Assembly of the Peoples of Kazakhstan. There were sports' competitions, like tug-of-war and felt-boot hurling. The best were the guests from Sairam district. For the youngest participants there was arranged a puppet show. Adults took part in lottery and quiz activities. Of course, there was also a fair of pancakes, honey and souvenirs.

The main part was the cookie house made of over 1,000 cookies and 15kg of icing sugar. It took the bakers 5 days to make the cake.

One of the Slavic rites of winter farewell is burning the straw man.