Reflection of the image of the holiday "Seeing off the Russian winter" in the media of the Republic of Moldova

One of the popular Russian spring folk traditions is the “Seeing off the Russian winter” holiday, also known as Maslenitsa. This holiday marks the end of the reign of winter and the meeting of spring. The purpose of this study was to identify the image of the Maslenitsa folk festival in the discourse of print and online media in the Republic of Moldova. In newspaper articles, attention is paid to the history of the celebration of the “Seeing off the Russian winter” by the Russian community of Moldova. For example, the newspaper “Russkoe slovo” noted that such events have been held since the beginning of the 90s of the XX century for the last 3 decades. The majority of mass media highlighted the following main elements of the celebration of Maslenitsa: folk songs, tug-of-war, competition for the most beautiful maiden braid, cutting firewood, playing snowballs, exhibitions of handicrafts of folk craftsmen, cooking pancakes, burning a scarecrow. It should also be noted that at the moment Maslenitsa has turned into a multinational holiday, where there was a mutual influence of the cultures of various ethnic groups living in Moldova. So, in addition to Russian culture, the cultures of Moldovans, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Bulgarians and Gagauzians were presented at the festive events. Due to the fact that the coronavirus pandemic has changed the usual course of life, the ritual forms have also changed. The celebration has moved to online platforms. For example, “Gastronomic Maslenitsa” was broadcast on video hosting sites, where the organizers prepared pancakes with various fillings and other festive dishes