The picture reflects the appeal and beauty of Russian popular holiday, which symbolizes the departure of the long winter. Fairs, festivities, travelling shows appeal to Kustodiyev as manifestations of the people's creative energy. The painting is a materialization of the artist's fancy. It is striking in its amalgamation of panoramic space and faithfully reproduced details. The picture is seen both as a real-life scene witnessed when awake, and as a painting on a lacquer box. To convey the colourful nature of folk holiday, the master adopts a form close to folk art. The snow-covered fairy-tale land is all motion: we see racing troikas, flashing colours of vivid clothes, interplay of many hues on the snow. The artist is equally attracted to the domes of churches and of merry-go-rounds: they are all examples of the natural life of the people. The energy of movement and the joy of living seem to be in a hurry to break the enchantment of the winter's cold kingdom. But for all that, the festive mood is inseparable from the involuntary feeling of the ephemeral nature of this world, doomed to pass