Lithuanian traditional holidays

1. Lithuanian traditional holidays KAIŠIADORYS VACLOVAS GIRŽADAS SECONDARY SCHOOL COMENIUS PROJECT “DEVELOPMENT OF A STEADY SCHOOL WITH QUALITATIVE EUROPEAN EDUCATION”

2. Christmas Eve Preparations for Christmas Eve take all day. The house is cleaned, the food is prepared. People fast and don’t eat meat. Christmas Eve supper is the sacred family ritual which draws the family members closer, banding everyone and strengthening warm family ties. Twelve different dishes are served on the table because Jesus had twelve apostles. All the dishes are strictly meatless.

3. Christmas Eve When everyone is assembled at the table, a prayer is said. The father then takes a wafer and offers it to the mother wishing her a Happy Christmas. She offers the father her wafer in return. The father then offers his wafer to every family member or a guest at the table. After that everybody eats Christmas Eve supper.

4. Christmas Christmas, the ancient festival of the return of the Sun, was known in most pre-Christian European nations. It celebrates victory over the winter’s darkness, the virtual start of the new year. Beginning with Christmas, the day begin to lengthen in Lithuania. The dark gloomy days of November and December, begin to end. When the festival of the Sun’s return was changed to the feast of Christ’s Nativity, Lithuanians adopted it with enthusiasm and celebrated it with equal Solemnity In today’s Christmas we still find many old customs, especially charms and predictions.

5. Feast of St. John the baptist This is a midsummer feast celebrated since the earliest unrecorded times not only in Lithuania but in many other European countries.

6. The Wedding Day Certain nationalities believe the groom cannot see his bride on the wedding day until they meet at the church altar. Otherwise, their married life will be unhappy. The Lithuanians do not have this custom. On the day of the wedding, the groom and his attendants arrive at the bride’s home, bring her a wedding bouquet and she in turn pins a flower to his lapel. Before leaving for church, the bride’s parents bless them both together. They enter the church together walking arm in arm to the alter. There is no custom of the father leading the bride and “giving her away” to the young man at the altar.

7. SHROVE TUESDAY The last day before the start of Lent is called shrove Tuesday. The following day, Ash Wednesday, starts the long, solemn and lean period of Lent. In the past, abstinence was very strict: no meat at all could be eaten for seven weeks and milk could only be used occasionally; adults ate only three times a day and only once a full meal. Parties, dances, songs and entertainment were forbidden more by tradition than by the Church. As a result, people tried to be merry and noisy on Shrove Tuesday and to eat much rich food to “ sustain them throughout Lent.”

8. SHROVE TUESDAY At least nine meals ( in some places- twelve) with meat and rich foods were prepared. All the eating and merriment had to end before the midnight because that marked the beginning of the Lenten fast. To keep the festivities from running over, certain places in Lithuania rang the church bells at eleven o’clock at night so everyone would know it was time to end the partying and go home.

9. Masks for a Lithuanian carnival were home-made. They were very imaginative and inventive, although created from ordinary materials found in the immediate area: tree bark, fur, flax fibers, wheel rims, lumber, tow, etc. Here are some examples of the ingenuity of the rural population.

10. THE WEDDING An old-fashioned Lithuanian wedding lasted about a week. Many old customs were closely tied to the lifestyle and beliefs of the Lithuanian of that time. Many old customs once performed on the wedding day, have now been transferred to the wedding eve ceremonies. This is a special pre-nuptial celebration for the bridal couple, and should not be confused with American “bridal shower” of gifts for the bride. The Lithuanian wedding eve is much more significant and its meaning is more profound.

11. The Wedding Eve In early times, gifts consisted of articles necessary for daily life. Today it is more accepted to bring to the reception a beautifully engraved card containing a monetary gift. The wedding eve for the bride is planned either on the eve of ceremony or one to two weeks earlier. Its purpose is to bid farewell to the male or female friend about to wed.

12. The bride invites the bridesmaids. From among the bridesmaids the bride selects one witch is called the maid of honor. The bride also selects the svočia. The svočia looks after the bride and sees to it that the guests are properly served and lack nothing. Svočia does provide the wedding cake. The Lithuanian wedding cake is a raguolis decorated with flowers and greens. The groom selects as many groomsmen as there are bridesmaids. He also chooses the svotas. This is his guardian and helper at the wedding. He looks after the guests, starts the singing, propose toasts to the newlyweds’ health and happiness.

13. The groom selects his best man from among the other groomsmen. So, the groom, bride, ushers, bridesmaids, svotas and svočia comprise the basic structure of a modern Lithuanian wedding. Then come the parents of the bride and groom. The parents are like important wedding guests who raised the bride and groom and therefore earned the right to enjoy their children’s wedding without care.

14. The Wedding Day On the morning of the wedding, the groom and his attendants arrive at the bride’s home, bring her wedding bouquet and she in turn pins s flower to his lapel. Before leaving for church, the bride’s parents bless them both together. The bride rides to church with her bridesmaids, brother, close relatives and svočia. The groom travels with his groomsmen and svotas. All the attendants walk in pairs behind the bridal couple, starting with the maid of honor and the best man.

15. A “gate” is made for the wedding party on the way to the reception. A gate can be fashioned by stretching a rope, a pole, a string of colored ribbons or balloons: just so the wedding party is forced to stop. Svotas or best man ransoms the way for the wedding party by handing out candies, chocolates or bottles of refreshments to those who built the barrier.

16. At the entrance to the reception, the couple is met by all four parents. On a plate they hold a slice of bread, a pinch of salt and a glass of wine decorated with rue. The parents welcome the newlyweds, who break off a morsel of bread, dip it in the salt and eat it. They then take a sip of wine. Both drink from one glass because they will share everything in life, everything from then on will be done together. Once inside, the newlyweds are greeted with march. They walk to their table accompanied by the groomsmen and bridesmaids.

17. The matchmaker’s trial and “hanging” toward the end of the reception enlivened the proceedings at a time when the guests had already eaten, drunk and sung their fill and were somewhat tired. When the svotas hears the court’s verdict, he becomes very upset. He runs to hide among the guests . The men bring a rope made of straw, chase the culprit as he tries to hide and prepare to hang him. Svotas runs to the bride, falls to his knees and plead. The bride takes pity on him, throws a sash or towel over his shoulder and waves away the pursuers. Svotas thanks her, gives the musicians a signal and leads the bride to the dance floor.

18. Soon after this entertainment, the newlyweds prepare to leave. The parents of the couple sit at the table occupied by the newlyweds and the bridal party all evening. Svočia takes the bride by the hand, svotas leadthe groom by the arm and all four approach the parents. The parents give their blessing and wish them a happy married life. The newlyweds cross the length of the hall toward the door. The musicians play a march and the groomsmen and bridesmaids form an “arch” near the door through witch the couple must pass. The arch is made of sashes held overhead.