Arūnas Vaicekauskas ANCIENT LITHUANIAN CALENDAR FESTIVALS
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Arūnas Vaicekauskas ANCIENT LITHUANIAN CALENDAR FESTIVALS VERSUS AUREUS 2014 Reviewed by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dalia Senvaitytė Translated by Dr. Jurgita Macijauskaitė-Bonda Approved by the Department of Cultural Studies and Ethnology of Faculty of Humanities at Vytautas Magnus University on 10 March 2014 (Protocol No. 2) Recommended for printing by the Council of the Faculty of Humanities of Vytautas Magnus University on 12 March 2014 (Protocol No. 1-2) Publication is supported by the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania. Project title: “Strengthening of the Lithuanian (Baltic) studies activities with collaboration between universities abroad and Lithuania higher education institutions” (VP1-2.2-ŠMM-08-V-02-006) ISBN 978-609-467-018-3 (spausdintas), ISBN 978-9955-34-648-1 (spausdintas) ISBN 978-609-467-017-6 (internete), ISBN 978-9955-34-467-4 (internete) © Arūnas Vaicekauskas, 2014 © Jurgita Macijauskaitė-Bonda, translation, 2014 © Vytautas Magnus University, 2014 Table of Contents Foreword ____________________________________________________________ 5 Culture and the Rhythms of Nature: the Peasant (Folk) Calendar ___________ 11 Advent _____________________________________________________________ 21 Christmas Eve _______________________________________________________ 23 Epiphany __________________________________________________________ 47 Shrovetide __________________________________________________________ 55 St George’s Day _____________________________________________________ 75 Easter ______________________________________________________________ 89 Pentecost __________________________________________________________ 111 St John’s Day _______________________________________________________ 115 Harvest Home _____________________________________________________ 131 Assumption Day ___________________________________________________ 139 All Souls’ Day ______________________________________________________ 141 The Power of Tradition: the Peasant and Magic _________________________ 157 Myth in the Peasant Calendar ________________________________________ 165 For Further Reading ________________________________________________ 179 Main Bibliography __________________________________________________ 181 ANCIENT LITHUANIAN CALENDAR FESTIVALS 4 Foreword Contemporary linguistic studies are barely imaginable without the studies of the Lithu- anian language and culture. Linguistics reveals the grammatical history of the language. However, without wider studies of Lithuania’s cultural history it is almost impossible to perceive why the oldest living Indo-European language remained almost unchanged for millenniums. We may get acquainted with regional cultures by employing different means, as for instance, studying their political history or economic development, or being interested in their achievements in science, music or sports. Nevertheless, regional culture is best of all represented by its festive calendar, the festivals that are celebrated, as well as fes- tive customs and traditions. Why? Collective memory is a necessary condition for the survival of any social group, and the festive ritual has performed the duty of collect- ing and transmitting this collective memory throughout the millenniums. This included everything from the flow of knowledge society used to single out vitally important ex- periences useful both for practical purposes and the symbolic meaning, belonging to the sphere of the imaginable reality. By giving it the shape of festive beliefs and rituals, soci- ety would place it among other festive events. Peasant customs and traditions preserved this purpose until the very end of the 19th century, i.e., until the model of communal vil- lage life remained alive. Therefore, festive rituals always reflect not only particular kinds of cultural worldviews, but also the peculiarities of the social and economic structure of society or its dominant ideological powers. For this reason, the studies of festive rituals can provide a lot of information on the peculiarities of the regional culture. However, here we face another problem – texts on national cultures are usually written in national languages or are very specialized and thus interesting only to a narrow circle of specialists, whereas texts conforming to the expectations of a wider circle of readers come to the light of the day quite rarely. For in- stance, in English, the dominant language of the global world, only two books on Lithu- anian calendar festivals have been released: a bilingual book “Lithuanian customs and 5 ANCIENT LITHUANIAN CALENDAR FESTIVALS traditions / Lietuvių papročiai ir tradicijos išeivijoje” not provide information on New Year’s celebrations, by Danutė Brazytė-Bindokienė published in 1989 in St Valentine’s Day or other festivals that are popular Chicago and the translation of “The World Outlook now but were not known to Lithuanian peasants until of the Ancient Balts” by Norbertas Vėlius (1989). The the beginning of the 20th century. first, based on data collected in inter-war ethnograph- The target readership of this book is manifold. ic periodicals, has become antiquated both methodo- While writing it, the author, first of all, thought about logically and morally, whereas the second discusses Lithuanians in diaspora, spread right around the calendar festivals in terms of a narrowly specialized world. Representatives of the third generation, re- conception by matching certain single festivals to the gardless of their affection towards their native culture, peculiarities of the geographically extrapolated tri- rarely speak Lithuanian. This is predetermined by the nary world outlook of the Balts. surroundings of where they live – the natural aim to This aim of this book is to present ancient Lithu- integrate into the surrounding social environment, anian calendar festivals that were celebrated by peas- which always becomes a stimulus in the processes of ants living in the rural areas of Lithuania. The author’s acculturation. However, language is not the main fac- main interest is focused on the in-depth meaning of tor that determines the individual’s national-cultural customs and rituals. Chronologically the book consid- identity, and the relationship between generations ers the period from the 14th to the first half of the 20th sooner or later stimulates interest in the sources of the century (even though the main focus is on the 19th to culture of one’s ancestors. the first half of the 20th centuries), therefore, it does Professors and students of the centres of Lithua- nian studies were not overlooked, nor were foreign colleagues who continue to ask for different kinds of information or one or another element of Lithuanian culture that they had heard about at a conference or had read in an English summary of an article in the Lithuanian language. Paradoxically, a rather wide group of the target readership is determined by the contemporary European integration processes. Ex- pansion of the European Union, its expansion to in- corporate new countries, new tourist environments and economic zones prompt curious people to learn more about the features of regional cultures. As the book is dedicated to a wide circle of readers, the author consciously avoids being overly academic 6 ANCIENT LITHUANIAN CALENDAR FESTIVALS and foregoes analysis of narrow scientific problems. significance. The most distinguished among them However, nor does the author aim to simply present were Christmas, Shrovetide, St George’s Day, Easter, factographical material. The group of Lithuanian cal- Pentecost, Midsummer Day, Assumption Day, and endar festivals here is described with reference to the All Souls’ Day. In spoken language these festivals theoretical approaches of contemporary anthropol- were called great (Lith. didžiosios) or annual (Lith. ogists and ethnologists, focusing on the sources and metinės) festivals. Most calendar festivals are celebrat- continuity of the agrarian-ritual tradition as well as ed on fixed dates, whereas dates of the movable Easter innovative changes that might be observed by tak- cycle festivals change every year. Therefore, dates of ing into consideration both global and local econom- the feasts of Ascension, Pentecost, and Corpus Christi ical-social-cultural alterations. A list of the most im- also change, because they are celebrated after a certain portant books and articles that the author refers to is number of days after Easter. The date of Shrovetide presented at the end of the book. also changes yearly and depends on the Easter date. In the 19th–20th centuries, the festive calendar of The book limits itself to presentation of the main Lithuanians had around twenty festive days of major festivals of the ritual year cycle, even though peasant 7 ANCIENT LITHUANIAN CALENDAR FESTIVALS society used to perform rituals and referred to customs during all the moments of life that it considered exis- tentially important. For instance, the right beginning and end of a task for a peasant who had preserved the fundamentals of magical thinking was no less relevant than the main calendar festivals, which were supposed to guarantee the existence to the whole community. Therefore, the beginning and the end of every specific task, such as driving animals out of the cowshed for the first time in spring, ploughing of the first furrow, sowing, haymaking, harvesting, flax-breaking, etc., was accompanied by various rituals, magic actions, superstitions, and beliefs, which were supposed