Advent period in Lithuania

Dear friends, the year is coming to its end so it’s time to prepare for Christmas as we do it in Lithuania year by year during Advent period. Advent is the period before Christmas, starting approximately around the Day of St Andrew (November 30th) and lasting till Christmas day (December 25th). Before Christianity it was believed that it is necessary to wait for the returning sun to roll down the winter stone, the most sacral event which was due to happen on December 24th -25th . The ancient Romans celebrated a number of midwinter festivals: Saturnalia on December 17th- 24th -, the sowing of winter crops, Brumalia on December 25th - celebrated the return of the Invincible Sun (winter solstice) and the Calends on January 1rs celebrated the start of the New Year. In time, Christian celebration of Christmas eclipsed all of the above, but some of the ancient customs, such as decking houses with evergreens, giving presents and feasting, became a part of the Christmas tradition. The Lithuanian name for Christmas, Kaledos, comes from the Latin word for Calends, Kalendae.

After the baptism of Lithuania Advent became the period of waiting for baby Jesus to be born. Some people say that during Advent everybody is waiting for the guest. “While we are waiting for him we are preparing. We have to clean our homes, cook best meals, which we eat only on holidays, spruce ourselves. People should become cleaner both bodily and spiritually.” – says Danutė Kunčienė, the leader of Herbal Academy. The older Lithuanian Christmas customs and traditions reflect the rural lifestyle of Lithuanians who lived on small family farms, grew their own crops, raised their own livestock. Everything they did, they ate, , was intimately tied to the cycle of the seasons and to the products of their own labor. As Lithuania is situated in northern Europe, during Christmas the country is in a grip of a cold winter. The ground is covered with snow, lakes and rivers are frozen. All nature seems to be in a deep sleep except for the evergreen fir and pine trees. There are no fresh flowers, no fresh fruit, no fresh vegetables. So, the time of Advent is meant for rest: we rest our bodies from heavy fat food, we rest our minds from joyful, loud celebrations. In this period it is time to talk to oneself rather than to others. Written documents mention different restrictions typical of this period. It was believed the people should not cut forest, people who did that heard human voices coming from trees, houses built of such trees were haunted. It was not recommended to hunt animals, cut sheep etc. as it was believed that for some time human souls were incarnated in animals and trees. Due to the restrictions on work people had more time to come together and watch the natural phenomena, which helped them to forecast future. For example, it was cold on Advent, the coming summer would be hot with thunderstorms. Starlit sky forecasted a lot of fish and big snowflakes meant good year for flax.

In ancient times before Christmas hired workers returned home, their service period being over.As part of youths married in autumn, the somewhat shattered youth community consolidated to experience the time of its utmost activity.

In many places, a custom of daily gatherings to have fun and enjoyment existed. Such merrymaking was common even on workdays. In some places, merry processions of costumed people through villages lasted all 12 days. In quite a big area of north-eastern Lithuania, a custom of “going Gypsy” existed. Boys not only fooled around playing but also teased girls and poured water on assembled people. People were telling magic stories, playing games singing special rhymes and praying. It was also time for young people to find “someone special” for the future life. One more very important moment was that during Advent period people had time to apologise their neighbours and relatives and forgive others, the time for the family members to come together and giving each other love and attention.

At our school we have a tradition to celebrate an Advent party in order to spend some time together before the Christmas holiday and to learn more about Lithuanian traditions of this period.We do it not only for ourselves but also invite some people from our community.

As usually, our honourable guest was priest Petras, who blessed us and told us about the significance of the whole Christmas period, and Advent in particular. Dovilė and Modestas were the hosts of the party, presenting the most important facts and traditions, related to Advent. The group of singers, accompanied by Music teacher Rita were singing traditional Advent songs and the group of dancers were teaching everybody to dance and play games. Students from different classes told us some entertaining stories. taught how to play traditional games. The table traditionally was laid with white tablecloth and we were treated with “kučiukai” – typical dice-shaped Christmas Eve bread with poppy seeds.

At the end of the party our headmaster Vaidute Sumkauskiene wished everybody merry and happy Christmas and New Year. With this party we actually finished the studies this year and started Christmas Holiday.