Mardi Gras (Užgavėnės)
The ancient rites of banishing winter are identified with Mardi Gras. The Catholic celebration is held 46 days before Easter, usually in February, always on a Tuesday. On the last day before Lent, a last large and fatty meal is allowed, and the next day Lent begins, which lasts until Easter.
It has always been believed that eating a full, fatty meal on Mardi Gras will keep you strong throughout the year. The traditional Mardi Gras meal in Lithuania is pancakes (usually flour or yeast pancakes). On Mardi Gras, every person who visited another’s home had to take a bite of headcheese and other meat dishes, so that no meats remained, as the fasting period of Lent begins the following day, on Ash Wednesday.
One of the most important customs of Mardi Gras is dressing up, disguising oneself as beasts, animals, strangers, devils, witches, demons etc. The masqueraders would put on the scariest possible masks made of tree bark or fur. Festival activities included a fight between the fat Salmon and the skinny Canary which depicted the battle between winter and spring. At the end of the festival, the Morė, a symbol of winter, was usually burnt (sometimes drowned) and the ashes scattered in the fields to banish the evil and pesky winter.
We invite you to see how Lithuanians celebrate Mardi Gras.
Palm Sunday (Verbų sekmadienis)
Palm Sunday is a Christian feast celebrated on the last Sunday before Easter.
In Lithuania, it was believed that on Palm Sunday, everyone must hold onto a juniper branch or other palm in church. It was believed that the consecrated palm, brought into the house, protected the faithful from all evil. On Palm Sunday, it was a tradition to use consecrated junipers and willow branches to protect oneself from possible disasters. Such branches were burned in rooms and fields as incense. People used to keep the palms all year round, and only when the next Palm Sunday approached, according to the ancients, could it be burned. Under no circumstances could it be thrown away.
The most notable custom of Palm Sunday is the whipping of the palm. That morning, the earliest of risers whip those who are still sleeping. They would say: “It is not I who is whipping; the palm is! Easter is six days away”.
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