Updated 2006-12-08

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Lithuanian Culture

Culture was used to keep spirits up during the dark years, and is nowadays used to show that independence is back

The greatest events in Lithuanian cultural life are the song festivals, occurring every fourth year in Vilnius. In the beginning it was only a Song Day, but later it was extended with an Ensemble- and Folk Music Day and a Dance Day. The song-day is still the most prominent, and is also the finishing night. The setting in Vingis Park is magnificent, sporting some 30,000 singers and several orchestras under the enormous curved roof, and an audience of at least 10,000. Vilnius is inundated by singers, dancers and musicians from all over the country, as well as Lithuanian emigrants from the whole world. The tour buses are in triple rows around the city centre. The Japanese swarm around. The zoom lenses are almost worn out. The beer price rises. Everyone charges up for a great cultural event.

You might say that the Song Festival showed the way, and then Lithuania exploded with all sorts of music festivals. Who needs the Roskilde Festival when Lithuania has Visaginas’ Country Festival, The Nida Festival, Theatre and Festivals at Trakai Castle, concerts in Klaipeda, Operetta Festival in Kaunas, the Sarasai Festival, Fire Festivals and Midsummer Festivals (Jonines) in Vilnius, that is, those years when they do not stage the Song Festival. Also, Vilnius will act as the European Cultural Capitol in 2009. That will be some party!

This is the lowest level. Click the images to enlarge!

The Song Festival in 2003 to commemorate the 750:th anniversary of king Mindaugas – the Song Evening
This was extra evident in 2003. The festival lasted a week, as they took the time to celebrate the 750:th anniversary of King Mindaugas’ coronation. A giant crown was hung from the centre of the roof. See below. It is refreshing to enjoy an evening of beloved songs and dances, with all rock, pop and synthesisers chemically removed, and no pop stars or screaming entertainers. To the Lithuanians this is something finer than a choir evening. It is a celebration of freedom. A panorama from the show is available at Panoramas.
You arrive at the concert area from the side and begin by being astonished by the enormous roof and the enormous TV screen. The enormous Mindaugas crown is equally astonishing...		... and that everyone is waiting despite the rain. This is not a concert to walk away from, just because of some rain.		The choirs are the stars. They are from all over the country, and from all the Lithuanian groups of the world. 15,000-30,000 people is a lot. Seeing them making synchronised movements is fantastic.
	The first number is a symbolic dance showing all the well-known buildings in the country in the form of very advanced hats and costumes.		The orchestras are up among the choirs. And it’s a lot of people. Several hundred musicians per orchestra.		The most important person is of course Mindaugas. This is his seal on the big screen.
		Children and children’s choirs are an important part of the Song festival. Their leader is at the first row, conducting and glowing with enthusiasm. You can see how proud she is.			If there are any special “stars” this evening, it is the conductors. All are hailed, but some are more popular than others.
			The Zuvedra dancers performed the ”Musu dienos kaip svente” (our life is like a celebration), and old, ever-popular song. Everyone knows it and sings along. The dancers spin around and around and have to make several encores. The elegant hats are perhaps too elegant. In the end the dancing-girls see nothing.
			Cheerleaders, girls with too short dresses, waving paper flowers, turns out not to be an all-American phenomenon after all. They were around in Lithuania during the dark times, too. They are quite common, actually. Here, they’re having a great time in the rain.
	Then the rain started, but the Lithuanians come prepared and 10,000 umbrellas go up.		The weather frightens everyone. A twister is on the verge, but it dies out without doing any harm.		The sunset is magnificent. Yes, we really got our money’s worth for the tickets. Even the weather showed its very best.
	Everything comes to an end, as does the Song festival. The spotlights play and I feel just like being in the “Close Encounters” movie.		Check out the lighting, with yellow and blue light flowing along the choirs.		Then the pyrotechnics started. The smoke machines that had been waiting, kicked in to raise spirits.
	A row of blue gas flames was lit along the roof edge with a hiss.		After a while, other flames were lit, this time yellow ones. Special effects over and over.		That was it. A firework, three times as high as the building, was set off from the roof.
	It changed into a regular fireworks display...		and I tried to shoot the		best explosions.
	The was the end of the evening Deeply touched and with a lump in my throat I walk around the festival area, establishing to myself the fact that something like this would never be possible in Sweden. We couldn’t ever find this much nationalism, to make possible such a celebration. We need rock music and “stars”. The lump in my throat enlarges noticeably when everyone take each others hands and sings “Lietuva brangis” (Our dear Lithuania) in unison. Swedish TV stations play the national anthem because it’s trendy, but here, when 10,000 people sing the ”Lietuva, tevyne musu” together, from the very bottom of their hearts, it is a tribute to the country everyone has fought for, and in many cases given their lives for.

The Song Festival in 2003 – the Ensemble and Folk-dance Day
The day before was the Ensemble Day. It started in the morning in the centre of Vilnius, well, everywhere. No ordinary folk musicians’ rally. The city park is filled up with dancers, singers, choirs, and artists wanting to sell to everyone. One walks around the park holding a beer, listening and enjoying.
	There are dance-groups from all districts, showing off traditional dances. The have flags too, so you can see where they come from.		There is an abundance of ladies choirs.		The kankle is one of the ancient Lithuanian instruments, a sort of slender zither.
	Somewhere in the middle of the park is a stage with regular shows.		Some rest while the others play.		A musical family having a bit of a rest, discussing things.
	A female artist sold things made from grass and reeds. And witches on broomsticks, of course.		No lack of Christian subjects, ether. Mindaugas is there, too.		A giant stage was erected on Cathedral Square for the great afternoon show.
	And finally it started. Strangely enough the volume was so low one could stand near the stage without getting the ears blown off.		Fiddlers on stage.		One of many song and music groups.
	And the dancing just went on and on.		Long after sunset. Huff and puff!		The Lithuanians is as dancing people. They just wait for a chance. And after a short while the whole Cathedral Square was dancing.
	Cheering increased as Veronika Povilionaite got on stage, a beloved singer with a very special voice. She sings everything, religious...		folk, classical and jazz. Veronica personifies Lithuania just like Mireille Mathieu personifies France.		And again, we were in for something remarkable. There is a song about all Lithuania’s cities. It is a rather monotonic, chanting song, and when Veronica led the audience I had shivers going down my spine. She has been in my sitting-room, eating sausages, once!

The Song Festival in 2003 – the Ensemble and Folk-Music Evening
After the City Park every available citizen made their way to the Mountain Park (Kalnu Parkas) for the evening’s dance show. It’s not far off. Everyone gets there fast and fills up the park.
	People invade the place, and just keep on coming for an hour. 10,000 people at least. Right beside me sat the then republic’s president...		Algirdas Brazauskas with his gang of beefy bodyguards. If you looked around you could find the rest of Parliament too.		When the park was finally filled up, the lights came on, the TV booms started working and the show started.
	The dancers file up and the president (ex Communist) holds a speech while the audience taps their fingers and yawns. Finally...		a complicated figure dance with rotating shapes starts, as one finds out...		it is a symbolic tour through the farmer’s year with nature mysticism mixed in.
	An army of kankle (small kind of zither) players attacks. The mark at the rear is the Song festival logo, the tree of life with the bird, Lithuania’s spirit on top.		The boys’ game. One hundred boys on stilts manage somehow to dance to the music.		Rye is celebrated with a dance and the rye harvest is displayed. The month of August is Rugpjutis in Lithuanian, “rye harvest”.
	And it is harvest home, the harvest is celebrated.		And celebrated some more. Even the Lithuanian army has been called in to serve on stage, dancing with the props.		Symbolic tables are laid with flaxen tablecloths. The dance is also a celebration to the flax.
	In steps the beings of nature poetry: The ladies of the wood. The lady of the wood is strong in the Lithuanian mythology. She is portrayed as a woman washing clothes by the beach		or bathing nude, also very interesting. If a man comes to se the ladies, they will catch him and tickle him to death. The ladies abandon their washing and hunt the man.		The man can also catch the lady of the wood, marry her and have a happy life, if he knows the trick. In the final image he is victorious.
	Ritual fire dance. The farm boys have other amusements in the evenings.		The farmer’s year is at an end and he is forced to wait for winter. The herds dance with a vicious goat.	As the show ends the audience can’t contain themselves any more. The come down among the spotlights and dance along.
	Everything ends in a traditional fireworks display. The evening is over and the dances says thank you.		I liked it very much, but the Lithuanians had rather expected more fire, smoke and heart-felt warmth.		As we tried to exit the park we were repeatedly held up by beer and gira salesmen (liquid bread drink), and we stayed some more.

King Mindaugas, a Great Guy, is Celebrated during 2003
King Mindaugas (reigned as grand duke from 1236 and as king between 1253 and 1263) was the first to unite the country. He was crowned in 1253-07-06 and given a crown by the Vatican, the sign in those days the country was a bona fide country. Even today that day is the national day. The Vatican helped because Midaugas was christened. His residence was in Kernave, some distance from Vilnius. Around 1240 he started uniting many clan chiefs, occupied Baltic territory all around and built a united Lithuania. Lithuania became a superpower, but Mindaugas was assassinated by other small kings who were displeased with a Christian king, with hard hands, whereupon the land returned to heathenism. All of Lithuania was heathen until 1388, the longest in Europe.
	Perhaps he looked like this, the old great king. This is how his statue looks, which was unveiled during the jubilee...		in the park in front of the National gallery, in a straight line with the museum door and Gediminas tower on the hill behind.		Strategic lighting at night makes impossible not to use the camera. The ground is the best tripod. It is almost always stationary.
	For the jubilee on July 6 a giant crown of flowers was built in front of the president’s palace. Try to figure out how to water all the flowers!!		Several royal families were invited to the jubilee, among them the Swedish. A salute was given thrice: for the king, the president..		and for the people. All the car alarms around went off from the shockwaves. People giggled. Perhaps not the expected effect.
	The other big event was the Mindaugas Bridge, a bridge new, but old, over the river Neris, giving the city centre a fast connection to the other side of the river.		The bridge of king Mindaugas can hardly be said to be beautiful. Perhaps with some rain on it... Ugly in a handsome way, like Clint Eastwood?		This is how it looks in daytime. Arsenalo, the old arsenal building from the 18:th century is in the background, and behind it the three, white crosses, Trys kryziai.
There were plans for building a bridge in Soviet time. Each spring soldiers built a floating bridge for pedestrians, but one year the bridge was badly made, collapsed and caused many deaths. The Soviets withheld the reason, of course, and stopped building pontoon bridges in the springs, but there has been a need for a bridge ever since.			The newly elected mayor decided to build the bridge, and the citizens hold him in high acclaim for this. At the inauguration a video image was projected on a curtain of water vapour from a pontoon in the middle of the river. I have never seen that before. I was somewhat sensitive to wind, but the sharpness was surprisingly good. Rather difficult to photograph.

National Day 2005
World media assembles at the square in front of the presidential palace and president Valdas Adamkus holds a speech. The 18:th-century gun is fired three times. The shock waves from a mere 250 grams of gunpowder makes my trousers wave a 100 meters away and all the car alarms start, just like at the Mindaugas Festival the previous time.
	The streets around the palace are packed to capacity and there are lots of men in black with hearing aids.		The day before, the soldiers had practised hoisting the flag correctly.		Vytis, the Lithuanian coat of arms, a mounted knight
	Flanking the president are standard bearers from all cities and districts.		The Marines are marching.		The Army band plays. It’s party-party.
	Everyone stands to attention and someone lights the gun.		The bang is fantastic. It roars three times over the city. Your trousers and ears flap.		We’re looking down the business end of an 18:th-century gun capable of shooting several kilometres. 250 grams of gunpowder was the worst I’ve ever heard.
	The media is lined up and the shutters rattle. The country’s freedom fight is documented.	Normally this gun would be loaded with 2 kilograms of powder and a 10-kilo ball. Imagine a whole front line of these guns firing 2-kio loads! The gun is borrowed from a weapons museum in Kaunas and has only been fired tree times in modern years. The guy shooting works at the museum and is paid to go around shooting his gun. I envy him is job.
President Adamkus is popular (well, not among the Communists) because he is not a crook. He has lived most of his life as an expat in the US and didn’t even have a chance to soil himself with any dirty KGB connections. The only other completely honest political person in later years seems to be Vytautas Landsbergis, who started the Sajudis (The Movement), and finally freed Lithuania from the Soviet Union. Media was unable to stick him into any dirt, but he was simply too nice and fell into a Communist press trap after a wholly legal house purchase, and went from domestic politics to a seat in the EU in Brussels.