Lithuanian events

Lithuania offers tourists a lot of entertainment and captivating events among which there are national holidays and activities celebrated only in cities or even in the country.

It’s known that some years ago Lithuania refused from paganism and accepted Christianity quiet unwillingly. Even nowadays you can see the traces of those times in some holidays which are celebrated in the country. Among the most noticeable holidays here is the autumnal equinox which is celebrated on the 21-st – 22-nd of September. It’s usually a noisy and bright event. In particular is is a festival of colors in Vilnius and a parade of fiery red sculptures.

Paganism is the mankind’s childhood and Lithuania is still a child in many things. Several bright and distinctive holidays which came from those epochs when people worshiped the sun, the wind and the rain precede an autumn merry carnival. These celebrations add some exotic atmosphere to Lithuanian summer.

The main event of Lithuanian paganism summer is Jonines or Rasos. It’s celebrated on the day of summer solstice. To be more exact people have a holiday on the shortest night of the year from the 22- nd to the 23-d of June. On this very night girls dress up national costumes, sing some old songs and jump over the fire. Jonines is a kind of common holiday Ivan Kupala for Slavonic and Baltic people, the holiday of worship of summer and warmth.

The echoes of ancient traditions are mixed up with some newly acquired ones. The cultural life of the country becomes richer and richer from year to year. The fact that Vilnius was chosen as a cultural capital of Europe in 2009 says about the significance of Lithuania to all Europe. By the way this year Lithuania is going to celebrate its 1000 years. It’s not surprising that from year to year the spectrum of several musical and theatrical festivals widens not only in Vilnius but in many other towns of the country.

A creative life of the country arouses some awesome thrill among the experts of art. There are several festivals in Vilnius such as an International Vilnius festival (from the middle of September), the festival of theatres “Sirenos” (the end of September), the festival of modern music “Gaida” (the end of October), a famous “Vilnius Jazz” (the end of September) and Vilnius city jazz (November) and also a summer festival of Christopher (the 1st of July – 31st of August) with theatrical performances just in the streets of the Old City.

The most noticeable event in recent years in Lithuania has been the festival of rock music «Be2gether» at the foot of Norvilishskiy castle, just at the border of Lithuania and Belarus at the end of August. There’s also one more festival in Lithuania – “The night of Rock music” which is well-known under the name of “Lithuanian Woodstock”. The nights of rock music take place in the beginning of August near the lake Platelyai which is 50 kilometers North-East from Palanga.

And a few words about marine holidays. There are lots of them in Lithuania. Klaipeda was and will be an unofficial capital of Lithuania on the Baltic seaside. Its a holiday on the sea with colorful processions, yacht races competitions among the fishermen (the end of July) remains one of the central events of summer resort life.