Archive for April, 2011

 
Ambassador Simon Butt (Great Britain) was last year’s patron of the event ‘BŪKIME KARTU’ (‘let’s be together’). The event is organised every May by Vilnius International Club, since 2002, every year bringing more than 100 children from different orphanages and institutions, together with helpers and volunteers from Lithuania’s international community to a farm 26 km north of Vilnius.

The US ambassador hon. Anne E. Derse will preside at the event this year, when an effort will be made to introduce other business and political leaders from other regions of Lithuania so that Bukime Kartu can organically expand throughout all of Lithuania so that many more children can participate in future years. We welcome business leaders, politicians and most of all volunteers to come join us at this year’s event on May 28th at Viva Green Resort. If you would like to know more information about this event, please email us at linas@bangabanga.lt

Text: Linas Ažubalis [linas@bangabanga.lt]

The European Commission has declared 2011 as the European Year of Volunteering. With that declaration I thought it would be a good idea to review volunteer activities in Lithuania, with special focus on the charitable activities from the foreign community within Vilnius as well as the work of the non-government organization Spiritual Guidance Centre for Youth (“Dvasines Pagalbos Jaunimo Centras” - DPJC).

According to EU statistics, there is a large difference between member states regarding their level of participation for volunteering activities. United Kingdom, Sweden and Austria have volunteering rates that are greater than forty percent of the adult population, whereas in Greece, Lithuania and Italy those number drop considerably to a paltry less than ten percent of the adult population. Why such a big difference? The role of culture probably plays a big role, but political and business leadership or lack thereof also plays an important role.

The Vilnius International Club (VIC) is a membership club that attracts expats from around the world who currently reside in Vilnius has written within its mission statement to engage in charitable activities. The VIC had the idea of organizing a day of activities for orphans that would be organized by VIC and its members which include embassies from around the world. The idea was to bring about 100 orphans to one place, which has been a farm located north of Vilnius for the last 8 years hosted graciously by Zina Ginaitiene and make them feel welcome and cared for through a planned day of organized activities. Thus Bukime Kartu (Let's Be Together) was launched. Every year a different embassy takes the honorary lead role to organize the one day event that must seek out over 100 volunteers to make the day run smoothly.

This year Lt. Col. Stephen Timmons from the US embassy is providing organizational leadership for the event along with chairman Torben Pedersen, as well as a handful of other international volunteers. The US ambassador hon. Anne E. Derse will preside at the event and this year an effort will be made to introduce other business and political leaders from other regions of Lithuania so that Bukime Kartu can organically expand throughout all of Lithuania so that many more children can participate in future years. We welcome business leaders, politicians and most of all volunteers to come join us at this year’s event on May 28th at Viva Green Resort. If you would like to know more information about this event, please email us at linas@bangabanga.lt

We would also like to highlight the work of Dvasines Pagalbos Jaunimui Centras based in Klaipeda. (Spiritual Guidance Centre for Youth) DPJC was founded in 1994 by visionary Fr. Ed Putrimas who conceived the idea while living in Toronto. He saw the greatest need for a social program in the port city since the other larger cities had already established programs. After obtaining a grant from the Canadian government, he opened the doors to his center that would reach out to the lives of underprivileged youths and families for years to come. The centers core mission statement revolved around Christian principles and the idea of volunteering to develop social competence among young people and to promote sociability, civic awareness and core personal values. Over time he was able to put together a solid team of social workers and more importantly volunteers who would expand and add programs that would help their community which has been supported by the municipality and other government social programs. In the small confines of the space available to them, DPJC runs a daycare centre for underprivileged families, a Big Brother/Big Sister program, a youth crisis hotline (Jaunimo Linija) as well as “Sniego Gniuzte” which is a prevention program that aims to convince adolescents through activities organized over a weekend that life is fun and is full of meaning without consuming intoxicants. More than 88 registered volunteers and 8 staff members help to run the programs at DPJC. During the last couple of years, as the financial crisis spread around the world, the Lithuanian government and foundations have cut back their funding for such programs. DPJC has tried to maintain their level of commitment to their programs while less and less was available to them via funding. The need for services has not gone away but has increased while more families have been pushed closer to the poverty line. Three years ago DPJC was able to offer youths a learning and computer center, but unfortunately the learning center burned down and since the premise was not insured, the learning center was not replaced. To this day there exists a need to replace the learning center, but ever since funding dried up, the center has become a distant memory with no way to replace it.

 
Klaipeda’s Dvasines Pagalbos Jaunimui Centras (Spiritual Guidance Centre for Youth) DPJC was founded in 1994 by visionary Fr. Ed Putrimas who conceived the idea while living in Toronto. He saw the greatest need for a social program in the port city since the other larger cities had already established programs.

The youth crisis line ("Jaunimo Linija") is linked to three cities - Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipeda, and collectively 93 000 calls and 1 600 letters were answered last year. That equates to over 250 calls and 4 letters each day of the year. On average, one out of every seven callers seeks help because they are suicidal. That's about 36 people per day. To make matters worse, Lithuania has the highest suicide rate in the world (according to WHO from 2008). DPJC realizes this grim statistic and is doing everything within their abilities to help these struggling youths maintain the will to live. Keeping these youths engaged in activities with a feeling of belongingness is one of the main objectives of DPJC.

If you are able to donate old computers, office equipment, sports equipment or toys, DPJC would gratefully accept these items. Also monetary donations could be sent to Darzelio g. 11, Klaipeda  LT-93195.

Otherwise we graciously ask working individuals in Lithuania to donate 2% of their taxes to DPJC  http://www.dpjc.lt/index.php?page=skirkite-2-dpjc-veiklai, which is a way of helping without opening your wallet, (https://deklaravimas.vmi.lt/lt/Pradinis_Prisijungimo_puslapis/Prisijungimasperisorinessistemas.aspx) but do so quickly because the deadline is May 1st. Tres Mexicanos restaurant, a support partner of DPJC, will provide a 30% discount coupon for anyone who offers a donation in any form, but you must come to Vilnius to use it. Please send the editor a confirmation email at editor@VilNews.com  and a coupon will be sent to you.

Easter traditions

LIETUVIŲ VELYKINĖS TRADICIJOS

From reading Aage‘s thoughtful words about Lithuanian Easter traditions it tranformed me back in time to when I was a young boy growing up in the Boston area of Massachusetts. Being the son of a Scottish mother and Lithuanian father I had the great fortune of experiencing the wonderfull traditions of not only the Lithuanian people but that of the Highland Scott‘s as well.

While along with the Lithuanian Christmas traditions we practiced many of the Scottish customs for Christmas and New Year as well but Easter is seemed was a time for the traditions of our Lithuanian ancestors. These were the traditions the Karnila family took with them from our ancestral home in Lithuania, the village of Guronys.

While occasionally we would visit members of my mother’s family on Easter, most often on Easter we would go to the home of my father’s sister, Ana (Karnilytė) Savanovich. This I think was by no small coincidence since months before Easter my brother and I would plead to our parents that it was an absolute requirement that we celebrate Easter at Aunt Ana’s house – as you read on you will understand why!!!

When we arrived at Ana’s house my brother and I were greeted with a basket of decorated Easter Eggs and sweets. This was of course, in true Lithuanian tradition, AFTER we had we had completely passed through the door and were standing inside the house and had also gone through all the kisses, hugs and pinches on the cheeks (from Ana) and handshakes from her husband John. As my brother and I started to go to work on the sweets and admire the eggs next came another big treat. Ana would come out with a tray of freshly baked, still warm cookies baked by you guessed it – the Velykos Kiškis!!! Now I guess the story behind the cookies from what Aage told you got changed a bit on its trip across the Atlantic Ocean but it seems that the Easter Bunny / A.K.A. Velykos Kiškis baked these cookies just this morning and brought them to Ana‘s home knowing that me and my brother would be there.

After enjoying ourselves on the sweets and cookies next came the what was probably one of the biggest events of the day – EASTER DINNER!!! I grew up enjoying Lithuanian traditional food but at Easter this was something completely different. Easter Dinner was the jack pot, the mother load, the meal to end all meals, the trip to the mountain top. Never at any one time were there so many Lithuanian dishes on the table at any one time. Remember on Chirstmas Eve there is no meat. For Easter there was every kind of meat you could think of. Roast pork, roast ham, roast chicken, roast anything you could possibly roast and maybe a few things you wouldn‘t want to roast. In addition blynai, dumplings, kugelis, salads of every variety you could imagine and of course mushrooms used in almost every dish. The table cloth was always white and always was adorned with some greenery. Now of course before we partook in this wonderful feast an egg was cut and a piece was given to every one seated so that as we all ate of this egg we joined as a family and bonded our love and dedication to each other. I must mention that the cutting of the egg became an art form if we had the pleasure of being joined by uncles Kaziemiras (Charles) and Jonas (John) and aunts Marytė (Mary) and Alicija (Alice) and their families. To cut one egg into about thirty equal pieces is truly an endeavor. After the meal came an incredible assortment of cakes, pies and sweets. Oh, did I mention that to wash this all down Ana had made some home made gira?

After stuffing ourselves to the max came some activities to work off all the food. It seems that the Velykų Senelė/Easter Grandmother had stopped by earlier that morning and left some beautifully decorated eggs for me and my brother. The problem was that she had hidden them outside and our task was to find them. As a very young child this was a little confusing because I thought it was the Easter Bunny’s responsibility to deliver all the eggs to every one. So I kind of sorted things out and came to the conclusion that yes in fact delivering the eggs was the Easter Bunny’s job however the eggs used in the egg hunt was the responsibility of Velykų Senelė. As I got older we then understood that this was another wonderful tradition of our people. I can say one thing about Ana and John, when it came to hiding eggs they displayed some incredible imagination not to mention athletic ability. You would not believe what we had to go through to get some of these eggs!!! To be honest, I don’t know who had more fun, the children finding the eggs or Ana and John watching us.

After finding all the eggs or let me put it this way, after finding all the eggs we could find (I think after fifty years there are still some unfound eggs sitting around there some where) we went back inside. All the children counted up the eggs they had found and the one with the most received some sweets as their prize for being the best egg hunter.

What came next was to me the most special event of the day. Of everything we did this is what I most fondly remember of our Easter traditions. For every child Ana had made a specially decorated egg. She would go around and present each child with this incredible work of art. All the children had the same reaction. We would just sit there with our mouths agape and admire this wonderful creation. As you can imagine, it is difficult for young children to appreciate hand crafted beauty, especially little boys, but these eggs where so magnificent it truly got our attention. We would hold the egg in our hands and just stare at it in wonderful admiration. In addition to the eggs beauty we also were appreciating the love that aunt Ana had put in to making this egg for us but most of all, as we sat there admiring the beautiful Easter egg we, even as little children knew we were holding the tradition of the Lithuanian people and of Lithuania in our hands. I so vividly remember holding these special eggs in my small hands and saying to myself – This is Lithuania and I am Lithuanian.

I would please ask you to understand that what I wrote of is not about me and not about the Karnila family. What I wrote about was a Lithuanian family, Lithuanian traditions and Lithuania. For every people, their traditions and customs are not only an important part of their past but also an important part of their future. This is so true of Lithuania. The preservation of beautiful ancient traditions has been one of the things that helped the Lithuanian people remain strong and preserve their identity as a people and a nation through so many adverse situations. Unfortunately, every year some of these traditions tend to slip away one by one. While we still practice some of these traditions many have become just a memory.

I wrote this as an invitation to all our readers to write to us telling us about the beautiful Lithuanian Easter traditions that you remember from years gone by and also tell us of the traditions you, your family, friends and neighbors still practice to this day. It is our hope that in sharing these traditions with all our readers you will be reminded of some wonderful tradition from the past and this Easter and for many Easters to come you will again include these traditions in your Easter celebrations. We would also like to remind you that there are many people of Lithuanian nationality living around the world that are desperately trying to find out more about their heritage and about the culture and traditions of their Lithuanian ancestors. By sharing your traditions with all our readers it is very possible that a person, intensely proud of their Lithuanian ancestry, some where in the world this Easter will for the first time in their lives be able make some Lithuanian Easter traditions a part of their family’s celebration of the resurrection of Christ.

So dear readers, we invite you to please send to us some of the Lithuanian Easter traditions that are or were an important part of your family so that we can share them with Lithuanians around the world.

Su Dieva
Vin / Vincas Karnila
Associate editor

Decoration of Easter eggs - margučiai - is a very ancient custom in Lithuania. At the foot of the Gediminas Hill in Vilnius archaeologists have found eggs made of bone and clay, which shows that this custom was known in Lithuania as early as the 13th Century. Easter eggs are also mentioned by Martynas Mažvydas in his dedication to his book "Hymns of St Ambrosius" (1549). Easter eggs were particularly popular at the turn of the 20th Century. They were decorated both by grown-ups and children, by rich and poor. Some were dyed in a single colour, some were decorated with patterns.

Decorations are produced by painting patterns on warm eggs with the tip of a stick or a pinhead dipped in hot wax. Droplet-shaped strokes are grouped in patterns, twigs of rue, little suns, starlets and snakes. The most frequent pattern is that of a sun, like those on large and small distaffs. Smaller patterns are joined by dots and wavy lines into larger ornaments. Their combinations are so varied that is is impossible to find two identical Easter eggs. Every village has its own best egg-decorators.