Lithuanian beliefs and traditions

[eleny]

Labas!

My Catholic family celebrated Christmas Eve according to the old pagan religion. I found this web site that details quite a bit and thought to share it here. Lithuania was the last country in Europe to embrace christianity.

At Christmas time, I never got the impression that the Lithuanian pagan history was anything but very special. So, I'm not surprised that there's been a revivial of paganism in Lithuania and it's called Romuva.

http://ausis.gf.vu.lt/eka/customs/christmas.html

"Ancient historical sources confirm the main moments of the winter holiday, the return of the sun, which are found in the 20th century Lithuanian beliefs and traditions.

Supper on Christmas Eve " Kûèios", the oldest Lithuanian feast, celebrated according to the sun's calendar. It is a night holiday, whose festivities begin in the evening. This is not only the most archaic, but the best preserved of holidays."

Lots more about the old religion is here
http://www.lithuanian.net/resource/myths.htm

Iki pasimatimo,
Elenyte

[LiberalEsto]

1. Wonderful!

Thank you for posting this!

I'm Estonian-American and have been researching Estonian pagan customs for several years.

The 3 Baltic states were the last nations in Europe to adopt Christianity, and so their pagan traditions are still remembered to some extent.

Even though Lithuanians speak an Indo-European language, and Estonia belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family, the Baltic states do share some traditions.

Here is a link for Estonian Yule customs. Take a look and you may recognize a rew elements:

http://www.erm.ee/vanast/pysi/engpages/joulud.html#

My parents were nominally Lutheran. We went to church around 4 or 5 pm on Christmas Eve, and the holiday did not begin until the first star was sighted. After church, we went home to a traditional Estonian Christmas supper of roasted pork, potatos, sauerkraut, blood sausage and lingonberry jam (which is something like cranberry sauce - my mom used to make it). Afterward we would have very crisp, thin spice cookies called piparkoogid (pepper cakes) and a fluffy pink dessert called roosa manna, which is made with cooked farina and cranberry juice whipped until it has a cloudlike texture.

Presents were opened after dinner, because Jouluvana (the Yule Elder, aka Santa Claus) came while everyone was at church. Christmas Day was a day for visiting and eating the leftovers from the night before.

My own family is Unitarian Universalist, and we go to a Christmas Eve service around 5 or 6 p.m. Christmas Eve, and come home to a more or less Estonian meal (minus the blood sausage!) and then we each open one gift. Bowing to my American husband's traditions, the Big Event is Christmas morning, with brunch, and some kind of pasta for dinner. We also have a small pagan celebration at the Winter Solstice. A little bit of everything, but it works for us!

Roomsaid Joulupuhi! (Joyous Yule holidays!)

[eleny]

2. Roast pork - potatoes - sauerkraut

That's like a holy trinity for us, huh?

I'd love to get some recipes from you since I've never had the farina/cranberry treat.

Our cultures may have been pretty different since we ate meatless meals on Kucios - Christmas Eve. But I wouldn't be surprised if you like herring. I sure do. And our Baltic rye breads are the best in the world. I have no humility about that!

I'm going to check out the url you shared. Thanks for that and Linksmu Kaledu!

[LiberalEsto]

3. Herring for breakfast!

with cold boiled potatos. Aaaah.

When I went to Estonia to visit my cousins in 2003, I noticed they eat very high-protein breakfasts. Sausages, fish, cold meat, eggs, homemade cottage cheese, and aged cheese, accompanied by tomatos, cucumbers, and chopped scallions and dill, and plenty of wonderful sweet-sour rye bread.
None of those sugary cereals appeal to them in the slightest, which is sensible. They believe that to get through a day of hard work, you need to eat a solid meal in the morning.

I've never been able to successfully make the farina dessert -- it just refuses to come out like my mother's, and she's long gone. I'll look up the recipe and post it for you in case you have the magic touch. It's also eaten in Finland. I've developed an alternative made with cherry Jello, cranberry juice, mandarin orange slices, canned whole cranberry sauce and Cool Whip. Not as healthy, but a tradition in my family.

[eleny]

4. Once I visited the site you posted, I looked for more

I found several sites about Estonian traditions and cooking. So, I saved them in my Favorites. I've never baked our Lithuanian bread since I live at high altitude and always worried how it would turn out. But I'd like to try it this winter. And I found the recipe for Estonian rye, too. I just have to translate the metric to our measurements and find some old fashioned caked yeast at a bread baking store. We have one nearby.

Cold herring and hot potatoes - oh yeah! And I still make homemeade yogurt to have with hot potato. I just put milk in a crock with a spoon of sour cream and let it sit till it hardens. Then put it in the fridge. Put a dash of salt on cold yogurt and eat it with the a potato. Those old pagans knew a thing or two!

PM me any time. And we should post in the new cooking forum! :D

[LiberalEsto]

5. Farina dessert

Hi Eleny,

The recipe in my Estonian-English cookbook is confusing. It calls for diluted cranberry juce, but gives no clue as to how much it should be diluted, or with what.

So here is the recipe from Beatrics Ojakangas' book, "The Finnish Cook Book," which I picked up at a used book sale. Good luck with it!

"Air Pudding"

3 cups fruit juice (cranberry, strawberry, raspberry, apple, etc.)
1/2 cup uncooked farina
1/2 cup sugar
lemon juice

Heat juice to boiling and sprinkle in the farina while mstirring. Cook slowly about 30 minutes or until farina is done. Pour into large mixing bowl, add sugar, and whip at high speed with electric mixer until it is fuffy (about 20 minutes). If using a sweet juice such as strawberry or apple, add some lemon juice to increase tartness. Serve with whole milk or cream.

Unfortunately her cookbook doesn't explain if it's supposed to cool before whipping.

The Estonian cookbook recipe calls for adding 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract once the whipping is nearly done, then advises chilling it in the refrigerator for a half hour before serving.

I wanted to post this in the forum in case any other DUers want to try making it.


A note about the rye bread. To make it really authentic, Estonians don't use yeast, they use saved starter dough from the last batch. Some Estonian cooks don't clean the mixing bowl from the previous baking, so the yeasts just stay in the bowl. If I did that I'd end up with moldy dough, but it works in Estonia's cooler climate. One of these days I'm going to ask around among my Esto acquaintance to see if anyone can spare me a spoonful of bread leaven, but I don't know if anyone bakes any more. Maryland Estos order the rye bread from a Toronto bakery for Christmas.

[eleny]

6. Thank you for the recipe

I have a powerful mixer. So, maybe if I really get it going it will make it fluffy. Also, will mix it when it's still hot. Farina tends to get very thick when it cools. I'll also add the vanilla. It should balance the cranberry flavor tartness.

There's a place here that sells the rye bread from Canada but I don't know if it comes from Toronto. I'll ask about it. A hunk of that should make a good starter! My mother used to make yogurt like that by leaving a little in the crock to start the next batch. We stopped because it might not be safe. But that method made a very smooth tasting yogurt. Yum!

[Chovexani]

7. Interesting!

Wow, thanks for sharing this. I learn something new everyday in here! :hi:

Blessings to you and yours...

[bleedingheart]

8. Labas!

We celebrated Kucios this year as always...

The older I get the more in touch I am with the pagan religions than I am with the Christian religion.

I have read about the Romuva movement before and in fact I posted some info in the World History Group about the fact that the Lithuanians were the last to be christianized..

[eleny]

9. Hi! How are you?!

Yunno, even if hubby and I just have some regular rye bread or tortilla on Kucios, he still breaks bread with me. I love that part of the supper. I didn't make the little hardtacks in poppyseed milk. But I plan on making some for myself real soon. I think I found a place to get bulk poppyseed but not ground up and milky. I'll have to figure that out.

[bleedingheart]

10. I am just fine...

We substitute cold peas for the poppyseed/wheat mixture, but one year we did make it ...a bit too much work given the fact that we have so many other dishes...including the beet/potato salad, the herring (pickled in brine) served with onions and tomatoes...etc

We even get holy bread from the church...but the funniest thing is that it is more a pagan ritual than a church ritual for us.

I am thinking about making ausukes.. (little ear pastries) for my mom...a little treat for the new year.

Sventu Kaleidu!

[eleny]

11. I love ausukes