Shrove Tuesday (also known as Pancake day) is singled out as the day which puts to end meat eating and the time of merrymaking – Tuesday before Lent. At the beginning of this century, in Eastern and South Eastern regions, people celebrated three meat eating days, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
Visitors to Vilnius’ Academy mentioned that at the beginning of 17th century, Shrove Tuesday carnival walks lasted three days, they were similar to carnivals taking place in other parts of Europe. Information about Shrove Tuesday happenings in the country side shows that in the first part of 19th century, carnivalers dressed up to imitate different nationalities and trades.
Shrove Tuesday is a folk celebration not connected with any church rites and only its time is defined by the church calen
dar, for it depends on the time of Easter. Easter is a moveable feast; from ancient times it is connected to the moon calendar. Shrove Tuesday usually occurs between February 5th and March 8th.
The earliest Shrove Tuesday date is celebrating the end of winter. During this celebration attention is concentrated on chasing away winter with all her evils.
On Shrove Tuesday attention is paid to the weather in order to be able to foretell the weather for spring and the rest of the year. It was most important to determine the right time for spring planting, esp
ecially for flax.
Since Shrove Tuesday is the last day of meat-eating period, it obliges people to gorge themselves, they eat as many as twelve times that day, so that they are sated all throughout the year.
The so-called Shrove Tuesday is the first Tuesday that ends the winter and welcomes a new spring time. To celebrate the arrival of the good weather, Lithuanian people put on traditional masks and costumes and go around the neighborhood visiting each other. In each house they can enjoy a few drinks or some nice food.
When the evening arrives, the tradition joins people together around a doll of an old maid called More, a female symbol that represents the clash between winter and spring. The old maid More can then face
three different fates: sometimes she gets burnt, sometimes she is drowned in the water, and the third option is to put her on a sled and send her down the hill until she crashes.
With the end of the old maid, the winter is officially over and spring can arrive. One did not sit at home if a good flax harvest was expected. It was best to ride standing up in the sleigh, to fall overboard and roll in the snow.
In the region of Marijampolė, three lads rode around with nut tree whips in their hands, prepared to whip those who poured water on them.
Driving through villages they demanded: “water, water, water! Oi people, water, water!” if no one poured water, they cried: “we travelled throughout the village and did not receive even a pail of water”
. Another Shrove Tuesday tradition was to give rides to bees. Children played bees, sat in a tub and made buzzing noises like bees. People poured water on them.
Due to this, bees collected copious amounts of honey. In the region of Vilnius, it was tradition on this day for newlyweds to visit family, where they ate pancakes, sausages and meat. This again was to
assure a good grain harvest. Youngsters rode sleds down hillsides. Large youth groups collected on higher hilltops.
Girls were asked to climb to the top of the highest hill, for this would assure very tall flax growth. In some regions of Dzūkija, youngsters slid downhill on spindles and daughter-in-law took mothers-in-law for rides on spindles. This once again was done to assure abundant flax crops. Swinging to all heights was another happening with flax growth. Swingers sang, “ he who built swings will have silken flax, however he who built none will have woody flax”.
In many regions of Lithuania it was common to soak and wash clothes on Shrove Tuesday. Again, this was done so that linen would be whiter than ever. In order to weave very thin linen fabric, girls made sure that there were no cobwebs in the house, they also spun for a while to assure
that there will be soon a visit from the matchmaker. Another traditional Shrove Tuesday event was masquerades’ strolling about, which had the task of awakening spring and plants.
Old writings show that masquerades wore terrifying masks, made from tree barks, sheep skins or animal skulls, all showing brutal hatred. The masks were of strange colours, their beards, eyebrows and hair of horse, dog and even bear hair, mostly brown, black or white. The mas
ks represented elders, beggars, people of different nationalities, birds and animals. They also dressed as devils, angels and symbols of death.
