Lithuanian Food and Entertainment Traditions
Lithuanians like to eat good, tasty andfilling foods. The tradition of eating well is inherited from our ancestors,who would say, he who eats well, works well.
Lithuanian cooks prepare simple but tastyfoods. A good cook can create delicious meals using simple ingredients.It is said that each cook stirs the cookpot in her manner.
The traditional food preparer was andis mother, her knowledge and capabilities are handed down to the next femalegeneration. Before food was prepared using only seasonal products, howeverduring the last twenty-five years, fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs havebeen available all year round, imported or grown locally. The same appliesto meat, now more fresh meat is used than salted or smoked.
Lithuanian traditional cuisine took shapeover many centuries and was much influenced by cultural contacts with neighboringnations. A good example is potato cake - kugelis, which Lithuanians adaptedfrom the German kitchen. This has now become a favorite dish throughoutLithuania.
Lithuania is divided into five ethnicregions. This regional division is evident in foods that are particularto each region. The Highlanders, Aukätaiiai, live in the rich loam,northeast region, and are known for their various pancakes and cottagecheese dishes. The Samogitians, eemaiiai, inhabit the northwest regionand have their special sour butter, porridges and many gruels. Dzukai arethe people of the southeast region, where the soil is sandy and forested.They are main growers and users of buckwheat in all its forms, as wellas mushrooms and potatoes. Suvalkieiai, people of the southwestern regionfavor smoked meats, sausages and zeppelins. Fish plays an important rolein the diet of the seacoast Lithuanians and also of those living near lakesand rivers. These differences are less evident today than they were inolden times. However, the tradition of regional foods continues.
Lithuanians usually eat three times perday, but during periods of hard and intense work, especially in summer,mid morning and late afternoon snacks are added to the daily eating routine.The most filling, sumptuous meals are breakfast and lunch. Porridges, pancakesand soups for breakfast, soups, meat and potatoes for lunch. In the evening,dinner is a light meal. However, one does have a square meal, for the ancientLithuanians said that there is no sleep on an empty stomach.
Lithuanians consider eating a holy eventand behavior at table is like in church, quiet, orderly and reverential.Each family member had his permanent place at the table, with father sittingat the head of the table, mother sitting opposite father, the oldest sonto father right, and the remaining members next to the son. The traditionalseating at table is now practiced mainly during feast days, when the entirefamily gathers.
Today the ancient tradition of placingbread first on the table is still observed. Should a visitor arrive whenthe family is at table, the visitor greets the eaters with "skanaus" (bonappetite). If father answers "prasom"(you're welcome), it means do joinus. However, if the answer is "aciu" (thank you), the visitor is not invitedto join in the eating. When the meal is finished, the spoon is turned upsidedown, to show that one has eaten well and the food was delicious.
No one leaves the table until everyonehas finished eating and has thanked the cook, mother, who in her turn answers"I sveikata" (to your health).
Christmas Eve, Christmas
Kuèios, Kalëdos
As the days draw shorter, Lithuanians havefinished most needed chores and are ready to celebrate Christmas Eve, December24th, and Christmas, December 25th.
Christmas Eve is a very special time withthe gathering of the family at the ritual meal "kucia". This word has beenborrowed from the Greek "kukkia".
Kucia denotes the main food of the ritualsupper, made from grain and pulses.
The evening meal begins when the eveningstar appears in the sky. A white, linen tablecloth is placed on a hay-coveredtable. Hay symbolizes the birth of Jesus in the manger and also the hay,where the souls of dead family members rest on.
Holy wafers and Christmas bread are placedside by side in the center of the table. These are surrounded by otherfoods, of which there can be seven, nine or twelve, all meatless. Twelvefoods are most commonly prepared, to assure that the coming year, twelvemonths, will be good and plentiful.
The traditional kucia - porridge, is eatenwith poppy seed milk, as are the Christmas biscuits. It is a must to eatoatmeal pudding with sweetened water.
The other foods include beet soup withdried mushrooms, fish - mostly pike, herring and mushroom dishes, as wellas apples and nuts.
Traditional drinks are thin cranberrypudding and dried fruit compote.
When all the foods are in place, candlesare placed on the table and lit, and the family is seated. A special placeis set at the table for a family member who died during that year. It isalso tradition to invite a poor or homeless person, or to take food tothem. This behavior assures that there will be happiness in the familythroughout the coming year.
Eating is begun with the passing aroundof the Christmas wafer and with wishes for each member, then all the foodshave to be tasted.
Christmas morning begins with the clearingaway of the Christmas Eve table. Christmas foods are mainly of meat, generallypork, cooked pigÕs head, sausages, baked piglet and ham. There isalso an assortment of sweet breads and cakes.
Christmas is the ancient feast of thereturn of the sun, and it was celebrated in pre-Christian times in manyEuropean nations.
Shrove Tuesday
Uþgavënës
Shrove Tuesday is a happy and noisy celebrationof the transition from winter to spring. The festivities begin on Sundayand last for three days. This also puts an end to the period of meat eating,which began after Christmas. On Shrove Tuesday, it is traditional to eatvery rich, fat foods at least twelve times, so that you would be fat andhealthy. The foods of the day include different pancakes, fat pork meatand porridges.
The table is laden with an abundance offoods and awaits not only family members but also masqueraders, who gofrom house to house. After eating, the masqueraders wish the homeownersgood luck, health and good harvest in the coming year.
Easter
Velykos
Easter is the first spring holiday, therebirth of nature. The dyed egg is the primary symbol of Easter, signifyinglife, goodness and bountiful harvest. The egg dyeing tradition is olderthan Christianity. Easter egg decorating is a family affair, done on theSaturday before Easter.
The Easter table is covered with a white,linen table cloth and the first thing to be placed on the table are dyedeggs in a basket or clay bowl, decorated with rue, cranberry stalks orsprouted wheat greens.
The traditional Easter table decorationis an egg holder, a tree branch, with nine or twelve branches. The eggholder is decorated with greens, colored paper and sprouted birch and puss*willow branches with dough birds.
Traditional Easter foods are made of pork,veal, fowl and milk: baked piglet, pig's head, veal ham, sausage, cheeseand in the center of the table a butter or sugar lamb set in sprouted oatgreens. There is also an abundance of Easter baked goods, both sweet andsavory. Traditional drinks are beer, kvass, maple and birch sap.
The Easter meal is begun with eggs. Itis tradition to strike two eggs together, one person holds his egg whilethe other hits it with his egg. The strongest egg is left uneaten.
Visiting relatives and friends beginsin the afternoon, when it is especially common for children to visit theirgodparents and neighbors, where they are given Easter eggs as gifts. Thetraditions of striking and rolling eggs is still popular throughout thecountry.
Family holidays incorporate the main eventsin life, births, weddings and funerals. These are occasions for communaleating and drinking. Regular, every day foods are eaten during christeningsand funerals, but weddings are the exception. Food preparations for weddingfeasts start very early with a variety of foods and drinks. A beer makeris hired as well as a cook with a culinary reputation.
Wedding guests arrive bearing baked goods,cakes and drink. This ancient tradition is still in practice.
Upon their return from church, the newlywedsare received with the traditional bread, salt and drink.
As the wedding guests leave, they aregiven a piece of the traditional wedding cake to take home.
Lithuanians have always been known fortheir hospitality. It is said that "if you do not love other people, youwill not be loved". When expecting guests, Lithuanians go all out to prepareall kinds of food and drink, for they want the guests to comment "therewas an abundance of everything, the only food missing was bird's milk".However, the visitor does not begin to savor the food until he is urgedto do so by the hosts.
Lithuanians are happy and sober, theydrink slowly because they want to extend the socializing, they often sharethe same drinking glass. The drinking glass goes around the table, to theright, together with the bottle and greetings - be healthy, thank you,to your health and many other wishes that are shouted with each drink.
Such feasting is very friendly and cozy.One experiences the pleasure of sitting, talking and relaxing with relativesor neighbors.
Drinks which have been popular throughthe ages include mead, beer and krupnikas, a herbal alcoholic drink.
Every get together is accompanied by songsabout beer, mead, hops and barley grain. While singing the guests praisethe hosts and thank them for their hospitality. When the guests prepareto leave, the hostess prepares a gift of food to take home. This gift offood is called "rabbit's cake"/
A much loved or honored guest is accompaniedto the door or gate, where one last drink is shared with the hosts to wishthe guest a good, dustless trip home.
