Last sunday (the 12th), we went to a small folk festival in Meyronis, the closest village from our "Ekologinios Svietimos Centras", the place we live in. Organised by Aukstaitija National Park and Labanoras Regional Park together, this event symbolises the approaching end of spring and real start of summer. Normaly, each year, a cow (or a few of them) has to swim in the lake and to cross it to get to the other side, where it can stay for the whole summer in a pasture. But tradition is getting lost, and the cow had already crossed Lake Lusai... First time it does not happen during the event. What a shame!
The event
The customs
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| Soon, Florence will be crowned... with a home-made crown of various plants and flowers |
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| Participants carry birch branches to give them to villagers. The birch tree is seen as a link between earth and sky. |
The people
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| Florence with our Lithuanian teacher Astra, member of the same folk group than the one our mentor Linas belongs to |
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| A drama play amused the visitors... |
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| And for a small village like Meyronis, the visitors were quite numerous! |
The food
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| The diversity of Lithuanian food |
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| The giant omelette was a complete success |
Singing and dancing
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| Many more women than men... |
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| This is quite exceptional. Unfortunately, men are not as numerous as women in traditional folk groups |
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| Our mentor Linas, much better dancer than we were! |
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| Florence was pretty good in dancing the traditional "Oira Oira" |
An example of traditional singing
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