Joninės in Vilkaviškis

A big family-size Joninės, in the nature. The best we could hope for...

After Rasos (different name for Joninės, meaning "dew" in lithuanian) in Ignalina, our mentor Linas invited us for another Joninės, at the other end of the country, near Vilkaviškis, hardly 10km from the russian border (Kaliningrad). In Ignalina, it was crowded and commercial. Here, it was a much more quiet, pleasant, and family-like atmosphere. We loved it!

          

This is the gate under which participants walk, one after another, and then get purified. After that, we had to walk and pick blindy seven plants. A fortune teller was there to interpretate this small bunch. Result? Florence will have a short but very colourful life, whereas Edouard will have a long one, perhaps with many kids, but with plenty of non-achieved ideas or projects. What's best?

We were meant to celebrate the Sun...

... but rain welcomed us first

Here comes the time to burn the bunch of

flowers previously picked for fortune-telling

Gira (bread-fermented beverage), salt and bread

on the menu before sunset.

We only saw a tiny part of it for sunset, but its whole beauty appeared for sunrise. After the shortest night of the year.

The place where we spent our shortest sleepless night. The "vegetation tower" on the right is used for some more fortune telling. The idea is to throw a previously made crown of flowers trying it to get stuck on one of the sticks horizontally attached to the tower. You have to do that while looking in opposite direction. Florence tried many times and never managed. Edouard needed only for try for his crown not to come back to the ground anymore. What does it mean? Well, Florence might never get married (not before a long time anyway), whereas Edouard will within four of five years!