Paganism-inspired folk music, folk music-inspired paganism and new cultural fusions in Lithuania and Latvia
ENAs the Baltic States of Lithuania and Latvia pass their twentieth anniversaries of political independence from Soviet communism, both contemporary folk music and modern Pagan religious movements draw inspiration from earlier epochs of history. This is something deeper than mere nostalgia. Throughout history, the Baltic peoples have struggled for self-preservation against external threats, from colonising Germanic Crusaders in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries to Tsarist, Nazi, and Soviet domination in the nineteenth and twentieth. Each Baltic people has its own memories of invasion, occupation and oppression, and lessons learned about the necessity of maintaining cultural traditions against the twin threats of extinction and assimilation. Therefore, the preservation and further reijinement of earlier forms of folk music and Pagan religion have immense emotional and political signiijicance in Latvia and Lithuania, which is vividly expressed through the cultural product of Paganism inspired folk music and related musical forms. [Extract, p. 351]
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