Joninės

LTTik trijose Europos šalyse Joninės yra nedarbo diena - Lietuvoje, Latvijoje ir Estijoje. Tai ypatinga, su vasaros lygiadieniu susijusi šventė. 1890 m. anglų antropologas Jamesas Ceorge'as Frazeris rašė: Daugelyje Prūsijos ir Lietuvos vietų vasaros saulėgrįžos išvakarėse gyventojai kuria didžiulius laužus. Visos kalvos, kiek tik akys aprėpia, žėri ugnimis. Manoma, kad šios ugnys apsaugo nuo burtininkų kerų, žaibo, krušos ir nuo gyvulių ligų, ypač jei sekantį rytų gyvulius pervarysi per laužavietę. Šie laužai saugomi paveikiausia priemone prieš raganų žabangas, kurios su burtų ir užkeikimų pagalba stengiasi apimti karvėms pienų... (cit. iš Kudirka 1991: 4). Tos dienos išvakarėse siekta užtikrinti gerą derlių, nulemti gyvulių ir žmonių sveikatą, spėta vedybinė ateitis, tikėta, kad visokeriopą sėkmę gali užtikrinti vidurnaktį rastas paparčio žiedas. [Iš straipsnio, p. 264]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Šventės; Kalendorinės šventės; Joninės; Šventimas; Tradicijos; Papročiai; Vardinės; Vardas Jonas; Šventiniai valgiai; Vilniečiai; Lithuania; Holidays; Calendar holidays; St John's Day festival; Celebration; Traditions; Customs; Name-day; Name John; Festive meals; Vilnius residents.

ENOnly in three European countries St John's Day is a public holiday: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. St John's also had ideological meaning. At the end of the nineteenth century it was related to national revival movements, esp. in Lithuania Minor, where the guardians of Lithuanian culture acquired part of the Rambynas Hill for St John's celebrations. In Lithuania, during period between the great wars this festival assisted the integration of Klaipėda region into Lithuania Major. In the Soviet period, patriotic feelings were promoted by celebrating St John's on Kernavė Mound, this way instilling some features of a national festival into otherwise calendar holidays. The custom of celebrating name-days, spreading in Lithuania in the nineteenth century, was a determining factor to compliment Johns and Janes (Lith. sing. Jonas and Janina) not only communally, but also for it to become a family holiday. This research aims to reveal how this holiday is celebrated in the family. The importance of this festival to the Lithuanian public raises a major objective: to demonstrate ethnic and cultural peculiarities of this festival. We implement this objective by revealing certain elements of this holiday as celebrated in 2012 or 2013 by the Vilnian families: the composition of the participants and locality of the occasion, the festive meal, and customs and traditions maintained by the families. In the course of the research the respondents were asked to report where and with who they have marked St John's apart from the family members (relatives, friends, co-workers, neighbours), and to list all of the food and drinks consumed. They were asked if certain individual customs still exist: lighting of fires, having fireworks, searching for the fern flower, making a daisy wreath for the name bearer and lifting him/her up, attending a church or participating as a family in some city (community, club) celebration.Another question was how the Johns or the Janes of the family are congratulated, also what kind of St John's foretelling (beliefs) or any other St John's traditions are maintained. There was also a question directed at pupils, asking them to report whether they have celebrated and with who. There is no solid data on this pre-Christian midsummer festival in Lithuania, unlike in northern and western European countries (comp. Kudirka 1991:7; Billington 2007:65-73). Celebratory practices of this festival are very varied. A. Vaicekauskas distinguishes St John's traditions as those of the peasant community, early twentieth century public folklore, neo-pagan and modern, which have combined earlier traditions with the interests of modern consumerist society (Vaicekauskas 2007: 51-57). Eglė Aleknaitė distinguishes folkloric, local, religious, commercial and relatives - n'- friends traditions of St John's/Dews Holiday, which differ in their structural parts, nature of celebration, interpretations and accentuated meanings (Aleknaitė 2014: 61-76). St John's is also called the Dews (Lith. Rasos) Holiday. According to Teodoras Narbutas, in Vilnius city such festival was celebrated already in 1835 (Narbutas 1992: 262). Possibly, the author has identified St John's festival at the Rasos (Dews) suburban area of Vilnius as the Festival of Rasos. In more recent times St John's is celebrated with the family members by a larger portion of Russians (52%) and Poles (42%) (Lithuanians - 33%), yet larger proportion of Lithuanians celebrate with friends - 42% (Poles - 27%, Russians - 43%). Pupils in all ethnic groups rarely mark the occasion in the family circle. This could be related to the withering custom of giving the names of Jonas, Janis, Ivan, Janina, and celebrating their name-days.Even though larger portion of the respondents did celebrate St John's (all of the Russians, 89% of Poles and 87% of Lithuanians), not all ofthat was home based. Often modern a Vilnian (esp. of the Russian origin) reported to have celebrated the festival outdoors, at a country house, dacha or some different village, city or even abroad. Part of the respondents choose to celebrate by attending public events in Vilnius, e.g. in Markučiai, near Verkiai Palace. The Poles tend to mark the occasion at home, with the Lithuanians more seldom and the Russians very rarely selecting this option. Vilnians from all ethnic groups have reported that for the celebration they would often choose dacha or a country house. St John's is most commonly celebrated outdoors by the Russians (39%). The Lithuanians and the Poles prefer outdoors in equal proportions. It is not rare to celebrate at the parents' in a countryside, where not only family, but also a wider circle of relations is gathering, especially if there is someone in the family bearing the celebratory name. Already at the start of this century to congratulate with the name-day, esp. Jonas and Janina, was considered a nice custom. Till the mid-twentieth century Jonas was the most popular name in Lithuania. Currently to congratulate the name bearer and present gifts is equally popular among all representatives of the researched groups. The Lithuanians stand out with their traditional wreathing of the name bearers, yet the Poles more often than others would send greetings by phone, in person, bring gifts or flowers. The inseparable part of the festival is the festive table. On this occasion dishes usually are not specific and prepared just for this event. Since usually the celebration does not take place home, dishes are not complicated and easy to be prepared outdoors. [From the publication]