LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Kūčios; Liaudiškas pamaldumas; Lietuviškos tradicijos; Papročių inkultūrizacija; Žiemos saulėgrįža; Christmas Eve; Folk Christianity; Inculturation of customs; Lithuanian folk customs; Lithuanian traditions; Popular piety; Winter solstice.
ENTrue preparations for Christmas Holiday begin on the day before Christmas Eve. The essence of behaviour and tradicions of this day is for a man to clean himself in all aspects - both physically and spiritually. Christmas Eve meals wewe prepared from legumes (peas, beans, broad beams) and corn (oats, wheat, barley), poppy- and hemp-seeds, linseeds, vegetables (potatoes, beet-roots, cabbages, carrots), forest and orchard goods (mushrooms, nuts, cranberries, apples, cherries, honey). Indispensable on the Christmas Eve table were herring and fish, normaly caught in the local water reservoirs on the day before Eve. [From the publication]