Šeimos gyvenimas
LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Žemdirbiai; Ūkininkai; Šeimos; Žemės ūkis; Metų ciklai; Ūkinė veikla; Tradicijos; Papročiai; Apeigos; Kalendorinės šventės; Kasdienybė; Šiaurės Lietuva; Etnografija; Tyrimai; Farmers; Families; Farming; Year cycles; Economic activity; Traditions; Customs; Rites; Calendar holidays; Everyday life; Northern Lithuania; Ethnography; Research.
ENIn the study we tried to show the traits of the everyday life of a grown-up person in northern Lithuania in the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries. We used the comparative and historical geographical research methods 1) systematized archival data and literature; 2) analyzed structural peculiarities of year cycles; 3) used them partly and showing regional peculiarities of a year cycle. Analyzing the farmers' life of that region we examined customs and beliefs of winter, spring, summer and autumn calendar festivals and work. As everywhere in Lithuania, in northern Lithuania the greatest importance was attached to three festivals, once called anniversaries that were celebrated 2-4 days: Christmas, Easter and Whitsunday. However, when farming became more intensive in northern Lithuania, the unfinished work was already remembered during the celebrations more often than in other parts of Lithuania. During Christmas the farmers bargained with farmhands, and during Whitsunday they tried to sow oats. On the other hand while comparing with other regions of Lithuania we can perceive a larger scale of feasting. In this region the Midsummer's Day was also an important festival (though Christian faiths did not consider it as an important festival). This festival was more important in northern Lithuania than in other parts of Lithuania. However, the festivals and the other mentioned days were inseparable from a work cycle.One or another day often became the orientation date of the work. It was linked with sowing of one or another culture, It was done even during the bigger official festivals, e g. Whitsunday, though the Church did not tolerate such practice. On the other hand farmers' beliefs strictly regulated the work during some festivals. The economic success had also to be guaranteed by not connected with Church's prohibitions to work at one time or another. Peculiar economic activity is also the guesses concerning the future. Weather conditions were watched especially intensively because according to them the weather of winter, spring, summer and autumn was guessed. There was also believed that they can predetermine every man's life expectancy and health, success in farming, cattle breeding, beekeeping, and the elements - fires, winds, and storms. However, to farmers' apprehension active magic activities were more important for economic success. The majority of them were connected with the main farmer's occupation - farming and cattle breeding. The given material shows that both spheres of these activities cover the biggest festivals - Christmas Eve, Christmas, Shrovetide, Easter, Whitsunday, Midsummer's Day, and Assumption. It also shows that such sacramentalities as oats (St Stephen), chalk (Three Magi), candles (Candlemas), bread (St Agatha), bunches of willow (Palm Sunday), water (Easter Saturday, Whitsunday), fire (Easter Saturday), food (Easter), plants (Corpus Christi Day, Assumption) consecrated in the church also got a certain magic power.Bigger festivals or the beginning or end of every work were connected with a certain magic protection. A lot of magic activities were performed on the first day of sending the cattle to the grass, starting or ending the ploughing, sowing, the season of taking manure to fields, haymaking, harvesting, flax pulling season, flax breaking or thrashing. During Christmas, All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, and other festivals the dead members of the family were asked for help. We can draw a conclusion that their goodwill had to ensure a good harvest, success in animal breeding and good health. The research showed that the everyday life of a farmer in the end of the 19th and the second half of the 20th centuries was based on the cycles of the Christian calendar. However, the economic interests often limited the agricultural culture only on the formal side of Christian ideology. The regulated by the Church practices often were changed or intensified by guesses and magic actions. On the other hand the more intensive farming merged the sacral time with the endless rhythm of fieldwork that shortened the rest time or even merged the work with festivals. [From the publication]
