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Romuva: Lithuanian Paganism in Lithuania and America
Michael Strmiska and Vilius Dundzila
Modern Lithuanian Paganism is found not only in Lithuania, but also in other
nations where Lithuanian immigrants settled in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,
such as the USA and Canada. It is very much an ethnically oriented Paganism, grounded
in a profound awareness of the past history and culture of the Lithuanian people. A point
of particular pride is the knowledge that Lithuania was the last country in all of Europe to
officially abandon its native Pagan traditions and convert to Christianity, in 1387. This
watershed event, and its aftermath, are worth exploring in some detail, as they are central
issues in the historical understanding of modern Lithuanian Paganism. This article will
therefore begin with a brief overview of relevant episodes in Lithuanian history leading to
the rise of modern Lithuanian Paganism.
Lithuania’s Transition from Paganism to Christianity
Situated in the center of northeastern Europe, Lithuania has always found itself
poised between Eastern and Western Europe. Lithuania’s neighbors include Sweden to
the north, across the Baltic Sea; Russia to the east; Belarus to the south and east; and
Poland and Kaliningrad to the south and west, with Germany and Denmark farther west
along the Baltic Sea. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Germanic Christian
Crusaders from the west, allied with the Catholic church, and Slavic Christians from the
east, allied with the Orthodox church, each pressed the Pagan rulers of Lithuania to adopt
their particular forms of Christianity, and thereby bring Lithuania into the folds of either
the Catholic West or the Orthodox East.
By the mid-fourteenth century, Lithuania had become a considerable political and
military power, with the Grand Duke Gediminas establishing dominion over a vast
territory reaching from the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea to the western shores of the
Black Sea, including modern-day Belarus, Ukraine, and adjacent portions of Russia. As
noted by the historian S.C. Rowell, Lithuania was a thriving “Pagan empire” in eastern
Europe (Rowell 1994). As such, Lithuania was coveted by Christian leaders eager to add
its wealth and power to their own, as well as to eliminate the last stronghold of Paganism
in Europe. Several generations of Lithuanian rulers had skillfully maintained diplomatic
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relations with the emissaries of the Catholic and Orthodox churches, while vigorously
fighting off the armies of Germanic Christian Crusaders, known as Teutonic Knights,
intent on introducing Christianity into Lithuania by conquest, as other crusading knights
had previously done in the lands now known as Latvia and Estonia, Lithuania’s northern
Baltic neighbors (Christiansen 1997; Rowell 1992 & 1994).
The Russian-controlled area to the west of Lithuania known today as Kaliningrad,
formerly known as Prussia, had once been inhabited by a people with Baltic language and
Pagan religion, the Baltic Prussians. Their society was overrun by Germanic Christian
conquest in the thirteenth century, and their distinctive language, culture and religion
would eventually disappear completely. This kind of colonial conquest, which might be
termed cultural genocide, would motivate Lithuanians to fight with great ferocity against
the Teutonic Knights, and would harden the resolve of Lithuanians to preserve Lithuanian
land, culture and identity up to the present time. As the journalist Anatol Lieven
comments,
The elimination of the Old Prussians, one of the Baltic peoples, at
the hands of the Germans…has often been cited in Baltic literature
as an awful warning, an example of the grim, existential danger
facing small nations in the region (Lieven 1994, 40).
A Lithuanian folk song first noted in historical record in the sixteenth century, and
set into written form in the nineteenth, some 500 years after the close of this long-running
conflict, further illustrates how deeply affected Lithuania was by its struggle against its
Germanic Christian foes of the Middle Ages.
Why did you sleep, Duke, for so long, sudaicio,
Sudaicio, sudaiciutele (Lithuanian refrain)
While you were asleep, they slew your soldiers,
Destroyed your castle.
Which of them, Duke, do you grieve for more?
I do not grieve so much for the castle
As I grieve for the soldiers.
I will build myself a new castle, in two or three years,
Yet I can’t grow [new] soldiers, even in ten years.
( Kiaupa, Kiaupiene and Kuncevicious 2000, 105).
It is a matter of great pride to Lithuanians that they, unlike their Baltic neighbors
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in Latvia, Estonia or the aforementioned, ill-starred Prussia, not only resisted Germanic
Christian invasion, but in league with Poland, dealt the Teutonic Knights a crushing,
conclusive defeat in 1410, as will be explained below. For Lithuanian Pagans, their
nation’s historical resistance to Christianization is a key aspect of their Pagan identity,
and is retold and contemplated with great solemnity as a kind of “foundation myth” for
modern Lithuanian Paganism.
Christianity and Judaism were both in fact present in Lithuania by the fourteenth
century, with Christian and Jewish religious communities allowed to construct their own
houses of worship. The rulers of Lithuania, however, remained resolutely Pagan,
dedicated to the sacred groves, sacrificial fires, and other polytheistic traditions of their
ancestors. The fair degree of religious pluralism that held sway in Lithuania, in which
Christianity was permitted but not privileged above Paganism, was unacceptable to the
rulers of Christian Europe, who wished to see Lithuanian Paganism officially denounced
and disestablished in favor of the Christian faith.
In 1387, after some 200 years of on-and-off war and artfully indecisive diplomacy
between Lithuania, the Teutonic Knights, and the Catholic Church, the Grand Duke
Jogaila bowed to what may well have been a political necessity that could no longer be
forestalled (Rowell 1994). Jogaila agreed to accept the Catholic faith, thus releasing
Lithuania from the relentless pressure applied by European Christian nations. By
embracing Christianity, Jogaila was able to form a firm alliance with the Catholic
Kingdom of Poland, which was likewise threatened by the aggressive intentions of the
Teutonic Knights.
The close relationship with Poland was to have two momentous outcomes for
Lithuania, the first indisputably positive, the other far less so. First, a combined
Lithuanian-Polish army was able to decisively defeat the Germanic Teutonic Knights
once and for all in 1410, at the Battle of Grunwald, a site alternately known as
Tannenburg in German, and as Zalgiris in Lithuanian. Second, Lithuania gradually lost its
independence to become a progressively junior partner in the Lithuanian-Poland
Commonwealth, with the Treaty of Lublin in 1569 marking the beginning of centuries of
decline in Lithuanian power and independence, with Polish language and culture
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predominating among the ruling elite of the nation. Lithuanian culture language and
folklore were mainly preserved among the peasantry, in rural areas far removed from the
halls of power and fashion.
After the 1795 division of the Lithuanian-Polish Commonwealth, Tsarist Russia
came into possession of Lithuania and the ruling language and culture shifted from Polish
to Russian. Native Lithuanian language and culture, once again marginalized by the
cultural preferences of the nation’s rulers, once again survived beyond the reach of the
ruling elite, among the peasantry. Lithuanian rebellion against Russian rule in 1863
resulted in prohibitions on the use of the Lithuanian language in schools and publishing,
which further stoked the flames of Lithuanian nationalism and resentment of Russian
oppression.
Folklore and Nationalism: The Crucible of Lithuanian Paganism
The intellectual and political trends of romanticism and nationalism that swept
across Europe in the nineteenth century did not fail to reach Lithuania. A romantic view
of the nation’s past, such as had been heralded by the German philosopher Johann
Gottlieb Herder (1744-1803), in his doctrine of each nation’s unique “folk soul,”
stimulated both popular and scholarly interest in folkloric traditions preserved among the
Lithuanian peasantry. The collection and analysis of such folklore led to new pride in the
distinctiveness of Lithuanian folk arts and crafts, songs, seasonal customs, and
mythology, and thus an enhanced sense of Lithuania as a nation with its own cultural
identity. Artists and writers created new artistic and literary works inspired by Pagan
myth and rural folklore.
Of special concern to folklorists were the very archaic folk songs known as
dainas, which contained considerable information about Pagan mythology, beliefs and
rituals, expressed in a terse and cryptic style. The folklorist Antanas Juska published
thousands of the dainas in his massive collection, Lietuviskos Dainos, published in
several volumes between 1880-1882, with another set of weddings song dainas,
Lietuviskos svodbines dainos, published in 1880. Other substantial collections were
published by Liudvikas Reza in 1825, Simonas Stanevicius in 1829, and Adolfas
Sabaliauskas with the Finnish scholar, Augustas Neimis, in 1911.
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From out of this general appreciation of Lithuanian folk culture, there emerged a
movement to recreate the pre-Christian, Pagan religious traditions embedded in the
folklore. The quest for a uniquely Lithuanian form of religion was inspired in part by the
rising tide of Lithuanian nationalism, in which Lithuanian language and culture were
championed against the past centuries of Polish and Russian linguistic and cultural
dominance. Nationalist Lithuanian intellectuals such as Simonas Daukantas and Jonas
Basanavicius looked back in history to the time before Lithuania’s conquest by Russia;
before the alliance with Poland; before the conversion to Christianity; to the days of
Grand Duke Gediminas, when Lithuania was a proud and independent Pagan state, as
something of a Golden Age (Suziedelis 1997, 71-72, 102-103; Krapauskas 2000, 20;
Snyder 2003, 31-52). Pagan revivalists believed that the recovery of Lithuania’s preChristian
and folkloric religious traditions would aid in the rebuilding of Lithuanian
national identity toward the goal of a future Lithuanian state free of foreign domination.
Whereas much of Lithuanian nationalistic discourse sought to highlight the
distinctiveness of Lithuanian culture and identity as something separate from that of other
peoples, there was one area in which romantic and nationalist scholars and writers strove
to link Lithuania to other nations. This was in regards to the Lithuanian language’s
affinity with other languages of the Indo-European language family. Linguists involved in
the study of comparative Indo-European philology had noted that the Lithuanian language
displayed striking similarities with one of the oldest Indo-European languages, namely
Sanskrit, the language of the ancient Hindu Vedas and Upanishads.
The linguistic parallels are aptly demonstrated in the following example cited by
the esteemed archaeologist and comparative Indo-European scholar J.C. Mallory. A
Lithuanian proverb that translates as “God gave teeth, God will give bread,” is, in the
Lithuanian original: “Dievas dave dantis; Dievas duous duounos.” Translated into
Sanskrit, it is “Devas adadat datas; Devas dat dhanas” (Mallory 1989, 82).
The linguistic linkages between Lithuanian and other Indo-European languages,
but most particularly Sanskrit, were held up as proof of the great antiquity of Lithuanian
language, culture and religion. Additional parallels in Hindu and Lithuanian mythology
and world-view excited further interest in the specifically religious features of the Indo-
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European heritage of the two peoples, a topic which continues to be explored by scholars
to the present time. One of the most detailed studies on this topic is Balts and Aryans In
Their Indo-European Setting, authored by Suniti Kumar Chatterji, an Indian professor of
philology, who visited Lithuania during the 1960s (Chatterji 1968).
Into the Twentieth Century
As the preceding section has made clear, modern Lithuanian Paganism was
inspired by broad social and intellectual currents in nineteenth century Lithuania. It was
also guided and shaped by a number of leading figures whose lives and works linked the
period of nineteenth century nationalism with the achievement of Lithuanian
independence in the aftermath of World War I. Vilius Storosta, also known as Vydunas
(1868-1953), was instrumental in increasing public interest and participation in seasonal
Pagan festivals, such as the winter and summer solstice celebrations. Storosta also delved
deeply into Indian religious philosophy and wrote a number of works exploring parallels
in the general world-view and religious concepts of Hinduism and Pagan Lithuanian
religion. Domas Sidlauskas, also known as Visuomis (1878-1944), founded a modern
Lithuanian Pagan organization called Visuomybe (Universalism), and established a
sanctuary and a fraternal organization both called Romuva in the period of Lithuanian
independence between World Wars I and II. The name is significant, as Romuva was
originally the name of a major Pagan religious center in Prussia, the westernmost Baltic
nation whose native language, culture and religion were obliterated by foreign invasion,
colonization and Christianization. The name “Romuva” was therefore a poignant
reminder of the possibility of total extinction, a tribute to the Baltic Prussians and their
religion, and the expression of the hope of breathing new life into the spiritual heritage of
the Baltic past.
These early twentieth century Pagan organizations did not survive the tragic
events of the invasion and occupation of Lithuania, first by Soviet then Nazi forces in the
course of World War II, and the incorporation of Lithuania into the USSR following the
end of the war. Modern Paganism in Lithuania was repressed by the Soviet authorities in
the 1940s and 1950s, but was eventually able to revive in the late 1960s in the disguised
form of a folkloric association, named Ramuva, which name was but a variant form of
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Romuva. Ramuva was led by the folklorist Jonas Trinkunas (1939- ) in association with
other folklorists and intellectuals, and his wife Inija. With chapters in Vilnius and the
other major Lithuanian cities, Ramuva was devoted to the folkloric collection, study and
performance of songs, dances and other folk arts and traditions from the rural areas, as
well as solstice and other seasonal festivals. Despite efforts by Trinkunas and his
associates to conceal the religious purpose of their folkloric activities, Ramuva was
repressed by Soviet government authorities for political reasons in the early 1970s.
The Reemergence of Romuva in Post-Soviet Lithuania
With the waning of Soviet authority and thus also of Soviet political repression in
the 1980s, Ramuva, under the leadership of the forementioned Jonas Trinkunas and his
wife Inija Trinkuniene, was permitted to resume its activities in 1988. Its celebrations of
native Lithuanian folkloric culture perfectly complemented rising public sentiment for
Lithuanian independence (York 1995).
Following the euphoric achievement of independence in 1991, the folkloric
organization Ramuva was supplemented by the religious organization Romuva, reviving
the historic associations with the ancient religious site in Prussia to proclaim the desire of
Trinkunas and his associates to not merely recreate Lithuanian folk culture, but to
effectively revive the ancient, pre-Christian religious heritage, which they viewed as the
spiritual core of Lithuanian national identity. In its new incarnation, Romuva has
continued its activities to the present time, with little interference from the post-Soviet,
Lithuanian government, but rather a good deal of cooperation and support (Romuva web
site).
The establishment of Romuva, with its reinterpretation of Ramuva’s folkloric
activities for the explicit purpose of promoting Lithuanian Paganism as an ethnic,
folkloric religion, was highly offensive to some Catholic participants in Ramuva, who felt
that they had been deceived by Trinkunas and his associates about the nature and purpose
of the organization. Many Catholics had joined Ramuva believing that its folkloric
activities were non-religious and thus not in conflict with their Christian affiliation. With
the proclamation of Romuva as an explicitly Pagan religious organization, some Catholic
members felt they had no choice but to quit Ramuva, as the theologian, journalist and
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former Ramuva member Paulius Subacius related with some bitterness in an interview
conducted in early 2002 (Interview with Michael Strmiska,Vilnius, March 2002,
interpreted by Dangis Verseckas).
However, there were also Lithuanian Catholics who have remained engaged in
Ramuva and even joined in Romuva activities, either reconciling Paganism with
Catholicism according to their own views, or simply choosing to participate in both
religious communities without concern for theological or doctrinal contradiction. A
similar situation pertains among Lithuanian immigrants in North America. This kind of
“dual faith,” involving the simultaneous practice of and belief in two different religious
traditions, was first noted by the scholar George Fedotov (1960, 10) in his classic study of
Russian religious history. Examples could also be cited from Afro-Caribbean religions
which combine the worship of African deities with reverence for Catholic saints and
Virgin Mary, or the participation of many Japanese people in both Shinto and Buddhism.
The “dual faith” of Lithuanians simultaneously participating in Pagan and
Catholic forms of religion is, however, nothing new. From its earliest days, Catholicism
in Lithuania has incorporated symbols, sacred sites and other elements of the same native
Pagan religion that it condemned and continues to denounce as a false and wayward faith.
This Catholic policy of appropriating native religious sites and practices can be traced
back to the instructions given by Pope Gregory I in the early seventh century for
converting Heathens in the British Isles by superimposing Christian names and meanings
over Pagan gods and practices (Cusack 1998,178-179).
Archaeologists in Lithuania have ascertained that the majestic cathedral in Vilnius
was built over an earlier Pagan temple. The history of the cathedral site is quite complex,
and in fact encapsulates the stages of the overall religious history of Lithuania. In the first
millennium, the area was a swampy wetland, with the specific site of the later Cathedral a
small island on which Pagan Lithuanians performed sacrifices. When the Pagan ruler
Mindaugas converted to Christianity in 1253, he arranged to have a cathedral, the first of
several, built over the site of the earlier Pagan shrine. Mindaugas was slain by Pagan
Lithuanians angered at his conversion, and the cathedral was burned and then rebuilt as a
Pagan temple, with a stone altar surrounded by zodiac symbols. This is believed to have
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been the house of worship of Gediminas and other Pagan Grand Dukes prior to the
official conversion of Lithuania in 1387, after which time the Pagan temple was
demolished and rebuilt as a Catholic cathedral once more, only to later be burned and
rebuilt again, in the tumult of Lithuanian politics over the centuries. Archaeological
knowledge of the earlier history of the cathedral site gradually increased over the course
of the twentieth century, with the remains of the post-Mindaugas temple and altar
uncovered during excavations in the 1970s.
Originally Pagan winter and summer solstice celebrations have been reinterpreted
as Christian holidays, the winter celebration as Christmas, the summer festivities as St.
John’s Day. Christian crosses in Lithuania are often decorated with sun, moon and snake
motifs, all drawn from the symbolic repertoire of Lithuanian Paganism.
As these examples illustrate, the Catholic Church has generally been quite happy
to allow various aspects of Lithuanian Paganism to continue under Catholic auspices,
long as such elements were purged of their original Pagan associations and fully
converted to Christian purposes. By the same token, Catholic leaders have been quick to
condemn modern attempts by Romuva and other modern Pagans to reclaim the originally
Pagan identity of symbols and practices formerly appropriated by the Church. From the
historical viewpoint of the church, Lithuania has been a majority Catholic nation for six
hundred years, and as such, it is the Church that is the true keeper of Lithuanian culture
and identity, not a small group of Pagan revivalist upstarts. There can be little doubt that
the Catholic church in Lithuanian would prefer for the pre-Christian, Pagan heritage
embedded in Lithuanian folk Catholicism to remain buried under the doctrines of the
Church, just as the recently excavated Pagan temple was long buried under the Vilnius
Grand Cathedral, but the winds of change blowing through Lithuania do not favor the
church being able to maintain or impose a monolithic, church-centered view of the
nation’s history and culture.
With Lithuania gradually rejoining Europe as a modern, democratic country, an
atmosphere of increasing religious diversity and pluralism is taking root. This supports
the right of Romuva to assert the originally Pagan nature of certain elements of
Lithuanian history and ethnic culture, along with the right of Lithuanian Catholics to
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interpret the same history and folk traditions in a de-Paganized and Christianized manner.
For example, the period of conflict between the Pagan Grand Dukes of Lithuania and the
Christian soldiers of the Teutonic Knights in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries is
generally viewed by members of Romuva as a heroic struggle against foreign, Christian
oppression, whereas the same events may be viewed by Lithuanian Catholics as a tragic
and painful, but ultimately fruitful process of ignorant ancestors slowly moving toward
the truth of Christ and full membership in his Church. With the two religions staking
these kinds of competing claims to Lithuanian ethnic heritage and cultural identity, it is to
be expected that the animosity between the two religious communities will continue,
along with the “dual-faith” participation of Lithuanians more comfortable combining
these religious traditions than choosing between them.
Such controversies do not appear to have damaged Romuva, but may have
actually have increased public awareness of and interest in modern Lithuanian Paganism.
Romuva has maintained a robust program of folkloric and ritual activities and continued
to attract both dedicated followers and casual participants throughout the 1990s and into
the first years of the twenty-first century.
Romuva received official governmental recognition as a “non-traditional religious
community” in 1992. Romuva supporters in the Lithuanian National Parliament, the
Seimas, proposed legislation in the late 1990s to grant Romuva the higher official status
of a “traditional religious community,” which would have placed Romuva on an equal
level of legal status as the Catholic, Orthodox and Lutheran churches, Judaism, Sunni
Islam and a number of other religious associations (Glodenis 2001 and online at
http://www.religija.lt; interview with Donatas Glodenis by M. Strmiska, February 2002).
The legislation failed to win approval, partly because of the opposition of Catholic
politicians. Another factor was the stipulation of the 1995 Lithuanian “Law on Religious
Communities and Associations” that a religious association could only be recognized as
“traditional” after 25 years had passed since its first registration with the government.
With Romuva having only registered with the government in 1992, the law could
be interpreted to mean that 2017 would be the earliest date at which Romuva could obtain
the full legal status of a “traditional religious community.” Supporters of Romuva made
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the case that their religion could hardly be more “traditional,” as it was the modern
continuation of native religious traditions that far predated the arrival of Christianity and
the other religions recognized as “traditional.” The pro-Romuva camp also advanced the
argument that modern Romuva had been active in Lithuania long before 1992, but neither
this nor the other argument succeeding in convincing the majority of the Seimas. In 2005,
a petition drive is underway to garner public support in Lithuania for granting Romuva
the status of “traditional” religious community (interview with Inija Trinkuniene by M.
Strmiska, Vilnius, December 2004.)
The mere fact that the status of Romuva came to be discussed at the highest levels
of government demonstrates that Romuva has achieved a certain level of recognition in
Lithuanian society. On the other hand, the ultimate decision by the Seimas to deny
Romuva a higher legal standing illustrates the extent to which the religious movement
remains controversial. The legal status of Romuva in the United States will be taken up in
a separate section.
Romuva as a Religion
If we ask the question, is Romuva a religion, we must first establish a baseline
idea of what a religion is. Though views on this subject naturally vary, most definitions of
“religion” generally include the following four elements: (1) a system of sacred beliefs
articulating a particular view of the world; (2) a set of sacred narratives relating the
mythology of deities and supernatural beings and the history of the religion itself ; (3) a
body of rituals facilitating the worship of sacred beings and providing an experiential
understanding of myths and beliefs; and (4) an organization of individuals with a shared
commitment to these beliefs, myths and rituals into a coherent and self-sustaining
community. To understand Romuva as a religion, let us then examine something of its
beliefs, myths, rituals and community structures.
Romuva Beliefs: The Ethnic and the Mystical
As to the beliefs of Romuva, a good starting point is provided in a set of statutes
submitted by a Lithuanian Romuva elder, translated into English and then published on
Romuva’s e-mail discussion group on the Yahoo internet service in 2003. The document
begins with a declaration of basic principles.
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The [Romuva] Community continues the traditions of the native
ancient Baltic faith. It aims at the unison and the harmony with the
God and the Gods, with the ancestors, the nature and the people,
exalts the sanctity of nature as the most obvious manifestation of
divinity, and nurtures the Baltic traditional moral way of life, their
own way towards the divinity, which was created through many
centuries (published on the Yahoo Romuva discussion group
March 6th, 2003; translated into English by Dangis Verseckas).
This little document very concisely summarizes a number of sacred concerns of
Romuva: the worship of divinity and nature; respect for the dead as well as the living; and
a quest for harmony between these different aspects of the world. Note, however, that the
very first item that is mentioned is “continuing the traditions of the native ancient Baltic
faith.” There is first and foremost a consciousness of respecting and preserving the ways
of the Lithuanians of the past; an ethnic consciousness. Reverence for the ancestors
further expresses this ethnic concern, as does the final point about “nurturing the Baltic
traditional moral way of life.” A similar passage in Of Gods and Holidays, an anthology
of essays concerning Lithuanian and Latvian Paganism compiled by Jonas Trinkunas and
colleagues, speaks of Romuva as “the mansion of faith created by our ancestors”
(Trinkunas 1999, 152.)
In terms of Romuva’s conception of the divine, there are two intriguing types of
ambiguity. There is first the statement about God or Gods, an ambiguity leaving space for
various interpretations and conceptions, both the monistic and the pluralistic. We can
perhaps detect the influence of Indian religion and philosophy, which have been widely
discussed in Lithuanian Pagan circles since the time of Vydunas, particularly the strand of
Hindu speculative thought in texts such as the Upanishads, wherein provision is made for
how a multitude of Gods existing on one level of experience may be known as a single
Godhead at a different level of consciousness. The mention of the Baltic “way” toward
the divine evolving over many centuries likewise suggests that the tradition contains
multiple forms of worship and thought, continuously evolving and developing, opening
the door to further extensions and adaptations. This contrasts strongly with the tendency
in Abrahamic or monotheistic forms of religion to emphasize the perfection and
enforcement of set laws and doctrines received through a divine revelation transmitted in
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the distant past.
The second ambiguity concerns the relationship between nature and the divine.
The document speaks of the “sanctity of nature as the most obvious manifestation of
divinity.” This is an interesting formulation, which identifies nature with the divine, but
not in an absolute or exclusive manner. Nature is described as the “most obvious,” most
accessible form of the divine, but not as the only form. The implication is there may
indeed be other forms or levels of divinity beyond the world of nature. We might
compare this with Christian debates about the relationship of the physical body of Jesus
to the transcendental nature of the Christian god. Compare also the Hindu creation myth
from the Rig Veda, which tells us that when the world was created from the body of the
primordial man Purusha, only one fourth of his body was used to make up our world of
physical existence, i.e. nature; the other three quarters of Purusha exist in a transcendental
realm beyond our normal experience (Rig Veda Book 10, Hymn 90).
While there may be some ambiguity on certain points, one aspect of the
worldview expressed in this document is very clear. There is no dualism in the Romuva
view of the world. There is no sense of opposition between the divine and the human, the
spiritual and the physical, the living and the dead. In this non-dualistic framework, the
highest value is placed on “harmony” or “unison” with the different levels and inhabitants
of the cosmos. A passage in Trinkunas’ book Of Gods and Holidays makes the point,
“Evil--blogas--does not exist of itself; rather, it is the downfall of harmony, the absence
of harmony and the inability to restore it. This is manifested most glaringly in man’s
devastation of nature, his destruction of Her order” (Dundzila and Trinkunas in Trinkunas
1999, 158-159).
The Lithuanian word for harmony is darna. Via Indo-European comparative
linguistics, this word is etymologically related to the Indian word dharma, a key religious
term laden with multiple meanings in both Hinduism and Buddhism, ranging from
“order” to “law” to “teaching” to “duty.” The diversity of meanings in the Indian cognate
again opens the door to a certain ambiguity and multiplicity of meaning for darna,
grounded in the core sense of an underlying sustaining principle in the universe,
somewhat akin to the Chinese Tao.
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The Romuva belief system therefore discloses both an ethnic aspect, emphasizing
reverence for Lithuanian ancestors and ethnic heritage, and a mystical strain in which the
world of nature is seen as linking mankind with a numinous world of divinity, partly
coterminous with nature, partly transcendent, accessible either to polytheistic worship of
multiple deities or a monistic understanding of multiplicity linked in oneness. The
concept of darna ties the mystical connection with nature, ancestors and divinity together
with a concern for ethical, harmonious living.
Romuva Narratives: (1) Lithuanian Mythology
Lithuanian myths were originally part of oral tradition at the folk level, and have
never been systematized and harmonized into literary works in the way of Greek or Norse
mythology. There was no Lithuanian Homer in ancient times, nor any Lithuanian Snorri
Sturluson in medieval times, to give the world a Lithuanian Iliad or Edda. The myths of
the ancient Baltic peoples of Lithuania have been pieced together by such scholars as
Marija Gimbutas, Norbertas Velius and Prane Dundeliene from folk songs, folk tales and
other folklore, as well as from archaeology and other scattered sources. Much of the work
that has been done on Lithuanian myth, religion, folklore and archaeology by native
Lithuanian scholars remains to be translated into English or other languages.
A Lithuanian creation myth is discernible in a number of folkloric sources, and is
summarized by the Lithuanian scholars Vytautas Straisys and Libertas Klimka as follows.
...in the beginning there were darkness and chaos: land was mixed
with water. In vast expanses of chaos wandered the God [Dievas],
who commenced dividing the universe into the separate elements:
water, earth, air and fire. Almost all Lithuanian legends feature two
divinities, the highest god and, assisting him, the younger god, in
some legends called his brother, in others, velnias (a devil). Water
seems to be the first element which was isolated from chaos
and formed lagoons. By orders of the highest god, the younger god
dived many times to the bottom of the lagoon and brought to the
surface the seeds from which the earth grew (Straisys and Klimka,
2004).
The name Dievas is of Indo-European derivation, and is cognate with the names
of sky gods in other Indo-European pantheons such as the Sanskrit Dyaus and the Greek
Zeus, with the French word for god, Dieu and the English Divinity/Divine showing further
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reflexes of the same ancient root. The motif of the “Earth Diver” enacted by the god
Velnias in this myth is common in many creation accounts found in mythological
traditions of Europe, Asia and the Americas.
In their further adventures, Dievas and Velnias create the various features of the
world as we know it, including the other deities of the Lithuanian pantheon and human
beings. Dievas gradually becomes the sky-god of the upper world, with Velnias taking on
the role prefigured in his diving action, the master of the watery depths and the
underworld (Norbertas Velius in Trinkunas 1999, 57). In later times, under the influence
of Christianity, Velnias became identified with the Christian Devil, but his original
character shows affinities with the Indian god Varuna, who is likewise a deity of waters,
wisdom, mystery and death.
According to Lithuanian myth, the cosmos is supported by a World Tree. The
upper reaches of this great tree touch the heavenly realm of the deities. Birds dwell in the
branches, humans and all of the earth’s other creatures dwell at the base, and in the
underworld touched by the roots, dwell snakes, reptiles, and other creatures, as well as the
dead. There, too, flow rivers, streams and springs whose waters give life and wisdom to
the worlds above (Straisys and Klimka). The concept of a World Tree, which unites
different levels of the cosmos in a vertical order, is shared among many ancient cultures,
like the Earth Diver motif mentioned earlier. The World Tree found in Scandinavian
myth presents a particularly close parallel (Davidson 1988,170-173).
Inija Trinkuniene, in a lecture delivered in India in 2003 on Lithuanian spirituality
and mythology, explained the World Tree as follows. “A tree [as] a significant sign and
image of ancient religion explains the world's structure. In Lithuanian harvest time songs,
it is sung [citing a daina, a traditional Lithuanian folk song]:
“A poplar stood by the roadside,
Oh glorious plant of rye.
From below the roots, the ringing kankles*,
In the middle the buzzing bees,
At the summit the falcon's children,
A group of brothers rides by,
Please stop, young brothers,
Behold the falcon's children,
Listen to the buzzing bees,
16
Listen to the ringing kankles,
The kankles rings for our dear father
The bees they buzz for our dear mother
The falcon's children for our brother.”
(*The kankles is a harp or zither-like instrument common in the Baltic lands and
Northern Europe, known by different names in different countries.)
Trinkuniene furthermore comments on the tree symbolism in the song as follows.
This is the main hymn of Romuva…It is sung about the
mythological world-tree and its three most important parts, which
symbolize the three levels of the world. Roots underground, death,
the past, water beginning and spring of life. The ringing of kankles
at the roots [signifies] the world of the old, the wise, and the dead.
The buzzing bees in the middle [indicate] the world of working,
toiling people. The falcon's children at the summit [symbolize] the
heavens, the world of warriors and heroes. Death and life, an
uninterrupted linking of evolution. A tree, even though it drops its
leaves in the autumn, goes into sleep in winter, but its life goes on
and its soul remains alive. Such is man's path through birth, death
and rebirth. The central meaning of this hymn is the equal
importance and harmony of these three levels.
(Inija Trinkuniene, lecture entitled “Lithuanian folklore as a source
of Baltic religion: the fire ritual,” accessed online 25 May 2004 at
http://www.infinityfoundation.com/mandala/h_es/h_es_trink_i_fire
.htm ).
The World Tree was given material expression in the form of decorated wooden
poles, capped with roof-like, protective structures, that were for many centuries familiar,
folkloric features of the Lithuanian landscape. In the words of Marija Gimbutas,
Right up to the present century, roofed poles as well as crosses
with a sun symbol around the cross-arms could be encountered in
Lithuania in front of homesteads, in fields, besides sacred springs,
or in the forests. They were erected on the occasions of someone’s
marriage or illness, during epidemics, or for the purpose of
ensuring good crops…Their presence in pre-Christian religion is
attested by historic documents describing them as relics of the old
religion. Christian bishops instructed the clergy to destroy the poles
and crosses in front of which the peasants made offerings and
observed other pagan rites. The Lithuanian roofed poles and
crosses managed to escape destruction because the people affixed
some of the Christian symbols to them and gradually they came
under the protection of the Catholic Church. (Gimbutas, in
Trinkunas 1999, 35-36).
17
There are a wide variety of male and female deities with diverse functions.
Prominent among the goddesses are Zemyna, the earth-goddess, also worshipped in
localized form as Zemepati, patroness of the farmstead; Jurate, the sea-goddess; Saule,
the sun-goddess; Ausrine, the dawn-goddess; Rasa, the goddess of the morning dew;
Austeja the bee-goddess; Medeine, goddess of forests; Gabija, the goddess of fire, and
general protectress of the home in her special association with the hearth-fire; Dimste or
Dimstipati, another household guardian goddess; Laima the fate-goddess; Gvyate the
snake-goddess; Kupuole or Kaupuole, goddess of fertility; Krumine, goddess of the corn;
Ragana the goddess of witchcraft; Giltine, the fearsome death-bringing goddess, and
Velionas, the goddess of the dead, who is the female counterpart of Velnias. Several other
goddesses have male counterparts as well.
The fertility god Kupolinis is the male counterpart to Kupuole. The god
Dimstipatis, like the goddess Dimstipati, watches over the household. Zemepatis is the
male counterpart to Zemepati. Bubelis is a bee-god, complementary to Austeja. Menulis
or Menuo, the moon god, is the husband of Saule, in a reversal of the usual male sun and
female moon gendering of deities that is common in many mythologies. Saule the female
sun is, however, unfaithful to Menulis the male moon, who therefore flees and hides from
her, in an etiological myth explaining the phases and occasional invisibility of the moon.
An alternate version of the myth reverses the role of betrayer and betrayed, but the result
is the same. The celestial children of this rocky cosmic marriage are the planets and stars.
Perkunas, the Lithuanian god of sky, storm, and justice is a parallel figure to the
Norse god Thor or the Greek god Zeus. Like Thor, he is the great protector of mankind,
commanding the earth shaking power of the thunderstorm. Perkunas’ lightning bolts are
not only destructive but also life enhancing, splitting open the earth so that falling or
planted seeds may take root and grow, and giving fire and light for the use of mankind.
He is also associated with oak trees, which are sometimes split or set aflame by his fiery
bolts. Like Zeus, Perkunas represents not only raw physical force, but also justice,
wisdom, and social order. He was the major deity of the Lithuanian rulers prior to their
conversion to Christianity.
18
Besides Perkunas, Saule the sun goddess is the other preeminent celestial deity.
She drives a chariot across the sky by day, and returns by boat across the far northern sea
at night. Both solstice holidays focus on her, with the summer solstice celebrating her
full strength and brilliance and the winter solstice her rebirth out of darkness. When the
mythical marriage of Saule and the moon god Menulis goes awry, Perkunas, as arbiter of
justice, divorces Saule from Menulis. After this separation of sun and moon, Saule
watches their daughter, the earth, by day, while Menulis watches her by night.
The earth goddess Zemyna is the mother of all life in our world. Although she
does not have an anthropomorphic form, symbolically she is both womb and tomb, not
only for humans, but for animals and plants as well. Many rituals and traditions pay her
reverence, even today. At the ritual funerary meal called sermenys, three bites of bread,
three morsels of meat, and three spoons of beer are made libation to the earth, on behalf
of the deceased. In traditional Lithuanian belief, one should not strike the earth or spit
upon it. Pious farmers would kiss the earth good morning and good night everyday. In
Lithuanian, the word for human, zmogus, is etymologically derived from the word for
earth, zeme. Humans are literally “earthlings” in Lithuanian. This furthermore makes
humans the grandchildren of the sun and the moon.
The third most important goddess in addition to Zemyna and Saule is Laima, the
goddess of fate. July is her sacred month and the linden is her sacred tree. She determines
each human destiny at birth, and her decision cannot be changed, not even by Dievas.
She does not determine cosmic fate. As the birthing mother, she is called the bear. She
protects births and is invoked at name-giving rituals. She is also invoked at weddings to
bless the couple. The verb for blessing, laiminti, comes from the name of Laima. The
word for luck also comes from the name of the goddess. A popular blessing is the
folkloric phrase, “Laima laimink laime,” meaning, “Laima, bless (our) luck.” Under
Christianity, Laima and the Christian mother of God Mary were conflated. In later
folklore, Laima and Laume, a female counterpart to Velnias, were confused.
Though Lithuania is a small country in modern terms, only about 25,000 square
miles or 65,000 square kilometers in area, it has considerable regional diversity in terms
of different customs, folkways and dialects in the different quarters of the country. This
19
applies to the ancient gods and goddesses as well, who are therefore known by different
names in documents from different points in history and from the different regions of
Lithuania. This is a matter which goes beyond the scope of this introductory article, but
the late, eminent Lithuanian ethnologist Norbertas Velius devoted a fine book to
explaining the regional variations of mythology and folklore. The interested reader is
referred to this work, The World-Outlook of the Ancient Balts (Velius 1989.)
In addition to the beings recognized as gods and goddesses, there are also a variety
of demi-gods or nature-spirits, such as the kaukai (sgl. kaukas) miniature beings who
dwell underground. The kaukai somewhat resemble elves, fairies and other such magical
“little people” commonly found in European myth and folklore. Another category of
semi-divine beings were the aitvarai (sgl., aitvaras), flying creatures associated with
meteorites, sometimes thought to live in the sky, and believed able to bring wealth to
those who capture and keep them (Velius, 2002).
Romuva Narratives (2): The History of Lithuanian Paganism
Apart from myths which detail the functions and adventures of the deities, the
other form of narrative that is important, even sacred, for Romuva members and other
Lithuanian Pagans involves their understanding of the history of Paganism in Lithuania.
This history was explained in the first section of this chapter. Lithuanian Pagans take
pride and inspiration from knowing that their country was the last in Europe to officially
accept Christianity, and also that their Pagan religion lived on in customs and folklore
even after Christianization, until its recent revival from the nineteenth century onwards.
Romuva Rituals and Festivals
Romuva has many different types of rituals and sacred days throughout the year,
in which the gods, goddesses, ancestors, the powers of nature and the cycles of the
seasons are all paid reverence. The following is a brief survey of the annual ritual
calendar, with a more detailed description of certain rituals to follow.
To begin with the winter festivals, the time of the winter solstice is celebrated
with two holidays, Kucios and Kaledos. Kucios, observed on December 24, is in part a
feast for the dead, in part a re-affirmation of life during the coldest and darkest days of
winter. It is a solemn occasion centered around a feast shared between the living and the
20
dead, to be described in more detail below. Kaledos is a more cheerful holiday that marks
the rebirth of Saule, the sun goddess, following her symbolic death on the shortest,
darkest day of the year. It is celebrated on December 25.
In January, the middle of winter is marked at the time of the New Moon in the
holiday of Pusiauziemis. At the end of the month is the day of Kirmiu Diena, when
hibernating zaltys (snakes) are worshipped, a continuation of a long tradition of snake
veneration in Lithuania, which is also noted in medieval records of Christian visitors to
the Grand Duchy.
At the end of February comes the festival of Uzgavenies, a jolly time marking the
ending of winter. Uzgavenies festivities include sharing candies and treats, the wearing of
costumes that have multiple levels of meaning, as in Kaledos festivities, in parades an
performances, rides and races using sleighs, wagons or other conveyances, and other
forms of merry-making. A straw image of the More, a female figure who personifies the
winter is burned, and winter so bidden adieu. Lithuanian Christians commonly combine
aspects of Uzgavenies with the Christian festival of Lent.
Of spring holidays, there is first Pasavario Lyge, celebrated at the time of the
spring equinox, March 21 or 22, to greet the arrival of spring. In early to mid-April comes
Velykos, a festival that both welcomes the spring and commemorates the ancestors,
whose main holidays are in the autumn and winter. There is some variability in the date
of Velykos because the ethnic Lithuanian spring holidays have, under influence of
Christianity, become confused with Christian festivals, and then further confused due to
the different calendars employed by the Orthodox and Catholic churches. Originally,
Velykos was probably celebrated at the time of the spring equinox, but became conflated
with Easter and its movable date. Under Czarist Russian occupation, Lithuania shifted
back from the Gregorian to the Julian calendars used by the Orthodox church. Pan-Slavic
influences forced the celebration of both Catholic and Orthodox holidays according to the
Julian dates. This only served to confuse the Lithuanian folkloric ritual cycle. Romuva
now celebrates the spring holidays according to the Catholic Gregorian dates.
At the end of April comes Jore, in which spring is further celebrated, focusing on
the new growth in nature now emerging. At the end of May, the festival of Samboriai is
21
celebrated, in honor of the growing season now fully underway.
Lithuanians celebrate the summer solstice on June 21/22 with the Pagan festival
of Rasa or Rasos, meaning “dew,” which is also known as Kupolines, named for the
special decorated pole called the Kupole, and, in Christianized form as Jonines, a feast
day for John the Baptist. This holiday is celebrated in natural settings such as hills and
fields that are near bodies of water such as rivers, springs, ponds or lakes. Jonas Stundzia,
leader of the Romvua chapter in the Boston area, emphasized the importance of water for
Rasa/Kupolines. He noted that he had visited villages in Lithuania where the central site
of the summer solstice celebration was the village well, small and humble as it might be,
because it was the only body of natural water in the village, and there could be no Rasa
without a natural body of water of some sort (telephone interview with Jonas Stundzia by
M. Strmiska, February 5, 2005). The emphasis on water also helps explain the association
with John the Baptist, who performed ritual baptism on the River Jordan. The celebration
of Rasa typically includes bonfires, singing and dancing, and other activities to be
described below. The sun herself is understood to dance with her daughters in the sky on
the midsummer’s night of Rasa.
The other summer festival is that of Rugiu Svente, which takes place at the end of
July, just before the annual harvest of rye. This is essentially a festival of thanksgiving for
the rye crop. Men and women wear traditional white linen clothes for the ritual and then
wear the same clothes for the work of the harvest. Other festivities include the making
and displaying of doll-like figurines out of the rye plant, representing the spirit of the
harvest, and the adornment of cows and other animals with wreathes and garlands woven
from rye (Stundzia telephone interview February 5, 2005.)
Autumn festivals begin with Dagotuves, which celebrates the fall planting of the
winter rye. It is observed at the time of the fall equinox, which usually falls on September
21 or 22.
By far the major festival of the autumn season is Velines, typically celebrated
November 1 and 2, as a solemn commemoration of the dead. Because the timing of this
ritual overlaps with the Catholic holidays of All Souls and All Saints, many Catholic
Lithuanians think of Velines as a Christian event, not realizing that it has pre-Christian
22
roots. For Romuva members, Velines is one of the most important events in the yearly
ritual calendar, as the time to commune with ancestors and show caring and concern for
them. In a general way, the Lithuanian autumn, with its grey and gloomy skies, misty fogs
and first hints of snow and winter, is devoted to the dead, with the next ritual event, the
previously mentioned feast of Kucios, bringing the period dedicated to the ancestors to a
close, with the merriment of Kaledos turning attention away from death toward new life.
Because of its predominantly urban membership, Romuva is more and more focusing on
the non-agrarian Lithuanian calendar celebrations.
Having quickly scanned the Lithuanian Pagan ritual calendar, let us now look at
several festivals in more detail.
The Winter Solstice: Kucios and Kaledos
The winter solstice holidays of Kucious and Kaledos have almost opposite
meanings which join together to form a bridge from one state of being to another. Dark
and somber Kucios, celebrated on 24th
December, is heavy with memories of the dead
and an awareness of the hardship of survival in the winter cold of Northern Europe. But
one day later, Kucios gives way to the inspiring vision of the sun reborn from darkness
and the hope of new life and vitality in the new year.
One of the most interesting features of Kucios are the intricate straw figures
displayed in homes at this time. These are hung like mobiles from doorways or ceilings,
representing natural phenomena like birds, trees, the sun, and more. The most elaborate
are tri-level constructions that symbolize the three levels of existence in the traditional
Lithuanian and Indo-European worldview. Humans inhabit the middle realm of human
and earthly life, while the higher realm of the ethereal sky is reserved for the gods, and
the subterranean realm below human consciousness belongs to the dead. In the dark time
of winter’s depths, these figures re-assert the totality and vitality of the universe over
against the threat of chaos and despair.
The hanging straw figurines of sun, tree and birds mark out a symbolic “grove,” a
sacred space echoing the ritual groves of the past Pagans of Lithuania and of other
European Pagan peoples as well, such as Celts and Scandinavians, who all maintained
places of worship in forest areas. In this place of security and solemnity, a large number
23
of candles are lit to welcome the visiting spirits of the ancestors.
Before joining together for the Kucios meal, participants wash themselves in baths
or saunas. They must also settle all disputes and reconcile disagreements, because these
will fate the New Year with bad luck, if they are carried over. The table for the Kucios
meal is set for both the living and the dead, with a place of honor for the ancestors, who
are seen as equal participants in the household community for the duration of Kucios.
Before eating begins, invocations are made to such deities as Dievas, the sky and
creator god, Zemyna the earth goddess, and Zemepatis, the brother of Zemyna and
protector of the household. The deities are thanked for their bounty and asked for their
continued blessing and protection. Participants greet each other with special ritual
blessings for health, fortune, and prosperity. Children are instructed in the importance of
obedience to their parents, teachers and elders, with wishes for strong growth and good
grades. Doors and windows are opened, and the shades of the ancestors are invited into
the home to join the living. Bread is raised in offering and then eaten, and beer likewise
offered and drunk, with each person allowing some to drip onto the floor as an offering to
Zemyna and/or for the dead. When the table is cleared, the plate for the dead is left
overnight for the pleasure of the ancestors.
Special meatless and milkless dishes are prepared for Kucios, the most important
of which is Kucia, a tasty grain, nut, water and honey mixture, which can be served as a
cold, moist dish or baked into a loaf. There is also a dairy-free, soy-milk like beverage,
made from pulverized poppy seeds, drunk with kleckai, hard, cookie-like balls also made
from poppy seeds. Jonas Stundzia commented that while the drink is quite tasty, and
could conceivably be a popular drink throughout the year, it is drunk only at the time of
Kucios, indicating its sacral nature.
Jonas Stundzia and Jonas Trinkunas were questioned by co-author Strmiska in
December of 2004 as to whether the serving of vegetarian fare on Kucios was truly a
Pagan custom from the distant past or may have resulted from the influence of Catholic
dietary customs. Neither Trinkunas nor Stundzia was completely certain one way or the
other, but co-author Dundzila believes that the milkless and meatless prescriptions of the
holiday reflect old Catholic fasting requirements for Christmas Eve. He postulates that the
24
dietary requirements probably became part of Kucios as Kucios became associated with
Christmas Eve. Academic research indicates Kucios was not originally vegetarian.
Contraindications to the vegetarian meal come from the Latvian equivalent of Kucios,
Bluka Vakars, which features a roasted pig’s head, with the decidedly carnivorous
injunction that all the meat must be eaten that same evening. A few Lithuanian locales
also share this tradition for Kucios.
Other Kucios foods include Kisielius, which is a relish or jelly made from
cranberries, beet soup, mushroom dumplings, cabbage, and fish. After the main meal,
desserts such as Slizikai, cookies made from poppy seeds, apples, and nuts are served,
along with a sweet, white milk-like beverage also made from poppy seeds.
In past times, the foods were shared not only with the dead, but also with
household animals that were served from the table. This is a graphic illustration of the
intimacy of Lithuanian peasants with their farm animals. Food was also offered to bees
and to fruit trees, both highly valued in Lithuanian folk culture. The veneration of trees in
Kucios is another illustration of the pervasive sacredness of trees in Lithuanian folk
tradition. As Kucios is largely centered on the worship of ancestors, the feeding of trees
could also be related to the Lithuanian belief that the souls of the dead may transmigrate
into trees. The trees honored in Kucious, however, are the domesticated fruit trees of the
family growing in the yard or garden near the house, and the trees into which the dead
pass are more commonly understood to be forest trees. of transmigration .
After the meal is concluded, a mood of levity is injected into the proceedings with
a divination activity that caters to the younger members of the family. Still seated at the
table, children and young people pull straws or pieces of hay out from under the
tablecloth, with the length of straw understood to predict the length of the life of the
person drawing the straw. Other Lithuanian holidays likewise feature divination games,
which seem to be performed as much for fun as for any more solemn purpose.
For the last activities of the night of Kucios, the family moves from the table to
the area around the hearth or stove, understood to be symbolically linked with Gabija, the
guardian goddess of fire and the hearth, and hence a sacred, protective fire burning for the
welfare of all the family. The ancestors are believed to be present in spirit and to
25
appreciate the warmth of the fire. The family members now wish each other well by
throwing grains into the fire, with each grain believed to represent a specific wish for
another family member that is hoped to come to fruition in the same way as grain bursts
and gives forth new life. Last, a log, stump or wreath from a birch tree is thrown into the
fire, representing the ending of the year, and the destruction of the pains and sorrows of
that year, looking ahead to the promise of the new year soon to come.
Kaledos, celebrated the day after Kucios, greets the rebirth of Saule, the sun
goddess, with a variety of joyful festivities that contrast strongly with the more somber
activities of Kucios. Images of the sun are carried through the streets, and even into the
forests, fields and farms. Another traditional decoration is a reindeer with nine horns,
which also represents the sun. Similar to the custom of Christmas caroling, people stroll
their neighborhoods and sing special Kaledos songs, some wearing animal masks and
costumes, representing such creaturses as bears, horses and goats. While these animal
masks and costumes are enjoyed in good fun and obviously have a humorous function at
the surface level, there is also a deeper level of meaning, in which the animals represent
the forces of nature that the rites are intended to reawaken and stimulate from the depths
of the frozen Baltic winter. The goat, for example, is in Lithuanian mythology the animal
that pulls the cart of the mighty, life-giving thunder god Perkunas across the sky. The
Norse thunder god Thor likewise depends on goats to draw his chariot, suggesting a
broader Indo-European significance to the symbolism of the goat.
One particular character represented by mask and costume is an old man with a
white beard, the Elder of Kaleda, somewhat analogous to the figures of Father Christmas
or Santa Claus in English-speaking nations. Another enjoyable, yet also meaningful
activity of Kaledos is the joint effort of a group of people, which could be a family or
some other grouping, to drag a specially selected log around their town or village, or
whatever community area is convenient for those involved, for several hours in the
daytime, and then to burn it in a festive bonfire in the evening. The log is called Blukis,
with its bearers called Blukininkai. The burning of the Blukis symbolizes the passing of
the old year, like the birch items burned in the home fire at the end of Kucios. The two
ritual actions are indeed very similar in purpose and function, except that the Kucios
26
burning is in the home, performed by and for the family, and the Kaledos burning is out
in the town or village, for the broader community outside the home.
Kucios and Kaledos are national Lithuanian festivals celebrated by nearly every
Lithuanian family. Although Kucios and Kaledos are clearly Pagan in origin, they have
been Christianized with the addition of Christian symbolic meanings. Kucios is closely
associated with Catholicism, but not with Protestantism. Ironically, the Catholic Church
had banned it and persecuted it in centuries past, somewhat like the Soviet government in
the second half of the 20th
century, when school officials inspected children’s teeth for
tell-tale poppy seeds on Christmas Day. Overall, the Kucios and Kaledos holidays show a
blending of Pagan, Christian, and Lithuanian elements into a singular, unified tradition.
Romuva’s Pagan celebration strives to remove the Christian elements and restore the
Pagan ones.
Rasa/Kupolines/Jonines, the Summer Solstice
This lively and joyous holiday, which is celebrated on June 21 or 22, is known by
three different names. Rasa means “dew,” which in the Lithuanian Pagan worldview is
understood as possessing magical properties, particularly on the night of the summer
solstice, when dew would be collected on cloths to use for medicinal purposes. The name
Kupolines derives from kupole, a term which designates both herbs and a specific
decoration used in this festival, a stylized pole topped with three branches pointing
upwards, somewhat like a trident. Jonines is a Christianized name for the festival, derived
from Jonas, the Lithuanian version of the name of John the Baptist. The linkage of water
with baptism, and the solstice ritual with dew, helps to account for how this particular
Biblical figure came to be associated with the summer solstice in Lithuania.
Rasa is celebrated out of doors, in large open spaces like fields and meadows, at a
warm and pleasant time of year when all of nature seems to be in blossom. At a Rasa
celebration attended by this chapter’s authors in 1998, the setting was the historic town of
Kernave in southern Lithuania, among hills where Lithuanian chieftains of a thousand
years ago were buried, with the river Neris flowing peacefully nearby. Several hundred
people were in attendance, both Romuva members and others who came simply to enjoy
the traditional festivities.
27
This Rasa celebration commenced in the early evening and continued throughout
the night and into the early morning. The sun set for only a few hours, from about 11 pm
until about 3 am, then rose to full strength again. There was therefore light for most of the
activities. Arriving to the festival site, people would pass through a specially constructed
wooden archway, with cross-pieces creating a rune-like design, and oak leaves woven
with the wood. Participants gathered on a broad area on top of a hill, to hear the
Trinkunas-led musical ensemble Kulgrinda sing several dainas appropriate to the
occasion, and then to dance all in a circle, with each two people linking arms to twirl or
spin in smaller circles. This symbolized the dancing of the sun goddess Saule and her
daughters, who are believed to likewise celebrate on the evening of Rasa.
During the hours leading to twilight, participants harvest various herbs and
flowers. These will be bundled together and eventually dried, to be used for medicinal
purposes. Since nature is believed to be at the height of its powers on this night, herbs
collected at this time are believed to likewise possess exceptional potency. Some of the
herbs and flowers will be used for wreath making and divination in the festival.
In the 1998 celebration, a large bonfire was lit on a broad hilltop, with other fires
lit in other locations around the sacred hills of Kernave. People dispersed into different
directions to partake of various activities occurring at different sites, strolling on
pathways and climbing wooden staircases connecting the hilltops and other spaces.
Women sought out herbs and plants to weave into wreaths (vainikai), while men did the
same with leaves from oak trees.
Rasa wreaths are worn as festive headgear and also figure in certain divinatory
activities. Young unmarried women may for example, toss their wreaths at the
forementioned kupole in a divinatory competition, throwing the wreaths backwards over
their heads hoping to land on the kupole. A Rasa tradition is that the number of attempts
used to attach the wreath to the kupole foretell the number of years that will pass until the
woman is married. Women may also toss their wreaths onto birch trees in the hopes of
catching them on the branches, which represent young unmarried men just as the wreaths
represent young unmarried women. The sexual symbolism of the wreath catching on a
birch branch or on the kupole is plain enough.
28
Another wreath activity involves young men and women tossing their wreaths into
the waters of a river or other bodies of water. Candles are sometimes attached to the
wreaths, a custom also found in Russian Pagan tradition, as illustrated in a famous scene
in the Russian film Andrei Rublev. Where the wreaths of particular men and women link
up in the current and float together as a pair, it is believed that the two are marked for
marriage. With the warm air bearing the scent of fragrant blossoms, and the lengthened
days providing a mellow light in the midsummer evenings, Rasa is indeed a propitious
time for romance.
In the 1998 festivities observed at Kernave, families and other groups participants
spread blankets and had picnics, freely sharing their food and drink, including traditional
Lithuanian mead, a strong drink brewed from honey and fortified with additional alcohol,
with others passing by, even itinerant American scholars who could not speak Lithuanian.
Singers educated in the traditional lore of Rasa sang dainas at various locations, with
others pausing to listen or add their voices. Young people gathered near the bonfire to
sing and dance.
Here are the words of one Rasa song, a special daina for the kupole:
O Kupole, dear Kupole,
Where did you winter,
Where are you to be found in summer?
Are you among the fragrant greenery
Or underneath a flower?
[The kupole replies:]
In winter, I am covered in down (snow)
In summer, I play among the grasses.
(Rasa from Romuva LT accessed 5/31/2002).
The mentions of winter and summer illustrate how the Pagan Lithuanian traditions
viewed the year as a unity marked by complementary phases. Other Rasa songs are
intended to be sung at particular hours, such as dainas for the setting sun, dainas for the
moon in the brief dark time when the moon is visible, dainas for stars at the time when
they appear, and finally, dainas for the rising sun, when Saule is believed to dance in the
sky with her daughters. Here are the words of one such daina, taken from the Romuva
web site:
29
O beloved Saule, Daughter of God [Dievas],
Where were you, all the day long?
[Saule replies:]
Among the hills and seas
I warmed my children,
Many are my gifts,
O Kupole, dear Kupole.
Another striking decoration at Kernave were wagon wheels coated with pitch,
positioned on tall poles, and then set on fire. Like the dancing, spinning couples of earlier
in the evening, these burning wheels refer to the sun goddess Saule, for which reason they
are known as “sun wheels.” In the early hours of the morning, when darkness began to
give way to dawn, the wheels were taken down from the poles and rolled down hills, still
blazing with fire. Jumping over the fiery sun wheels as they hurtled by was another fun
activity, believed auspicious for those leaping over the burning wheels.
The dead of night is an important time for the festival. Participants search for the
fern blossom, with the notion that whoever finds it will be blessed with luck; not unlike
the Irish custom of the four-leafed clover. However, the search is believed to be
dangerous, as various supernatural beings are also expected to be out searching for the
precious bloom. Rituals include casting a circle of protection and other magical acts to
find the elusive blossom.
Rasa or Kupolines is a festive time for Lithuanians of all ages, from small
children picnicking with their parents and grandparents to young men and women
dancing and laughing, eager for midsummer romance. It is a night of easy camaraderie,
with the carefree sharing of song, dance, food and drink. Though the description here
draws on particular activities observed in Kernave, the festivities take place
simultaneously at sites across Lithuania. For members of Romuva and other Lithuanian
Pagans, Rasa/Kupolines is a deeply spiritual and joyous time, while for others it may just
be a time of frolicking and merriment. Many Lithuanian Christians attend Rasa
celebrations without worrying about whether their participation does or does not
contradict their membership in the Catholic Church or other Christian communities. For
most Lithuanians, Rasa/Kupolines/Jonines is first and foremost a Lithuanian holiday; the
question of its Pagan or Christian nature is a strictly secondary matter, if it is considered
30
at all. The celebration of Rasa in Lithuania is a perfect illustration of how Pagan
Lithuanian traditions are both rooted in, and blended together with general Lithuanian
society and culture, including Christian traditions, to the point where they can no longer
be clearly separated.
Velines
The autumn holiday of Velines, which is also called Ilges, is the major Lithuanian
festival of the dead. It is officially celebrated on 1 November and, to a lesser extent on 2
November, but may also be observed over a longer period, from the time of the autumn
equinox, at about 21/22 September, through all of October into the beginning of
November. Velines is another example of a Lithuanian tradition that has a Pagan basis
overlaid with Christian elements. In the contemporary situation, Velines can be
understood as purely Pagan or as blended with Christianity or even as a non-religious
event that is simply part of Lithuanian culture, depending on the viewpoint of a given
individual.
Velines is generally observed in two locations; the local graveyard where
ancestors are buried, and in the family home. In the days leading up to Velines, family
members visit the graves of deceased relatives, where they meticulously clean the graves,
removing trash, pulling weeds, raking the plots free of leaves, and so forth. The graves
are then ornamented with flowers and special, long-burning candles set in glass jars or
lanterns. The hundreds of candles glowing in Lithuanian graveyards makes Velines a
festival of lights, as if the Milky Way had come down to earth to nestle among the dead
for one night. The modern Lithuanian cemetery may seem a thoroughly a Christian place,
adorned as it is with numerous crucifixes and images of saints and madonnas, but many
cemeteries in Lithuania may well have been Pagan holy sites in pre-Christian times. The
worship of the dead in Velines would seem to be an originally Pagan tradition carried on
in a Christian setting. The Lithuanian Pagan tradition still places graveyards in forested
and sometimes hilly sites just outside the city or village boundary.
In addition to cleaning and decorating the graves, family members also come to
their dead ones’ graves simply to sit and commune with or reflect upon their parted loved
ones. University students in a class taught by co-author Strmiska in Siauliai, Lithuania in
31
the autumn of 2004 spoke of their family visits to the graveyard for remembrance of the
dead as a solemn and largely silent time of both family solidarity and shared grief. Some
bring food and drink to symbolically share their fare with the departed.
The visit to the graveyard is followed by an evening meal in the home, with either
a place at the table, or a special table by itself, set to welcome the dead to the feast.
Romuva members or others devoted to Lithuanian tradition may also include a special
toast to the dead made with a mixture of grains, flour and salt, offered to the dead in a
distinctive carved wooden cup known as a kausas, which is believed to have been made
from a human skull in past times. The kausas is raised in a gesture of respectful offering
and then emptied into the hearth fire, with the words, “For all our dear friends.” This toast
is typically followed by the passing of a drink to be shared among all present, further
toasts by those wishing to express their reverence for the dead, and the singing of dainos
(Trinkunas 1999, 128-129).
Though a good many Lithuanians may not care overmuch about whether Velines
is Pagan or Christian in nature, members of Romuva pay tribute to the Pagan roots of the
holiday by observing Velines with visits to ancient grave mounds called piliakalniai or
pilkape. Celebrating Velines in 2004, Jonas Trinkunas, his wife Inija and other members
or supporters of the Vilnius chapter of Romuva, a total of 20 people, made a pilgrimage
to a number of such grave mounds in a rural area outside of Vilnius, near Birtiskes
village, where a number of Romuva members own property and occasionally meet for
various activities. One of the mounds that they visited is believed to be the site of a
thousand year old Pagan cemetery. At each pilkapas, Romuva sang dainas for the dead
and lit candles.
Returning to the Trinkunas’ cottage in Birtiskes, they washed and purified
themselves in a traditional Lithuanian sauna, while also inviting the veles, the spirits of
the dead for which Velines is named, to join them. They next left the sauna and
assembled around a long wooden table in the cottage, where a meal was served and eaten
by candle and firelight with no use of electricity. Food and drink were also offered to the
dead. They ended the night by singing songs and sharing reminiscences of the dead, with
a candle passing around the table to signify whose turn it was to speak, ending at about 2
32
or 3 in the morning. (Interview with Jonas Trinkunas and Inija Trinkuniene in their
Vilnius home, 2 November, 2004).
As with the solstice observances, Velines is both part of contemporary Lithuanian
culture and a living vestige of Lithuanian Paganism. As an indisputably Lithuanian
tradition, it can be viewed as Pagan or Christian by those participating. Understood as a
Pagan tradition of ancestor worship, Velines is a powerful link not only with one’s own
deceased relatives, but also with the Pagan ancestors of the past. It is to be noted that all
of the Pagan holidays and festivals, except Rasa, include ritual actions for the
commemoration of ancestors. The sense of caring for and communing with the
Lithuanian ancestors of the past is very real and definite, and this underlines the
importance of the “ethnic” aspect of Lithuanian Paganism.
Romuva as an Organization
Romuva today has chapters or local associations across Lithuania. The chapter of
Romuva in Lithuania’s beautiful capital city of Vilnius was headed formerly by Jonas
Trinkunas and is now led by his wife, the noted folk singer and researcher Inija
Trinkunas. There are also Romuva associations in Kaunas, Lithunania’s second largest
city, which served as capital when Vilnius was claimed as part of Poland during the
period of Lithuanian independence between world wars I and II, the smaller cities of
Klaipeda and Panevyzas, and the towns of Palanga, Moletai, Plateliai, Seduva, Telsiai,
Valkininkai, and Vilkaviskio, as well as chapters either now existing or under
development in the United States and Canada, which will be discussed below
Each chapter is headed by a Seniunas (elder), a local man or woman with
substantial knowledge of Lithuanian folk culture and Pagan traditions who organizes
activities in his or her area, performs rituals such as weddings, funerals, and name-giving
(Pagan baptism) ceremonies, and teaches religious lore to Romuva members and other
interested persons. Romuva has no missionaries, but each Seniunas works to promote
public awareness of the religion and to invite others to the faith by organizing events such
as lectures, musical performances, and rituals open to the public, as well as through
maintaining a presence on the internet.
33
Romuva’s membership in Lithuania has been estimated at between one and three
thousand in a population of some 3.5 million, with the official government census giving
a figure of 1270 (Donatas Glodenis, Lithuanian Ministry of Justice, e-mail
communication to M. Strmiska, July 2004; http://www.religija.lt). This figure is less than
one percent of the population, but does not include the many Lithuanians, including those
who are nominally Catholic or affiliated with other faiths, who occasionally participate in
Romuva activities like solstice celebrations without officially joining the association.
An important annual event for Romuva in Lithuania are summer folklore camps,
which take place for one week in August each year in the small village of Svariskiai,
located 70 kilometers from Vilnius. The folklore camps are organized jointly by Romuva
and its strictly folkloric, non-religious sister organizations Lithuanian Youth Ramuva and
Lithuanian Ramuva Union. Mainly intended for young people, the camps are open to
other ages as well. Activities in the camp focus on teaching traditional Lithuanian arts,
crafts, and music, but also include instruction in Lithuanian mythology and the religious
significance of traditional events such as the solstice activities, and introduce participants
to Romuva as a religious organization.
The way in which ethnic folk culture provides the entry point into religious
activity during the summer camps perfectly illustrates the self-understanding of Romuva
as an ethnically and folklorically based religion. These camps may be said to function as
recruiting centers for Romuva, but participants with Catholic or other religious
affiliations are not pressured to renounce their religious commitments, but are welcome to
focus on learning folklore as an exploration of Lithuanian culture apart from religious
issues.
The different Romuva chapters in Lithuania function more or less autonomously,
with occasional meetings between the Seniunases to share information, develop policies
to address common concerns, and coordinate public events. At the national level, the
leadership structure of Lithuanian Romuva underwent a transformation in 2002 when
Vilnius Seniunas Jonas Trinkunas was elected to the post of Krivis, an overall leadership
position roughly equivalent to the Pope in Catholicism or the Patriarch in Orthodox
Christianity. The office of Krivis is a reconstructed institution, hailing back to
34
fragmentary records about a religious leader referred to by this name in ancient Pagan
Prussia. Therefore, when Jonas Trinkunas was consecrated as Krivis in a formal
ceremony on October 19, 2002, it was understood within the Romuva community as one
more step in the gradual restoration of Lithuanian Pagan religion to its past power and
glory.
Scholars of Lithuanian religious history, notably the eminent British historian S.C.
Rowell, have questioned whether the Krivis ever actually existed or was merely a figment
of the medieval imagination, a “Pagan Pope” created as a “boogeyman” for the purpose of
rallying Germanic Christian crusaders to make war on Pagans in the Baltics (Rowell
1994, 125-128). Owing to the sketchy nature of medieval documents relating to
Lithuanian Pagan religion, this question may never be resolved in a completely
satisfactory manner. Nevertheless, the decision by modern Lithuanian Pagans to declare
Trinkunas their Krivis at the current time strongly expresses their increasing
organizational sophistication, as well as their ambition. This is not the strategy of a group
wishing to keep a low profile, and is in fact part of a larger project of increasing the
stature and influence of Romuva, particularly in Lithuanian society, but outside Lithuania
as well.
Jonas Trinkunas and Inija Trinkuniene
Any account of the development of Romuva in Lithuania cannot really be
separated from the story of Jonas Trinkunas (born 1939.) Though something like Romuva
might very well have developed in modern Lithuania without him, the organization as it
exists today owes much to the work of Trinkunas and also his wife Inija Trinkuniene
(born 1951), over some four decades, from the 1960s to the present time. For both authors
of this chapter and many others involved in Romuva, including the Lithuanian-Americans
who would establish Romuva in the United States, it was meetings with Jonas and Inija
that led them from a keen interest in Lithuanian folklore into a deeper participation with
Lithuanian paganism. This section draws on Michael Strmiska’s numerous interviews and
communications with Jonas Trinkunas and his wife Inija from 1996 through 2005.
Jonas Trinkunas graduated from high school in Kaunas, the second city of
Lithuania, before studying at Vilnius University and graduating with a Bachelors Degree
35
in Lithuanian language and literature in 1965. He continued with these studies in the late
1960s, undertaking a dissertation on ancient Lithuanian religion, publishing articles on
Lithuanian folklore, mythology and culture, and participating in ethnographic expeditions
to Lithuanian village communities. It was during one such folkloristic excursion that
Trinkunas met his future wife Inija, with their common passion for Lithuanian folk
culture, especially folk music, bringing them together in marriage, family, and a
continuing partnership in activities and organizations related to ethnic culture and
Lithuanian Paganism. Trinkunas and his wife now have five daughters, having lost a son
who drowned while only a boy.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Trinkunas organized the forementioned Ramuva
folklore association, a number of folk music ensembles in Vilnius and other places, a
100th
anniversary celebration of the birth of the forementioned Lithuanian religious leader
Vydunas (Vilius Storosta), and annual Rasa/Kupolines celebrations in the ancient
Lithuanian capital of Kernave. Trinkunas’ activities ran afoul of Soviet state authorities,
and in 1973 he was expelled from the university and banned from any employment in
teaching or research, a prohibition that would not be lifted until 1988, during the
liberalizing period of perestroika in the USSR. For some fifteen years, Trinkunas worked
at various odd jobs to support himself and his family. During this period of professional
exile, Trinkunas remained involved in folkloric and folk music activities, but kept a low
profile.
Once the political winds in Lithuania began to shift in the late1980s, and he was
off the government blacklist, Trinkunas quickly reclaimed a leading position in folkloric
organizations and activities, even taking a prominent position in the same government
that had once persecuted him in an ironic, near-total reversal of fortune. In 1988, he
formally re-established the folkloric association Ramuva, and in 1992, registered Romuva
as an official, government-recognized religious organization in Lithuania. From 1990-
1993, he served in the government as head of the Ethnic Culture division of the Ministry
of Culture, and in 1997, was awarded the J. Basanavicius Award for his service and
achievements in the field of ethnic culture. Since 1994, Trinkunas has been a senior
36
research associate at the Institute for Social Research in Vilnus, where his wife is also
employed.
Trinkunas is co-director, along with Inija, of the Lithuanian folk music ensemble
Kulgrinda, which performs in Lithuania as well as other countries, including, in recent
years, India, South Korea, Greece, Poland, Canada and the United States. The musical
element of Lithuanian Paganism is indeed among its most compelling features. A
Lithuanian summer music festival called Menuo Juodaragis (“the Moon of the Black
Horn”), which has become an annual event of growing popularity, is an interesting
example of how the musical aspect of Lithuanian Paganism interacts with modern youth
culture. At this out-in-nature, bring-your-own-tent event that is both very modern and
very rustic, Kulgrinda and other similarly oriented musical groups perform traditional
Lithuanian folk music while heavy metal, industrial and experimental rock bands modern
electronic sounds. There is an explicit Pagan theme in the organization and public
promotion of the festival, with workshops and lectures providing information on
Lithuanian folklore, history and Pagan spirituality (further discussed in Strmiska 2005;
for information about Kulgrinda, Menuo Juodaragis and Lithuanian music CDs, see
http://www.dangus.net).
World Romuva, the World Congress of Ethnic Religions and Indo-Romuva
In 1998, Jonas Trinkunas began advocating for a further evolution of Romuva as a
religious organization: the formation of a global Romuva organization, a “World
Romuva,” to facilitate interaction between Romuva chapters around the world, and to
assist in the establishment of new ones. In January of 1999, Trinkunas issued a
declaration entitled “Let’s Organize a World Romuva,” which remains posted on the
Romuva web site to the present time. It reads, in part,
The Lithuanian world community and persons who cherish the
historical Baltic traditions are rallied to join in establishing a
World Romuva community. Romuva keeps alive the memory of
the traditions of our forefathers and ancestors, and the ancient faith
of the Baltic peoples…The traditions of our ancestors can help us
to live in harmony with the world and all mankind. A World
Romuva would serve people of Baltic heritage to find solidarity…
37
Romuva is already active in Lithuania, Chicago and Boston in the
US, Canada and Australia. These communities are a solid
foundation for the establishment of a World Romuva. The flame of
a World Romuva would be lit in Vilnius, a city which is sacred to
Baltic peoples and Lithuanians. Let Vilnius continue to be the
center of the World Romuva. The further growth and development
of the community would be determined by the membership itself.
The first step for developing a World Romuva will be the
formation of an active membership, and accumulation of
knowledge regarding the faith of the ancient Baltic peoples
(http://www.romuva.lt , accessed December 28, 2004).
The declaration defines Romuva as a Baltic and more specifically Lithuanian
religious tradition, primarily for people of Lithuanian ancestry or ethnic heritage, but does
not limit participation or membership in Romuva to people of Lithuanian ancestry.
“Persons who cherish the historical Baltic traditions” are also welcomed, a clause that
leaves the door of Romuva open to people of any race, ethnicity or national origin with
sincere interest in Lithuanian cultural and spiritual heritage, even if they do not have
Lithuanian ancestry. This makes the idea of a World Romuva, a Baltic-Lithuanian
religious tradition for people of any region or nation, much more feasible than if it were
strictly defined as a Lithuanian religion for ethnic Lithuanians only.
To this point, however, very little has been done with the World Romuva concept.
The different Romuva chapters in Lithuania and North America continue to function
more or less autonomously, with occasional meetings and discussion to coordinate their
ideas and events, but each mainly focusing on local issues and activities. Language
remains a limiting factor in reaching out to the larger world of English speaking nations,
as most Romuva members in Lithuania, including most of the movement’s leaders apart
from the Trinkunases, do not speak English, though many do speak Russian, German and
other European languages. The most concrete and practical manifestation of the desire for
creating a World Romuva has been the development of the bilingual, Lithuanian and
English language, http://www.romuva.lt web site, which makes information about
Lithuanian Paganism accessible to English speaking people across the world.
Jonas Trinkunas has been active in another international project, which has given
Romuva an additional forum for communication with the larger world community. This
38
is the organization known as World Congress of Ethnic Religions (WCER, with an
internet presence at http://www.wcer.org). Trinkunas invited leaders of other Pagan,
Indigenous and/or Ethnic religion groups in Europe and North America to a conference in
Vilnius in June of 1998 for the purpose of promoting greater understanding of their
respective religious traditions and cultural and political situations and developing an
organizational network for protecting and promoting Pagan religion against opposition
from various quarters. He also invited interested academics, including Michael Strmiska,
co-author of this chapter, to speak at the first WCER conference in Vilnius and again at
the seventh WCER meeting in Athens in 2004. Strmiska remains a sympathetic supporter
of the WCER.
The 1998 “World Pagan Congress” has become an annual event with a
functioning organization, retitled the “World Congress of Ethnic Religions.” The name
change from “Pagan” to “Ethnic” was the result of a day-long, passionate discussion at
the first Congress in 1998 in Vilnius, in which the majority of participants expressed the
feeling that the Pagan term had too many negative and pejorative connotations, and that
the word Ethnic better expressed the roots of many Pagan-type religions in the ethnic and
folkloric traditions of particular nations. The “World” Congress remains more of a dream
than a reality, as the vast majority of the religious groups represented in the organization
are from Europe, representing such nations as Germany, Greece, Poland, Russia, Ukraine,
Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Latvia and of course Lithuania, with a smaller
contingent of participants from North America or elsewhere. That is to say, the World
Congress of Ethnic Religions has, to this point, been a mainly Euro-American affair,
despite the desire of WCER members to reach out to indigenous peoples and religious
traditions in other areas. The main extension of the WCER beyond a strictly EuroAmerican
axis has been to include participation of Indian religious leaders and scholars
from the Sikh and Hindu traditions.
The Indian dimension of WCER has been of particular interest to members of
Romuva, stimulating their desire to further explore Indian-Baltic parallels at the levels of
language, culture, religious beliefs, practices and mythology, just as contact with WCER
has inspired Indian scholars and religious leaders to learn more about Romuva and Baltic
39
religion and culture more generally. In February of 2003, Romuva members were invited
to India to attend a indigenous religions symposium entitled “the First International
Conference and Gathering of the Elders,” held in Mumbai (Bombay.) This led to a series
of Indo-Romuva conferences, jointly organized by WCER and the World Council of
Elders of the Ancient Traditions and Cultures, the same group that sponsored the Mumbai
meeting. The first Indo-Romuva conference was held in the USA in October of 2003,
with presentations and discussion of various aspects of Hindu and Baltic religious
traditions, as well as musical and dance performances, and the sharing of prayers and
rituals.
The following posting from the web site of the Indian-oriented magazine
Hinduism Today, advertising the Indo-Romuva event, illustrates the positive interest in
Romuva taken by Indian and Indian-American Hindus.
ATLANTIC CITY, NEW JERSEY, June 12, 2003: The World
Council of Elders of the Ancient Traditions and Cultures in
collaboration with the World Congress of Ethnic Religions,
Vilnius, Lithuania, proudly announces the First Conference (in a
series of understanding ancient traditions and cultures of the world)
on Indo Romuva Cultures. The conference will be October 10-12,
2003, at the Howard Johnson Hotel, Atlantic City, New Jersey,
U.S.A. The Romuva people are from the Baltic countries, with a
major concentration in Lithuania. They worship Fire as well as
many Deities with prayers similar to Sanskrit prayers…
(http://www.hinduismtoday.com/hpi/2003/6/12.shtml#5,
accessed January 19, 2005)
There seems to be sufficient momentum for the Hindu-Lithuanian, Indo-Romuva
exchange to continue to grow and develop, but like the WCER, this activity has more to
do with promoting friendly relations between Romuva and kindred Pagan, Ethnic or
Indigenous religious movements than an indication of Romuva expanding from its
Lithuanian base to become a truly globe spanning, multinational World Religion. At the
present time, Romuva is primarily a Lithuanian movement, with extensions in the USA,
Canada, and Australia, mainly among people of Lithuanian ancestry. In this way, Romuva
is similar to Hinduism, which has mainly, though again not exclusively, expanded outside
40
India among Indian immigrants and their descendants. It remains to be seen if Romuva
will become a religion that can be freely embraced by a large number of people with no
ethnic or ancestral link to Lithuania, or if it will remain first and foremost an ethnic
Lithuanian religious movement. To put it another way, the question is whether Romuva
will over the course of coming decades evolve into a universal, open-to-all religion rooted
in, but not limited by, a particular ethnic identity, as has been happening, to some extent,
with the Scandinavian-based Pagan religion Ásatrú, or define itself in strictly ethnic
terms, as a Lithuanian religion for Lithuanians only.
Romuva in North America
Romuva has established chapters in both the United States of America and
Canada. In the United States, the two main centers of Romuva activity are Chicago and
Boston. As these cities possess large Lithuanian-American communities that continue to
receive a steady flow of immigrants from Lithuania, it is not surprising to find that they
are places where Romuva has also found a home. In Cleveland, another city with a
sizable Lithuanian immigrant population, a Romuva group was under discussion for a
number of years, but failed to cohere into a solid organization. Some of those involved
have now joined forces with a local Pagan group, Stone Creek Grove
(http://www.stonecreed.org/aboutscg.html). Stone Creek is a local chapter of an
international Pagan, Celtic and Indo-European oriented Pagan fellowship, Ár nDraíocht
Féin, which is a fascinating topic in itself (http://www.adf.org/core/index.html).
The same dynamic of Romuva building on a foundation of past or present
Lithuanian immigration pertains in Canada, where the immigrant stronghold of Toronto is
the location of the primary chapter of Romuva Canada. A Romuva organization is also
under development in Vancouver at the present time.
This section will focus on the development of Romuva organizations in Chicago
and Boston. One of the prime movers in Romuva Chicago, Seniunas and professor of
Humanities at Truman College in Chicago, Vilius Dundzila (born 1960), formerly known
as Audrius Dundzila, is also one of the co-authors of this chapter, and the discussion here
draws heavily on his records and recollections.
Interest in Lithuanian Paganism, which would in time give rise to local Romuva
41
movements, began to develop in North America in the late 1980s. This was the same time
as Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev’s liberalizing policies of glasnost and perestroika
were loosening the reins of Soviet social control in the USSR, inadvertently setting in
motion the events that would enable the Baltic states to achieve full independence from
the Soviet Union. By the end of the 1980s, a number of Lithuanian Americans with
varying degrees of acquaintance with Lithuanian culture, including Vilius Dundzila and
Emilijus Hollanderis from Chicago, Lana Vyte from Toronto, J.D. LaBash from
Cleveland, and Laima Sruoginaite from New York, had all entered into communication
with Jonas Trinkunas, some by mail, others by visiting Trinkunas in Lithuania, to begin
discussing the possibility of promoting Lithuanian Paganism in North America.
When Vyte and Dundzila returned home to Canada and the USA from visiting
Lithuania in the early 1990s, Romuva Lithuania appointed Vyte to be Seniunas for
Romuva in Canada and Dundzila for Romuva USA. These leadership positions changed
hands in 2003, with Bernadeta Abromaitis becoming Seniune for Romuva/Canada, and
Kaze Kazlauskiene taking on the role of Seniune for Romuva/USA.
Jonas Stundzia, a Lithuanian-American who had been active in Lithuanian ethnic
culture in the Boston area and visited Lithuania a number of times in the 1980s and
1990s, established a Boston chapter of Romuva in the mid-1990s. The history of the
Boston chapter will be taken up below. Martynas Girchys-Shetty, a 1993 immigrant from
Lithuania, joined the Lithuanian folklore group Jore in the Washington DC area in 1998.
He has since helped Jore, first established in 1996, to develop a deeper spiritual
understanding of the Lithuanian dainas and ritual traditions.
The evolution of Vilius Dundzila’s involvement with Romuva is typical of how
many of these individuals came to be involved with Romuva. Dundzila’s interest in
Lithuanian Paganism grew out of his childhood growing up in a Lithuanian-American
family environment, in which Lithuanian language and ethnic traditions were a regular
part of daily life. He spent autumn 1981 in Lithuania together with his father, a professor
who taught in Lithuania in 1981 through the American government funded Fulbright
Fellowship Program, as Michael Strmiska, co-author of this chapter, has done in 2004
and 2005. This experience deepened the younger Dundzila’s fascination with Lithuanian
42
ethnic culture, and eventually inspired him to investigate the spirituality of Lithuania’s
ancient traditions.
Dundzila undertook a second trip to Lithuania in 1988 for the express purpose of
meeting modern Lithuanian Pagans. While his former acquaintances admitting having
heard of the Pagans, they were unable or unwilling to put him in contact with them.
Dundzila found only Lithuanian nationalists promoting Lithuanian culture and identity, as
forms of opposition to Soviet rule, through the officially tolerated Lithuanian folklore
movement. That was as far as he was able to get at this time, but this was not the end of
the road for Dundzila’s interest in Paganism.
Looking back on these early days, Dundzila now realizes that his approach to
meeting Pagans on that visit to Lithuania was faulty since he was expecting to find
Lithuanian Paganism organized and functioning in the same relatively open manner as
Western European/North American paradigms of Paganism, whereas Romuva, at this
time disguised as folkloric Ramuva, was operating under oppressive social and political
conditions that required extreme secrecy and cautioned against unsolicited contacts and
unwanted publicity. Another limitation he faced was that many of his clandestine contacts
came from the Roman Catholic anti-Soviet resistance movement, and as committed
Catholics, moved in different social circles than Pagans.
It was not until several months after Dundzila had returned to the USA that his
efforts to contact Lithuanian Pagans finally bore fruit. Dundzila began a correspondence
with Jonas Trinkunas, having received his name and address, without actually meeting
Trinkunas, during his forementioned visit to Lithuania. Their exchange of letters rapidly
progressed into a strong alliance of shared religious faith and mutual respect between the
two men, eventually leading to Dundzila’s appointment by Trinkunas as the first
American Seniunas in 1992. From this point onward, Dundzila would take a leading role
in introducing Romuva in the Upper Midwestern region of the USA, particularly the
Chicago metropolitan area.
While enrolled in graduate study at the University of Wisconsin in the state capital
of Madison, Dundzila tried to foster support for Romuva through the Madison, Wisconsin
Lithuanian community. Madison might have seemed an ideal choice, as it had a sizable
43
Lithuanian-American population and was America’s official sister city to Vilnius.
Dundzila was in fact a member of the Vilnius-Madison Sister Cities International
Association and had assisted in hosting delegations from Lithuania. Nonetheless, he had
little luck in interesting the Madison Lithuanian-American community in Lithuanian
Paganism. The Baltic Student Organization at the University of Wisconsin was more
receptive, in large part because it included students who were members or supporters of
the Latvian Pagan movement Dievturi, who immediately supported Romuva as a kindred
Baltic organization. This also reflects the situation at the time in Latvia and Lithuania
where Dievturi and Romuva were cooperating to organize winter and summer solstice
events, despite the danger of police detection and political suppression. Dundzila began
participating in Dievturi events, and gave a presentation on Romuva in 1990 at a Dievturi
Conference at its Dievseta Temple in Warrens, WI. He also gave presentations on
Romuva to other American Pagan groups, such as the Pagan Spirit Gathering.
In the academic year of 1991-92, Dundzila lived in Lithuania, teaching
Humanities courses as a visiting assistant professor at the Vytautas Magnus University in
Kaunas, and contemplating permanently relocating to Lithuania. Actively participating in
Romuva activities in Kaunas, Dundzila was elected Seniunas of Romuva Kaunas.
Dundzila assisted with the preparation of documents for the legal recognition of Romuva
in both the USA and Lithuania, a process which began in 1991 and concluded in 1992.
There was hardly any Romuva movement in the USA to speak of at this time, and the
main reason for undertaking this action in the USA was the belief that recognition of
Romuva by United States authorities would bolster the efforts of Romuva in Lithuania to
register Romuva as an officially recognized religious community with the Lithuanian
government. Romuva USA, officially the Lithuanian Ethnic Church Romuva of the USA,
Inc., is mainly an umbrella organization, which provides legal sanction to the smaller
regional chapters that now exist or are proposed in Chicago, Boston and elsewhere.
The only sustained activity that the early North American Romuva undertook was
the publication of newsletters. The first issue of romuva/usa , edited by Dundzila,
coincided with the fall equinox in 1990. It was published on an approximately quarterly
basis until the last issue in spring of 1993. At its peak, the newsletter had 24 subscribers.
44
When it folded, the newsletter was unsuccessfully attempting to serve an Englishspeaking
North American Baltic audience comprised of Lithuanian-Americans,
Lithuanian-Canadians, and Latvian-Americans and Latvian-Canadians. A Lithuanian
language counterpart, romuva/jav, ran for four issues from winter 1992 to winter of the
following year. Lana Vyte edited and published five issues of Sacred Serpent: Journal of
Baltic Tradition from spring 1994 to spring of the following year. J.D. LaBash translated
Marija Gimbutas’s article “The Old Lithuanian Religion” and had it published in the
Celtic and Indo-European Pagan newsletter The Druid’ s Progress (Issue 10, 1992,
available online at http://www.adf.org/regalia/publications/druidsprogress/S_DP_10_index.jpg
, accessed January 29, 2005.)
The national leadership of the Canadian and American division of Romvua in
North America changed hands in 2003. Bernadeta Abromaitis became Seniune for
Romuva/Canada, and Kaze Kazlauskiene became Seniune for Romuva/USA.
Romuva Chicago
Romuva Chicago was first organized in the spring of 1993 at the initiative of
Vilius Dundzila and Don Grazulis, another Lithuanian American and Chicago native
who was the proprietor of a bookstore. The first members assembled from
advertisements placed in local Lithuanian stores. Similarly simple advertising has been
used on an on-going basis ever since, with the addition of internet postings in recent
years, with Romuva Chicago now having its own moderated electronic mailing list
accessible through the Yahoo web site. Romuva meetings took place irregularly for many
years, and only started to meet on a monthly basis in fall of 2003, with a summer hiatus
except for gathering to celebrate the summer solstice. Romuva Chicago was first
organized to celebrate Lithuanian holidays and festivals, and continues to celebrate the
following on a regular basis: the winter solstice holiday Kucios, the end-of-winter
celebration Uzgavenies in February, the summer solstice Rasa/Kupoline, and Velines, the
Lithuanian day of the dead. Other meetings are dedicated to education, discussion, and
studying and singing dainas, Lithuanian pagan hymns.
In the early days of Romuva Chicago, meetings used to be held at the Grazulis
family book store until it closed in 1998. For the next year, Romuva Chicago had no set
45
location, with members meeting in each other’s homes on a rotating basis. The lack of a
definite location accompanied a decline in membership. In 1999, the meetings finally
settled into a regular location at a local metaphysical book store owned by Kaze and
Gintas Kazlauskas, a Lithuanian-American couple.
Romuva Chicago has striven to celebrate Lithuanian holidays in venues that
either have direct Lithuanian associations or are felt to in some way recreate the settings
in which the festivities would be observed in Lithuania. For example, Velines, the time of
shades, has always been celebrated at a local Lithuanian-American cemetery, except for
one trip to an allegedly Lithuanian Freethinkers cemetery in rural Central Illinois. The
cemetery turned out to be Lithuanian, but mostly Catholic, to the chagrin and
bemusement of the members of Romuva Chicago.
The two major holidays Romuva/Chicago celebrates are Rasa/Kupoline and
Kucios. Every year, Romuva seeks out a pleasant, out-of-doors location for celebrating
Rasa/Kupoline that will allow a joyful experience of the natural world at the peak of
midsummer. It has been celebrated at private campgrounds, state park campgrounds, and
members’ homes with large yards. A natural body of water as well as a campfire are the
two physical prerequisites, echoing the rivers and bonfires of celebrations in Lithuania.
Kucios takes place at a member’s home around a common dining table. It is celebrated as
a ritual meal commemorating the ancestors and linking the living with the dead.
The small membership of Romuva Chicago, which at the time of this chapter’s
writing stands at only five active members with several dozen more subscribed to the
electronic mailing list and occasionally participating in events, with about the same
number of other people floating in and out of involvement with the organization, has
made it difficult to host complex holiday celebrations on an ongoing basis. For example,
Romuva hosted a public Uzgavenies holiday in 1998 but the level of preparation required
so greatly strained the capacity of the membership that a second attempt has not yet been
undertaken. Romuva/Chicago has also tried to participate in other local holiday
celebrations, like the local Lithuanian-American community’s celebration of the summer
solstice holiday in 2001 and again in 2004. The small Romuva contingent was lost in the
crowd, which was focused on enjoying a secular celebration rather than participating in a
46
religious festival.
Romuva Chicago has unsuccessfully tried to find new members from among
recent Lithuanian immigrants to Chicago. The differences in language and social culture
have prevented effective cooperation. The members of Romuva Chicago come from
various immigrant generations, with correspondingly different degrees of familiarity with
Lithuanian language and culture, and different attitudes toward assimilation to American
culture. All of Romuva Chicago’s members speak English, but only some speak
Lithuanian. Some are relearning the traditions their ancestors lost in America, others
carrying on traditions that have continued in their families.
In contrast, recent Lithuanian immigrants are looking for religious solace in a
Lithuanian language setting as they adapt their lives to American society. The Chicago
immigrant community has established folkloric daina singing groups that may
acknowledge the spiritual nature of the dainas, but do not pursue the implicitly Pagan
element that might be seen to conflict with Lithuanian Catholicism. This is obviously
attractive to devout Catholic immigrants, but also comfortable for less pious immigrants
who rely on the various support services and social network provided by Lithuanian
Catholic churches in the Chicago area, and so do not wish to run afoul of the Church.
Moreover, there are acknowledged tensions between the “old,” i.e., post-World War II,
immigrants and their descendents, and the recent, post-Independence era immigrants. In
general, the recent immigrants tend not to join the already established Lithuanian
organizations, but seek to form their own venues.
Romuva Chicago therefore remains a small, struggling religious organization with
a committed core group and dedicated leadership, but continuing difficulty in attracting
members. It may be that the future growth of the association will depend on its ability to
draw participants from outside the Lithuanian-American community.
Romuva Boston
Jonas Stundzia (born 1954), native of Lawrence, Massachusetts, is an
entrepreneur, a trader in Baltic cultural heritage items, a member of the Lawrence
Historical Commission, and also the founder and Seniunas of the Boston chapter of
Romuva. He was deeply immersed in Baltic spirituality and Lithuanian folklore long
47
before he had ever heard of Romuva. This section is based on interviews done by Michael
Strmiska with Stundzia in Boston in January 2004, and supplementary e-mail and
telephone communications from November of 2004 through May of 2005.
Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s in a Lithuanian-American family and
community in Lawrence, Massachusetts, less than an hour’s drive north from the much
larger Lithuanian immigrant community in Boston, Stundzia grew up surrounded by
Lithuanian language and culture. Unlike his siblings who strove to break away from their
immigrant past and assimilate to American society in every way possible, Stundzia was
always fascinated by his Lithuanian heritage, and showed an affinity for Lithuanian folk
arts and crafts from an early age.
Stundzia’s parents were Catholics, and while well-versed in the folkloric
traditions that Jonas would come to understand as expressions of Lithuanian Pagan
spirituality, they did nothing to encourage their son in developing a non-Christian
spiritual identity. Stundzia’s view of his father’s Catholicism is that it was based less on
heartfelt piety than on burning social ambition, arising from a wish to imitate the religious
behavior of Irish Catholics, in order to affiliate with an ethnic group that was better
connected and more accepted in Massachusetts than Eastern Europeans like Lithuanians.
When Stundzia began to question his father about the meaning of Lithuanian folkloric
traditions at about the age of ten, his father barked, his father barked, “Don’t be a
freethinker!” This set the tone for religious discussions inside the family. His father also
referred with scorn to gamtininkai, (sgl. gamtininkas), a Lithuanian term with a literal
translation of “nature-people, ” used for people in Lithuania who refused to have a
Christian funeral or follow other Christian customs, but preferred ancient Lithuanian
traditions.
It was therefore not his parents nor anyone else in his immediate family that
initiated Stundzia into deeper meanings of Lithuanian folk culture, but an elderly
Lithuanian immigrant couple in the nearby town of North Andover, who had come to
America before World War I. The Strazdases, who spoke only Lithuanian, took the young
Jonas under their wing and became like a second set of parents to him. From the time
Stundzia was eight until when he was twelve, they provided him with a substantial
48
education in Lithuanian folklore and, in effect, Lithuania Pagan religion, without ever
calling what they were teaching by any such name. Old man Strazdas, for example,
frequently took Jonas out on nature walks around the fields and forests near his North
Andover farm to share with him the sacredness of nature, which Stundzia perceives as a
fundamental Lithuanian value, while his wife Strazdiene (Mrs. Strazdas) would instruct
Stundzia on Lithuanian domestic traditions inside the home. Jonas also enjoyed spending
time with other Lithuanian seniors, absorbing from each what they had to share about the
folklore, history and ethnic culture of Lithuania. As Stundzia says of his childhood, “For
me, the world revolved around Lithuania.”
Stundzia recalls a particular moment with old man Strazdas that he considers a
“pivot-point” in his development of a Lithuanian Pagan sense of spirituality. They were
out walking in a field, and came upon a bee buzzing in the grass. Stundzia, who was
about 10 years old at the time, made ready to step on it and crush it with his shoe, but
Strazdas held him back, saying, in Lithuanian, “It’s alive…nature is alive, and you are
part of nature.” The bee flew off unharmed, and Stundzia felt a sudden shock of
awareness about the value of the natural world. At the age of 12, Jonas built a crude
shrine to the earth goddess Zemyna, constructing a stone altar between two trees near his
house, and buried bread in the ground as an offering to Zemyna, as is indeed a traditional
form of worship to the goddess. He also wove wreaths of oak leaves and observed the
summer solstice on the banks of a river near his home. From this point onward, he was
constantly learning about and dabbling in new aspects of Lithuanian folk culture.
Stundzia learned to carved Lithuanian themes and designs in wood, wove traditional
patterns in cloth, carved amber gamta (nature) figures, and colored and decorated eggs for
spring with pre-Christian, native Lithuanian designs, such as suns, moons, stars, birds,
snakes, and water wheel figures. In this period of his life, Stundzia did not yet have a
clear conception of what he was doing as a distinctive form of “religion,” let alone
“Lithuanian Paganism.” To him it was simply a matter of carrying on folk traditions that
he found personally meaningful.
Stundzia participated in Lithuanian-American community events and holidays
throughout his teens and into his 20s, becoming recognized as a young person with
49
extraordinary skill and knowledge regarding the old traditions, which many younger
Lithuanian-Americans seemed more interested in forgetting than preserving. Stundzia
began to offer free lectures and classes in Lithuanian folk culture in the late 1970s, and
later, to organize public celebrations of Lithuanian holidays, at Lithuanian-American
community centers, churches, and other locations. Stundzia has remained devoted to
educating both Lithuanian-Americans and the general public about Lithuanian folk
culture, with increasing attention to its ancient Pagan roots, up to the present.
In the early 1980s, he had developed a circle of five male Lithuanian-American
friends, who all shared with Stundzia the same name of Jonas as well as a common
interest in Lithuanian folk traditions. They gathered together to celebrate Rasa/Kupolines
together in an informal manner, preferring the Christian name of Jonines for the holiday,
as it seemed the proper name for this meeting of the five Jonases. However, Stundzia felt
dissatisfied with their efforts. One of his friends wanted to add American volleyball
games to the Lithuanian solstice festivities, which Stundzia strongly resisted. Stundzia
knew he needed further instruction in how to celebrate the holiday with greater authority
and authenticity.
Stundzia visited family relations in Lithuania a number of times in the 1980s,
when the country was still under Soviet domination, and explained his interest in learning
more about Lithuanian folk holidays. In 1983, his cousins brought him to a secret
Rasa/Kupolines/Jonines celebration in an undisclosed location on a hill in a rural area.
Because of the risk of Soviet interference and persecution, Stundzia was driven to the site
disguised in local clothes and told not to speak if they were stopped by the police. Jonas
was also not told where they were going, in case he might be questioned by authorities at
a later point. Stundzia was amazed to see a thousand or more people gathered on a hilltop
and the surrounding area, camping out in tents, gathered around huge bonfires with
flames leaping twenty meters high, singing folk songs, dancing traditional dances,
playfully weaving oak wreaths, and practicing other folk traditions. Stundzia’ sense of
joyful surprise was all the greater because he had feared that under Soviet oppression, the
ancient Lithuanian ways had been forgotten, and only preserved among immigrant
communities in the USA and elsewhere. Here was proof that the old traditions were
50
vibrantly, triumphantly alive in Lithuania.
Stundzia returned to the USA with increasing understanding of the Rasa holiday,
in terms of both practical details and spiritual aspects, and was now able to organize
summer solstice events in a more cohesive and compelling manner, publicizing the events
throughout the network of Lithuanian-American businesses, churches and community
centers in the greater Boston area. He has since taught classes and delivered lectures on
Lithuanian folk culture and organized celebrations of holidays such as Velines and
Kucios/Kaledos in such locations as the St. Francis Church and the Masonic Temple in
Lawrence, the New England Folk Arts Center in Lowell, the Arlington Street Church in
downtown Boston, the Boston International Institute, and various other venues. As a
recognized authority on Lithuanian ethnic traditions, Stundzia has also been interviewed
by the Massachusetts State Folklorist. However, even as Stundzia’s range of Lithuanian
folk cultural activities expanded in the early to middle 1980s, he still did not consciously
conceive of what he was doing with Lithuanian ethnic traditions as “religion” or as
“Paganism.”
Coming to know Vilius Dundzila, Seniunas of the Chicago Romuva chapter,
through various Lithuanian-American events in the early 1990s, Stundzia found a new
conceptual framework for his many years of teaching, practicing and contemplating
Lithuanian folk cultural traditions. He now realized it was possible to look on these
traditions not merely as Lithuanian folk culture, but as religion; as Lithuanian Paganism.
He proposed to his fellow Lithuanian folklore enthusiasts in 1993 that they formally
organize a Romuva chapter for the Boston area. They embraced this proposal and selected
Stundzia to be their Seniunas, with respect to his deep knowledge of Lithuanian folk
culture, his longstanding service to the Lithuanian-American community, and his teaching
activities.
At the current time, Romuva Boston has a dedicated membership of twenty five
drawn not only from the Boston area but also from across southern New England, with
about double that number of transient or occasional participants in solstice celebrations
and other activities. Stundzia notes that there are many Lithuanian-American Catholics
that participate in Romuva Boston holiday events and ritual celebrations without ever
51
formally joining the organization. This phenomenon illustrates the important point that
the Lithuanian folklore that provides the cultural basis of Romuva is highly meaningful to
Lithuanian-American Catholics as well as Lithuanian-American Pagans, and to some
extent transcends their differing religious and spiritual conceptions.
Stundzia, like his Chicago counterpart Dundzila, frequently travels to Lithuania.
During a visit in January of 1999, Stundzia met with his fellow Seniunas Jonas Trinkunas
to discuss Trinkunas’ proposal to develop a World Romuva organization. Stundzia
endorsed the idea, and signed his name to a compact of support, as did several other
Seniunases. Like Trinkunas and Dundzila, Stundzia is fascinated by the parallels between
Lithuanian language and religion and ancient linguistic and ritual traditions of India. In
2002, Stundzia and Romuva Boston organized and hosted a conference on Indic-Baltic
connections at Suffolk University. This was followed by an invitation to conduct a
seminar on Baltic beliefs and traditions at a Hindu retreat at Saraswati Mandiram, a
Hindu temple in Epping, New Hampshire. This religious institution unfortunately burned
down in January of 2004.
Another notable event in the early 2000s was Stundzia’s appearance on a Boston
public television, religious affairs program called Spirit Talk, on March 22, 2004.
Stundzia spoke with some eloquence about Lithuanian folk traditions as expressions of an
earth-based spirituality in which the divinity of nature was paramount. Jeff Ferrannini, the
host of the program, responded by asking what Romuva had to do with Jesus and the
Bible, which left Stundzia at rather a loss for words. The incident illustrates a problem
that not only Romuva, but all Pagan religions face in the United States: the problem of
how to explain a non-Christian, non-Biblical religion to a predominantly Christian public
that tends to have little knowledge of, and little interest in, religions that are not based
upon the Bible.
The year 2003 was the 750th anniversary of the coronation of the Lithuanian King
Mindaugas in 1253. This occasion was observed by Romuva Boston in a quite interesting
manner, which requires some explanation to appreciate. Mindaugas is seen as a great hero
in Lithuania for his success in welding the various Lithuanian tribes into a unified state
capable of vigorous self-defense in a time when the entire Baltic region was under attack
52
from Christian crusaders (Suziedelis 1997, 195-197). For Lithuanian Pagans, he is a more
ambiguous figure, because of his complex involvement with both Paganism and
Christianity. Mindaugas accepted baptism in 1251, thus gaining the right to be crowned a
legitimate, church-acknowledged “king” in the European Christian sense two years later.
This seeming conversion to Christianity on the part of the Lithuanian leader bought his
nation some breathing space from crusader attack for a number of years, but it also cost
Mindaugas his life when disgruntled Pagan followers assassinated him in 1263 as a
punishment for what they saw as his betrayal and apostasy (Rowell 1994, 65.) A brick
cathedral constructed by Mindaugas in Vilnius was burned following his murder and
replaced by a Pagan temple, which would itself later be destroyed and replaced by a series
of Christian edifices, leading to the present magnificent cathedral (Rowell 1994, 134-
136.)
Modern scholars tend to think that Mindaugas underwent baptism for political
rather than religious reasons, as sources suggest that he continued to practice Pagan
rituals for many years after his baptism and coronation. Mindaugas would not be the last
Lithuanian leader to approach Christian conversion as a political tool. Grand Duke
Gediminas, who ruled from 1316-1341, corresponded with Vatican officials in a
discussion of possible Lithuanian conversion that lasted for years, artfully stretching out
the exchange of letters in a calculation, correct as it turned out, that the Papacy would
restrain the forces of the crusaders as long as Lithuania was willing to discuss conversion
(Rowell 1994, 189-226.) When Grand Duke Jogaila formally accepted Christianity for
Lithuania in 1387, it was part of the agreement establishing the military alliance with
Poland that would crush the Teutonic Knights in 1410.
There is thus an interesting history of religious conversion in Lithuania that may
have neither been religious, nor even a conversion, but only the semblance of a
conversion to Christianity that was performed for other purposes. The Lithuanian royalty
were not the only ones to engage in this; we find the same kind of mock conversion
occurring among the common folk as well. A famous historical tradition, contained in the
Polish historian Maciej Stryjkowski’s 1582 chronicle of Lithuanian history, Kronika
Polska, Litewska, Zmodzka i wszystkiej Rusi, tells of Christian monks who came to
53
Lithuania hoping to win conversions to Christianity by offering a tangible incentive to
potential converts. They provided free white wool shirts of good quality to each
Lithuanian who underwent baptism, not unlike modern day fast food restaurants that
dispense plastic toys as an inducement to families with young children to come eat in
their restaurants. At first, the tactic seemed to be working quite well, bringing in a fine
crop of apparently enthusiastic converts, but it was then discovered to be working a bit
too well. Some of the Lithuanian Pagans were coming in for repeat baptisms in order to
receive multiple wool shirts, with greater enthusiasm for the free clothing than for the
solemn Christian sacrament. And so ended this particular effort at the mass baptism of the
medieval Lithuanians.
It is this historical tradition that Romuva Boston re-enacted during their 2003
Rasa/Kupolines festival as a ritual commemoration of Mindaugas’ 1253 coronation as a
“Christian” monarch. Romuva members gathered bearing white shirts that they first tied
with linen cords. They then decorated the white garments with Pagan symbols of suns,
moons, stars, snakes, and other aspects of nature typically represented in Lithuanian folk
art. The shirts were then buried under a large pile of stones that was part of a rock wall
from the 1600s, which Seniunas Stundzia consecrated as a permanent Pagan altar.
The ritual was performed with the primary motivation of worshipping ancestors
and the earth goddess Zemyna. It was also an artful inversion of the sequence of events in
the historical tradition mentioned above. Instead of medieval Lithuanians receiving white
clothes that signified Christian conversion, twenty-first century Lithuanian-American
Pagans effected a reverse “conversion” to Paganism by decorating similar white garments
with symbols of nature and then dedicating them to the sacred earth that is, in Lithuanian
Pagan tradition, the Goddess Zemyna.
Romuva Boston has to this point in time been able to attract larger numbers both
of dedicated members and occasional participants than Romuva Chicago. Part of the
reason for this greater relative success is that Stundzia had been actively involved in
promoting Lithuanian ethnic culture in the Boston metropolitan area for more than ten
years before the establishment of Boston Romuva. A substantial groundwork had
therefore been set in place for the religious organization, as well as an already committed
54
following, when the Boston chapter of Romuva finally was established in 1993. In this
way, Romuva Boston developed in a similar manner to Romuva in Lithuania, which
began in the 1960s as the folkloric organization Ramuva, later metamorphosing into the
religious organization Romuva after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Another factor worth noting is that Romuva Boston appears to have been more
successful than its Chicago sister organization in attracting recent Lithuanian immigrants
members. Jonas Stundzia stresses that this has been very important for the particular
spiritual quality of Boston Romuva gatherings, explaining that “newly arrived
Lithuanians….due to their upbringing, find nature worship more of a natural experience”
than do second or third-Lithuanian-Americans (e-mail communication, May 26, 2005).
Seniunas Stundzia views Boston Romuva as a “safe haven of Lithuanianism” in which
the mixture of recent Lithuanian immigrants with more assimilated Lithuanian-Americans
creates multiple levels of spiritual expression and experience rooted in Lithuanian
cultural and spiritual heritage.
Reflections on Romuva Lithuania and Romuva USA
Reflecting on the process of development of their respective Romuva groups in
America, Stundzia and Dundzila both note a dilemma they face in America that is much
less of an issue for Romuva in Lithuania. Romuva is a religious movement that draws on,
and is defined by, the spirituality embedded in the folk traditions of Lithuanian ethnic
culture. But as a Lithuanian ethnic religion, should Romuva only be a religion for
Lithuanian people, that is, for ethnic Lithuanians? This is the prickly dilemma that
Romuva faces.
Romuva in Lithuania clearly caters to ethnic Lithuanians intrigued by the religious
dimension of their cultural heritage. People of other ethnic or national origins are not
excluded from participation or membership, but the overwhelmingly Lithuanian-ness of
Romuva Lithuania’s events, especially the language in which they are conducted,
effectively ensures that very few non-Lithuanians will ever become deeply committed
members. It is therefore essentially true that Romuva in Lithuania is a Lithuanian ethnic
religion for Lithuanian people, period.
In America, Romuva has developed primarily as a Lithuanian ethnic religion for
55
Lithuanian-Americans, which has greatly restricted the pool of people from which it can
draw members and participants. There have however also been non-LithuanianAmericans
who have participated in Romuva events. This raises the question of whether
Romuva in the USA should take further steps to embrace non-Lithuanian-Americans into
its fold. This might seem advisable to allow for growth of the very small Romuva groups
established to this point, but what might the consequences be? One likely impact would
be at the level of language, with an increasing use of English and a decreasing use of
Lithuanian, perhaps even requiring the translation of the much-loved daina folk songs
into English to accommodate a greater number of participants and members who lack
knowledge of the Lithuanian language.
Both Dundzila and Stundzia fear that this linguistic shift within Romuva, from
emphasizing Lithuanian language to accepting the use of English, might mean a
progressive lessening of the sense of connectedness with Lithuanian ethnic culture, and
an increasing homogenization and universalization of the particular type of spirituality
expressed and preserved through that culture and its language. On the other hand,
allowing a greater use of English in Romuva might enhance the possibility of the general
public in America and beyond being introduced to Lithuanian folk traditions and Pagan
spirituality, even if in a more universalized and homogenized form, and in this way
realizing Jonas Trinkunas’ dream of a “World Romuva ” movement.
All ethnically-based, reconstructionist forms of Paganism face a similar struggle
between the drive to preserve the cultural and linguistic traditions that form their basis,
and the need to adapt to social and cultural situations outside their original ethnic context,
such as by using English or other languages to supplement, translate or replace the
original language or languages of the tradition.
To return to the question posed earlier in this chapter, it can be shown that
Romuva is a “religion” in the sense that it does demonstrate the four elements commonly
understood to constitute a religion. Romuva has a system of sacred beliefs and a
particular world-view, emphasizing the divinity of nature; its own mythology and sacred
history; its own rituals and festivals; and is developing, with varying degrees of success,
56
organizations in both Lithuania and North America dedicated to the preservation and
continuation of Lithuanian Pagan religion. Romuva is certainly stronger in Lithuania than
in the United States or Canada, where it is clearly struggling to establish sustainable
communities. This underlines the basic fact that Lithuania is, indeed, the “Holy Land” of
this particular form of modern Paganism. However Romuva may fare in the United
States, Canada or elsewhere, there seems little doubt that the spiritual center of Romuva
will remain in Lithuania, just as Lithuanian ethnic folk culture will remain the essential
foundation of the religion.