Using authentic material from inhabitants of Lithuania Minor, the article analyses the specific nature of the feast of Pentecost in this region, in terms of its chronological development (starting with the first written references up to this day), in order to reveal the most conspicuous stages in its development, and modern transformations of the customs and traditions. The article covers the main elements of the feast of Pentecost for the Lietuvininkai dating from the end of the 19th and the 20th century. These elements are then compared to the feast of Pentecost in other regions, in order to reveal structural and functional changes in calendar festivals.
From the earliest descriptions and studies, the Prussian Lithuanians, or Lietuvininkai, and their sung folklore have usually been treated as one unit. However, the ethnographic region of Lithuania Minor is a vast territory stretching over 200 kilometres from north to south. Two distinct areas of ethnic Lietuvininkai music can be identified within it. This article aims to investigate the musical features of the folklore that existed in the Klaipėda district, and to reveal its uniqueness in the context of Lietuvininkai sung folklore.
The goal of the article is to examine chronologically the specific nature of the Easter holiday in
Lithuania Minor, to determine structural and functional changes in calendar traditions and rites. The main task is to differentiate and characterise models of the Lietuvininkai Easter holiday: archaic (from the first mention of holidays to the end of the 19th century); the end of the 19th century to the 20th; and the present time (since 1990).
Journal:Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis
Volume 24 (2012): Erdvių pasisavinimas Rytų Prūsijoje XX amžiuje = Appropriation of Spaces in East Prussia during the 20th Century = Prisvoenie prostranstv v Vostochnoi Prussii v dvadtsatom stoletii, pp. 221–229
Abstract
The article analyzes the aspiration of the interwar political and cultural elite of Lithuania to turn Klaipėda Region acquired in 1923 into integral part of the state of Lithuania by construing collective memory that would unify Lithuania Minor and Major. The attention is focussed exclusively on the initiatives whose authors were the political and cultural elite of Lithuania that identified itself with the tradition of Lithuania Major.
Journal:Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis
Volume 23 (2011): Daugiareikšmės tapatybės tarpuerdvėse: Rytų Prūsijos atvejis XIX–XX amžiais = Ambiguous Identities in the Interspaces: The Case of East Prussia in the 19th and 20th Centuries = Die vieldeutigen Identitäten in den Zwischenräumen: Der Fall Ostpreußen…, pp. 203–233
Abstract
The aim of the article is to present theoretical interpretation of the concept of Lithuania Minor as a Lithuanian memory site in the contemporary Lithuanian historical narative. The principal attention in the article is focussed on theoretical aspects that allow understanding the prerequisites of ideological receptions of the region of Lithuania Minor in the discourse of Lithuanian memory culture. From the empirical viewpoint, the content of stereotypes, images, and plots that realise the concept of Lithuania Minor as a Lithuanian memory site is analysed.