Klaipėdos universitetas

The article shows what information the press between 1905 and 1940 provided Lithuanian readers about Shrovetide celebratory traditions around the world. The information collected, consisting of seven articles, thirty photographs and drawings, is fragmentary but fairly informative, providing a good and concise understanding of this cultural phenomenon in a popular manner. By surveying and interpreting the available data, it tries to answer several questions: what significance these publications might have had on Shrovetide celebratory traditions and methods of celebration in early 20th-century Lithuania; how this information correlates with current academic research and known empirical data; what Lithuanian Shrovetide had in common with the winter-spring carnival celebrated around the world.

5-oji tarpdalykinė mokslinė konferencija „Tradicijos ir modernybės sąveika“, vykusi 2019 m. lapkričio 20–21 d. Klaipėdos universitete bei Telšių vyskupo Vincento Borisevičiaus kunigų seminarijoje, skirta Žemaitijos vardo paminėjimo rašytiniuose šaltiniuose 800-osioms metinėms ir Telšių vyskupo Vincento Borisevičiaus kunigų seminarijos atkūrimo 30-mečiui.

Leidinys „Prikelta atmintis: šimtmečio eksponatai“ (Mažosios Lietuvos istorijos muziejus, Klaipėda, 2024) sudarytas pažymint dvi reikšmingas istorines sukaktis: 2023 m. vykusį Klaipėdos krašto prijungimo prie Lietuvos 100-metį ir 2024 m. švenčiamą Mažosios Lietuvos istorijos muziejaus (toliau – MLIM) veiklos 100-metį. Įspūdingos apimties, turiningumo ir poligrafinės kokybės knygą, bendradarbiaudama su Klaipėdos krašto šeimomis, Lietuvos muziejais ir įvairių sričių tyrėjais bei praktikais, sudarė MLIM Etnografijos skyriaus vedėja dr. Aušra Žemyna Kavaliauskienė.

The instrumental music-making tradition of Lithuania Minor was officially recognised as a valuable part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and included in the national register in 2022. In the 20th century, the way of preserving the instrumental music-making of the Lietuvininkai (the inhabitants of Lithuania Minor) typically used for folklore was not followed, and it would have ceased to exist. However, the folklore revival movement that emerged in the 1960s, along with the determined efforts of Antanas Butkus, a master instrument maker, to restore the folk music instruments of Lithuania Minor, and other favourable circumstances, gave rise to renewed interest and new directions for the development of the tradition. The purpose of this article is to explore the forms and development of this folklore tradition, and to identify the factors that had the most important impact on its decline, restoration and continuity.

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.