Klaipėdos universitetas

The article analyses the role of museums in today’s society, in order to discuss features of the live reconstruction of Christmas Eve customs in Lithuanian museums. The main tasks are to analyse the visual ethnography of the Christmas Eve table, and to show how performativity in museums helps to implement the concept of the new museology in Lithuania. Empirical data were collected during participatory observations in six Lithuanian museums in 2017 and 2018. The comparative, interpretative and analytical methods were applied in the research. The result allows us to shape the museum as a space for changing and renewing the dynamic process, where a rich field of interpretations is constantly being constructed, thanks to the interaction between the educator and the participants, or to the participants alone. The museum is seen as an unpredictable space, a space for strengthening community, a play space.