Klaipėdos universitetas

In the article, using authentic Lithuanian material, the celebration of St Martin’s Day in Lithuania Minor is analysed from a chronological point of view (from the first mention to the present day), in order to show the general stages in the development of the festival, and the modern changes to the customs. The paper analyses the St Martin’s Day feast from the late 19th to the 20th century, showing the structural and functional changes in the calendar feast. It also aims to analyse modern customs in the festival (since 2002), and to discuss the prospects for the continuity of the ethnic tradition in today’s festival.

“Gray customs system” is an illegal practice of getting goods across the border without official customs approval. Such practice makes a negative impact on Russia-China economic relations and is, therefore, considered as a barrier for bilateral economic relations between Russia and China. In this context, the paper examines the problems occurred due to the gray customs system and the action taken to mitigate this problem. The research method used for this article is the case study method referring to secondary data, scholarly literature and reports.

The article analyses proverbs that mention bread. The aim is to reveal how bread is treated in Lithuanian proverbs, and to provide an analysis of the image of bread. It analyses Lithuanian proverbs in which bread is treated as a meal, as well as symbolic meanings and the personification of bread. Stylistic analysis, interpretation and description methods are used in the preparation of the article. Material published in the compendium ‘Lithuanian Proverbs and Sayings’ was mostly used.