Lyge takes place in 20th of March.
The day is called Lygiä dienis,
Equinox.
Flowers begin to bloom and the spring arrives.
Two elemental forces meet.
These are the birds,
Twiniai,
And the snakes,
Esaltis.
Fire meets water.
Water has important part in the celebration.
After the first thunder,
The water was sacred.
People visited streams and ponds.
Water was magical around this time and it was encouraged to bathe or swim in the waters or even bathe in the snow.
Guests were greeted by sprinkling water.
Another element was fire,
Ugnis.
The old fire of winter was put out and the new fire of spring was lit up.
Water was brought home from the sacred altar.
Third element was verba,
From the woods.
Verba was a magical branch that symbolized life and growth and protected from diseases.
Homes were decorated with these branches.
Verbos was used for all kinds of magical rituals.
Water was improved by sticking verba on both sides of the river.
When visiting gravesites,
Verbos were placed to the graves to protect the spirits.
When a branch dried up,
The leaves were removed,
Thorns were stored in a bag and later on burned as incense for perkunas or upon someone's death.
During these celebrations,
Everyone tried to get up early and touch the sleepy heads with a verba.
The one that was touched with verba received the force of life.
The two most important deities of the springtime were Semina,
The earth goddess,
And Perkunas,
The thunder god.
Eggs were painted with red color and used as decorations in ceremonies.
Liike was followed by velikos.
It was a movable holiday,
Celebrated on the first full moon,
Sunday,
After spring equinox.
Similar to the autumn time velines,
During velikos families visited cemeteries,
Leaving eggs and other foods to the graves.
Velikos was time to greet and party together with the spirits.
When all this food was taken to the cemeteries,
Tables were not cleaned,
For some food was always left for the spirits.
The time of the velikos was all about meeting and partying with the veles.
It was believed that the spirits themselves visited holy places,
Such as temples and groves.
Lalauninkai,
The singers,
Traveled through the towns.
This was often considered to be the sign of spring.
Horns and pipes were made of willow,
And drums were played to signal the awakening of the earth.
The musicians were believed to help perkunas chase away all the ghosts and spirits.
One of the traditions was swinging,
Which was also considered to be somewhat a fertility ritual for the land.
The joy of swinging also brought people together.
Perkunas day was the celebration of the first thunder of the year.
The day when the first rumbling of thunder was heard was remembered by the people.
If there was no thunder in the spring,
The year was going to be bad,
And one could even predict famine.
If it was heard on Yorei,
St.
George's day,
There was going to be a good harvest.
On the first day of thunder,
The earth was shaken by Perkunas,
The god of thunder,
And he awakened the earth.
Grass began to grow,
Trees and flowers came to life.
If one took a bath after the first thunder in a lake or a river,
They would remain healthy and strong.
Drinking water that was not blessed by Perkunas would cause illnesses.
Plants and flowers that were planted right after Perkunas day would grow beautiful and lush.
Before Perkunas blessed the land,
It was not allowed to sit on the ground or walk on the ground barefoot.
It was also forbidden to start a fire or to burn old leaves.
If someone disobeyed Perkunas,
He could burn down their homes.
The way Latvians and Lithuanians respected their ancestors was something very precious.
The respect of the spirits was an essential part of the Baltic worldview.
It was expressed in many different ways.
Beside of the special remembrance days,
There were multitude of ways that the people paid respect for the ancestors.
The connection to the ancestors lived within songs,
The customs and the language itself.
After passing,
The ancestors maintained their ties to the family in several different rites.
Often the worship of nature was intertwined together with the worship of ancestors.
In Lithuania it is said,
The souls of the dead are the trustees of their living relatives or their intimates,
Especially dead parents and trustees of their orphaned children.
The spirits of the passed away relatives also became the caretakers of the fields and the farmstead.
The living and the dead were united by the earth.
Their presence was honored by lighting candles and assured that they were not forgotten.
During hardships and joyous moments,
The living could feel their love and support.
The cycle of love and death in every family created a single undivided road.
The Lithuanian word for man,
Smokus,
Is gender neutral and it has direct connection to the word tseme,
Meaning earth.
As well as the word smona,
Meaning wife,
The symbol of a man is a tree,
Which is the symbol of the earth.
The tree reaches out to the heavens,
Which gives man heavenly aspects.
In folk songs,
The connection to the surrounding world is emphasized when the sun is called as the mother and the moon as the father.
The man is never isolated from nature,
But is always a part of it.
In each action or thought there are many possible outcomes and consequences,
Both for good and bad.
Another concept is the idea of lemtis,
Fate.
Man's life was a span,
Out like a yarn,
And when the spindle is full,
The thread is torn and man dies.
The goddess Laima is the one who conducted man's fate.
She was the spinner and the weaver of fate.
Siela,
The heart and soul,
Was the eternal force of life,
Which never left the earth.
But in the pagan worldview,
Siela reincarnated as trees,
Flowers and animals.
Siela could be seen as the divine energy,
The part within the man that always returns into the universe,
In one form or another.
Siela is not the same as the Vele,
Which is the soul of the dead and carries its existence separately in the life of the family.
It was believed that man was reborn among those who he loved.
