Christmas in Lithuania
Christmas Eve • Christmas Eve dinner is more important in Lithuania than Christmas dinner. • Although Christmas is purely Christian Holiday, there are a lot of Pagan elements in the Lithuanian Christmas tradition.
Christmas Eve • Preparations for Christmas Eve take all day. • The house is cleaned, food prepared not only for the special supper (Kučios) but also for the first day of Christmas.
Christmas Eve • For the Christmas Eve dinner, the table is prepared as follows: a handful of fine hay is spread evenly on the table. • This is a reminder that Jesus was born in a stable and laid in a manger on hay. The table is then covered with a pure white linen tablecloth.
Christmas Eve • Twelve different dishes are served on the table because Jesus had twelve apostles. All the dishes are strictly meatless: fish, herring, kuciukai with poppy seed milk, kisielius (cranberry pudding), a dried fruit soup or compote, a salad of winter and dried vegetables, mushrooms, boiled or baked potatoes, sauerkraut (cooked, of course, without meat) and bread.
Christmas Eve • Kalėdaitis. This is one of the most important attributes for Christmas Eve. After the prayer, the family head or the senior age wafers distribute to family members who they refract and divide each other by saying greetings.
Christmas Eve • Kūčiukai. Christmas Eve cookies - special product made for Christmas Eve.
Christmas Eve • If a family member died that year or cannot attend the meal, an empty place is left at the table. • All family members make an effort to come home for the Christmas Eve supper, even from a distance.
Christmas Eve • If you know that there is a person alone anywhere, you must invite him/her to Christmas Eve dinner. • Eating together and sharing with others is the most important thing.
Christmas Eve • The order of eating the other dishes is not established, everyone eats what he wishes, but it is essential to at least taste every food.
Christmas • It is typical to exchange presents on Christmas day. Children normally find them under the Christmas Tree and believe that they were brought by Santa Claus. • If there are no children in a family, adults exchange presents among themselves.
Christmas • Christmas day is an extended version of a family gathering that started on Christmas Eve. On the first day of Christmas family stays together, however, it is popular to visit other relatives or close friends on the second day of Christmas.
Merry Christmas!