Easter’s memories of parents and grandparents

Easter – closest to their essence

Sigita Mikalauskienė, organizer of cultural events

My childhood Easter was that pure celebration. We did not look for chocolate kinders, wet somewhere in the garden. I would say Easter was closest to the essence – very family, cozy.

In those days, as now, everyone was running, fleeing. For us children, school, lessons, friends; For parents, work, and the day before Easter, time seemed to stop. We were all very high quality together.

I remember the whole family on the eve of Easter and printed eggs. Mostly onion shells and herbs. We lived near Pažaislis, so before Easter we picked up herbal eggs in the woods. Mommy made a beautiful nest to put the eggs out of the amendments.

When we were older, we went to our yard and rolled eggs on the grass. This tradition originated much later – when parents had the first grandchildren from their brother. He is two years older than me, his daughter is now eighteen, and my daughter is only ten. In a word, when young children appeared in the family, they needed to be educated, and the eggs were perfectly suitable.

Greeting: The entire Mikalauskas family sends many sincere wishes of Easter. / Photo by S. Mikalauskienė’s personal archive

And the jams! This year, our little haze – she has years and three months – dawns her first egg. Since I eat eggs with a curled, I decided to paint them with the most natural paint as possible – blue cabbage, turmeric, coffee and more. I saw photos on social networks – I really liked it.

The day before Easter, the time seemed to stop. We were all very high quality together.

What food did my parents put on the Easter table? I don’t really remember. Instead, when we started to make friends with Liudas (opera soloist Liudas Mikalauskas – auto -comment), very stuck with his parents to Samogitia, so that they were burning the oven overnight and baking a real kugel – had such a festive culinary tradition.

When I met Liudas, I started to participate in the rites of Easter. There were very nice rites at Pažaislis Monastery, scrapped in the yard all night, and I even remember once, after the end of the worship well after midnight, the nuns invited us to celebrate Easter at the table. The image remained forever, as the nuns who followed the real fasting during the Lent, enjoying a bite of meat. That night I realized what it means to wait, stay and then celebrate.

Together: According to Sigita, the most important time at the celebration is both preparing and celebrating. / Photo by S. Mikalauskienė’s personal archive

While searching for Easter photos, I noticed that moments of celebration of them are very difficult to find. As with Christmas or Christmas Eve. I started thinking why. Probably those celebrations are the time when all family members help phones aside and enjoy fellowship, spending time together.

To this day, we continue the tradition of gathering with his brother, his family, parents. We do this not only during the big holidays of the year, but also on February 16, March 11th. The initiators of such fun meetings are always my parents. I am extremely grateful to them for not moving away from each other.

There was a great deal of kinship in our generation

Virginija Kochanskytė, actress, associate professor of Klaipėda University

When I think of Easter of my childhood, there is a lot of light and sun and sun before my eyes. Just sunny memories!

First on Saturday, her mother handles all the rooms, changing her bedding. Everything was washed, scrubbing, cleaning, glitters, including windows, and we with Antanuk, my brother, help her.

Mommy then prepares meals for the Easter table, and we are given eggs with my brother. It remained in the memory that the paint made on the basis of the varnish is very stinking. We put them with them on the eggs and, of course, we paint our fingers. Sometimes we paint eggs with onion shells and herbs.

In my childhood Easter began with Verb Sunday morning when my mother returned from the church and lifted a blanket with a consecrated verb – a natural juniper twig – through my legs and brother, gently swipe, « Verba beats, not me! » Then her laughter sounded, and for her, we were our own, because the soles made a lot of tickling.

Trio: Spring Hearts to Life – Virginia with brother Antanas and mommy Elizabeth. / Photo by V. Kochanskytė Personal Archive

When the Easter morning came, her mother was beautifully dressed in the table. There were festive tablecloths, plates, napkins, and all cutlery. She loved aesthetics, so our Easter table always looked courty, aristocratic. Be sure to soak the sacred verb from the church.

The memory of the common prayer, when all the relatives took off their hands, and the concentration, the presence of everyone in the single, the pleasure of each other. That is how love was to us, the children, just the example of grandparents, moms, uncles, aunts. There was certainly a great deal of that kinship and community in our generation.

I still remember that my mother was going to church at night or in the morning. Only our brother did not include the mystery of the Easter prayer for some reason. The times were such that I had to hide their faith … The image survived: carriage, harnessed horses and adults. Grandpa with grandmother (while he was alive), my mother, her sister.

Then, when the grandparents left Anapilin, we were already celebrating Easter at my mom’s house or with her sister who lived nearby, behind the fence. Everyone in Kaunas, Jonava Street.

The memory of the common prayer, when all the relatives took off their hands, and the concentration, the presence of everyone in the single, the pleasure of each other.

What got stuck? Beautiful, sunny, funny egg break and rolling. We had a dedicated wooden beds, and when we had a meal, we all got in the yard. And there – everything blooms, green … There really is no cold, as in present times sometimes. A playful, uplifting mood – the resurrection! From that adult’s mood and our children, the joy came. And even when an uncle in the yard was the accordion! We all sang, our whole tribe was singing, but my mom’s voice was the most beautiful of all.

Children recited the poems for adults. The daddy in the yard had made big swings, so we were high high…

Did we go through the house to ask for eggs? We kids, no. But I remember that at Easter, such pilgrims or beggars came to our house – I don’t remember what we called them. Grandma shared food with them. When they came to her in the kitchen, those people got a pre -made box, which included cheese and bread and something delicious. We, the kids, were interesting to follow them, and we saw how those pilgrims travel from one home to another.

How do we meet Easter now? While our parents with Arūnas were still alive (husband – daddy, mine – mommy), we were all friends together in Klaipeda, we and Arūnas at home. We sat down at the table with prayer, remembered the names of all those who left, and invited their ghosts to have a together.

Ever since the most precious ones of both of us went on the path of eternal light, the heart of Arun’s niece Diana and her husband Saulius in Marijampolė.