April flowers, May showers

December 3, 2008

From Lithuanian Heritage May/June 2006

As soon as the weather turns warm, the best place for people-watching on Saturday afternoon is on Pilies gatvė. April in the Vilnius Senamiestes (Old Town) is marked by the building of the summer patios on the street outside the restaurants. Lithuanians, being cold weather people, will sit outside in conditions much of the rest of the world would consider “too cold.” If the sun is shining, and it’s at least 50°F, the outside tables will be full.

Easter Sunday came on a crisp morning in Panevežys, the fifth largest city in Lithuania, in the northeast not far from the Latvian border. We woke early and dressed for church. I choose to wear a long skirt, boots, and a velvet jacket. My aunt remarked that I might be cold, but after all, I said, we weren’t going to be standing outside for two hours. Driving to the church, the streets of Panevežys were empty. I expected this to be because it was 8AM on Sunday morning, and most families were electing not to attend mass. I was wrong. The church was packed and it was nearly impossible to find a parking place anywhere near by. After mass, it was even harder to get out. There are four Catholic churches in Panevežys, but we choose “the red one,” as my cousin says, because they have speakers outside in the courtyard. Growing up in Michigan, my family was often late to church, and I remember many an Easter Sunday when we stood in the back with the overflow for mass. I have never, however, had to listen to the service on speakers in the church courtyard.

Lietuvos Rytas newspaper reported that on Easter weekend, the violets would be blooming. So after breakfast, we drove to the forest in search of the first flowers of spring. This is a tradition in my family here, and every Easter is the same. By noon, the sun was shining, the skies were clear blue, and the temperature was very comfortable in the low 60′s. I was more interested in walking among the pine trees than I was in looking for flowers, but my cousins were diligent. After determining that the first forest was still too dry, we moved to another location near a small creek, and there, under the wiry grass and last patches of remaining snow and ice, we found our first violets. Spring had officially begun.

Just before Christmas, President Adamkus declared that if a holiday falls on a weekend then the next day will be a non-working day too. Christmas, New Year’s Day, and Kovo 11-ają all fell on the weekend this year, and just like the French, Lithuanians really like their days off. Easter of course always falls on a weekend and Easter Monday is already a holiday, but a law is a law, so Tuesday was a day off too. Despite the four-day weekend, the bus back to Vilnius on Sunday evening was full of students and young people who had had enough of their families and were eager to get back to the city.

The bus station in Ukmergės was marked by its lack of surroundings. Even in Panevežys there is a fancy new shopping center and a bank. It’s as if traveling from Panevežys to Vilnius requires one to travel through time. As we pulled up to the bus stop, I noticed signs above the other gates proudly listing the times of various buses departing for destinations I had never heard of. Written in large white letters on blue wooden signs, these destinations appeared to be important cities from another generation, but in reality they were just small villages surrounding the region’s main town. There was an empty gas station across the road, and in the distance were some old, dilapidated soviet apartment buildings. Except for a few drunks loitering around the kiosk selling cigarettes and beer, the station was empty. The bus driver announced the stop, and several people stood up to get off. Before we could continue on, the driver was forced to remove one man who had bought a ticket to Ukmergės, but insisted he was going to Vilnius. He was obviously drunk and not able to walk. Only with the arrival of the police did he manage to stumble to towards the door. As we finally pulled out of Ukmergės, I considered the many sodybiai, small gardens given to those living in apartments, lining the highway. Even they seemed somehow smaller and less impressive than the sodybiai surrounding Vilnius and even Panevežys.

A few weeks after Easter, and despite the dry weather, the violets are everywhere. Bobutės (old women) sell handfuls of them for two litai each on Pilies gatvė and little girls pick them in the park. After more than two years in Lithuania, I have come to expect these sunny April days. I know, though, that the rain, which is expected to begin in the next few days, will consume most of May. Walking home one warm evening after work, I stop to buy a bunch of violets from someone’s grandmother who always stands on the street near my house. As I hand her the money, she smiles and wishes me, “Geros pavasaris!*”

*Happy Spring!

 

Filed under: Daily Life,Festivals and Occasions,Lithuania

Tags: clips, Easter, family, Lithuania, Lithuanian, Lithuanian Heritage, one way ticket, one way tkt, onewayticket, onewaytkt, Panevezys, spring, traditional, Vilnius