Invention of the tradition of Mother's Day in Lithuania

Straipsnio objektas – Motinos šventė Lietuvoje. Atsižvelgiant į Petro Pečiūros, Eric Hobsbawm ir kitų tyrėjų įžvalgas apie tradicijų, švenčių genezę, reikšmę bei remiantis rašytiniais ir lauko tyrimais analizuojamas modernios šventės grąžinimas kaip tradicinės. Tokio pobūdžio straipsnis yra pirmas Lietuvos etnologijos istoriografijoje, todėl papildo švenčių kūrimo ir sklaidos problematiką. Tyrimas atliktas lyginamuoju metodu derinant skirtingus informacijos rinkimo metodus. Tikslas – atskleisti, kaip modernios šventės – Motinos dienos – grąžinimas į gegužės pirmąjį sekmadienį 1987 m. viešu šventimu ir 1990 m. oficialiai įtraukus į valstybinių švenčių sąrašą išreiškė tradiciją bei jos iliuziją ar universalumą šiandienos įvairių tautų ir tikybų vilniečiams. Šiam tikslui pasiekti keliami uždaviniai išnagrinėti Juozo Kudirkos keltas idėjas bei jo mokslinės ir praktinės veiklos indėlį, siekiant sugrąžinti Motinos dienos šventę ir, remiantis 2012 metų etnografiniu lauko tyrimu, atskleisti šios šventės gyvavimą šių dienų vilniečių šeimose. Išvados straipsnio pabaigoje.[…] Mother's Day, from its inception, was destined to become undeniably popular. This can be seen in the first stage of the project "Modem family holidays in Vilnius": in a survey preformed by LEU students, a list of calendar and national holidays was drawn up, where the interviewees noted and added the holidays celebrated in their family. The survey showed that the most popular holidays are New Year, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and All Saint's Day (Vėlinės), while only slightly less popular are Easter and Mother's Day. This is also confirmed by a 2005 study in Lithuania performed by sociologists, demonstrating that in the top five most important holidays, as indicated by residents of Vilnius, Kaunas, Panevėžys, Šiauliai and Biržai, Mother's Day took third place after Christmas and Easter. However, it should be noted that in Marija Znamierovska-Priuferova's description of the different rites and customs in the 20th с. 3-4 decades of the people of Vilnius belonging to different religions, Mother's Day was not included, because it was not celebrated in Vilnius. The article on the problems of the creation and dissemination of holidays considers the celebration of Mother's Day in Lithuania. Taking into account Petras Pečiūras', Eric Hobsbawm's and other researchers' insights into the genesis and meaning of the traditions, celebrations, and based on the written and field lest analysis of modem celebrations from the first half of the 20th c. being brought back in the last decade of the 20th c. as traditional. Mother's Day in the intenwar period was a modern, newly created holiday celebrated on the first Sunday in May, and during the Soviet era it was officially celebrated in conjunction with International Women's Day on March 8, and only in 1987, with public celebrations and in 1990 being included in the official calendar of public holidays, was it again officially celebrated on the first Sunday in May. This paper aims to reveal how the return of a modern holiday - Mother's Day - expressed tradition and its illusion or versatility for today's various peoples and religions in Vilnius. Having analysed the ideas and activities of Juozas Kudirka, who initiated the return of the holiday to the first Sunday in May, it has been found that the return of Mother's Day's was more related to objection to the occupation regime's imposed holiday (March 8), replacing original content, and the pursuit to cultivate Christian principles of virtue. Since the holiday's traditions first manifested in celebration by families from generation to generation, and, based on recent ethnographic research of holiday celebrations in the family, we looked at celebration in Lithuanian, Polish, Russian families in Vilnius; according to J. Kudirka's cherished idea of Christian holidays, one form of celebration is analysed - visiting churches. Thus, an ethnographic study, performed in Vilnius in 2012, showed that by comparing J. Kudirka's ideas to the current widespread practice of families in Vilnius, the status of Catholic holidays has not spread - it remained only part of the customs of Catholic families.[...