Užgavėnės: A Rural and Urban, Religious, Socialist, and Lithuanian Festival of Shrovetide
Užgavėnės: A Rural and Urban, Religious, Socialist, and Lithuanian Festival of Shrovetide

Summary/Abstract: The article uses the case of Užgavėnės (Shrovetide) to reveal how the content of a festival can shift over time. It discusses how festival associated with agricultural calendar can acquire a religious character and become a youth, urban, socialist, national, and ethnic festival, can be used not only for recreational purposes but also ideological ones in the fight against religiousness and an attempt to create a socialist festival, and, at the same time, to nurture Lithuanian culture. The newly created image of Užgavėnės as a rite of passage – a festival marking a turn of season – has determined its recent fate and even given it greater significance. It has also spread in Lithuanian communities abroad, forming a temporary deterritorialised Lithuanian ethnic cultural space, allowing them to feel ‘back at home’ in each other’s company, and to maintain their ethnic identity.

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