Šiauliai ,,Romuvos’’ Gymnasium

From linen to traditional holidays

Form 2h Vaida Gailiūtė and Rasminta Urbonavičiūtė

The flax plant

The flax plant is an annual that needs lots of moisture to grow. It is most grown in Lithuania and in some parts of the United Kingdom, also in Belgium and in the north of France. Some varieties of flax are grown for fibre production and others are used to make oil.The stems of the flax plant are pulled out of the ground in order to obtain the longest fibres possible. Then the farmer leaves the stems out in the field to rot in the rain. This process causes the fibres to come apart from one another and is known as "retting".The fibres are now ready to be processed to make textiles. The oil produced from the flax plant is extracted from the plant's seeds. This oil is inedible and is used in industry to make paints and printing inks, for example.

Lithuanian linen

Lithuanian linen: one of the oldest textile fabrics in the world, linen is made from fibres of the flax plant. Linen fibers are much stronger and more lustrous than cotton, and linen fabric is cool and absorbent. Production of linen is highly ecological, and uses five to twenty times less water and energy than the production of cotton or synthetic fabrics. The production of linen was encouraged by Charlemagne, and linen became the principal european textile of the middle ages. Although Ireland has long been the largest producer of fine linen, Lithuanian linen is renowned for its exceptional quality.

Lithuanian weaving looms

These are made from linen: LINEN, elegant, beautiful, durable, the refined

luxury fabric. Linen is the strongest of the vegetable fibers and has 2 to 3 times the strength of cotton. Linen table cloths and napkins have been handed down generation to generation. Not only is the linen fiber strong, it is smooth, making the finished fabric lint free. Fine china, silver and candles are enhanced by the luster of linen which only gets softer and finer the more it is washed.

Linen is from flax, a bast fiber taken from the stalk of the plant. The luster is from the natural wax content. Creamy white to light tan, this fiber can be easily dyed and the color does not fade when washed. Linen does wrinkle easily but also presses easily. Linen, like cotton, can also be boiled without damaging the fiber.

Highly absorbent and a good conductor of heat, this fabric is cool in garments. However, constant creasing in the same place in sharp folds will tend to break the linen threads. This wear can show up in collars, hems, and any area that is iron creased during the laundering. Linen has poor elasticity and does not spring back readily.

How to process linen?

• video

Holidays

Shrove Tuesday – UžgavėnėsShrove Tuesday – not a holiday but is singled out as the day which puts to end meat eating and the time of merrymaking – Tuesday before Lent. At the beginning of this century, in Eastern and South Eastern regions, people celebrated three meat eating days, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Visitors to Vilni’ Academy mentioned that at the beginning of 17th century, Shrove Tuesday carnival walks lasted three days, they were similar to carnivals taking place in other parts of Europe. Shrove Tuesday is a folk celebration not connected with any church rites and only its time is defined by the church calendar, for it depends on the time of Easter. Shrove Tuesday usually occurs between February 5th and March 8th . The earliest Shrove Tuesday date is celebrating the end of winter. During this celebration attention is concentrated on chasing away winter with all her evils.

Christmas Eve - Kūčios

Kūčios is the traditional Christmas Eve supper in Lithuania, held on December 24. In the evening there are Twelve-dishes served on Christmas Eve.Before eating family shares plotkelis.Researchers believe, that this traditional festival had preserved many relicts of pagan beliefs and rituals. That's because after eating people are tying predict future by menas of magical rituals. it is also believed, that at the night people can understand what cattle is talking about.

St.John’s day - Joninės

From ancient times people marked the time of the return of the sun, the shortest and longest night. In olden times it was called the Feast of the DEWS, [ a.k.a. RASOS ]. When Christianity was established in Lithuania, the name was changed to Feast of St. John, according to agrarian folk calendar, the start of haying.

The rituals of the longest day were closely related to agrarian ideas and notions. The main aim was to protect the harvest from natural calamities, evil souls, witches and mid summer visitors like draught, hail, downpours of rain and thunder. The ancients worshipped the great Goddess Lada and God of Thunder, the ruler of thunder and lightning. From May 25th till June 25th men visited taverns while women and girls danced in the fields holding hands, sang and sacrificed white hens. 

References:

http://ausis.gf.vu.lt

www.wikipedia.org

www.emokykla.lt