Romuva In The News
The Baltic Times takes a look at what may be one of the few unbroken European Pagan survivals, the Romuva community in Lithuania.
“We are all pagan when we are born as all belong to the Earth. Paganism is the natural state of man. We inaugurate the summertime with different custom songs and rituals. We look at the sunset to say goodbye to the sun. Then we tend a fire all night singing to our major gods and goddesses: Perkunas is the god of thunder, Zemyna is the goddess of mother earth, Laima is the goddess of destiny and Gabija is the goddess of fire. We ask for prosperity and good luck by offering [the gods and goddesses] salt and flowers. Salt symbolizes strength as it feeds the fire. Paganism is not dead!” – Inija Trinkuniene, Vilnius Romuva
Christianity wasn’t officially accepted in Lithuania until the 14th century, and never seemed to be adopted fully by the common people. During Soviet occupation all religious expression both Christian and Pagan was suppressed. Once Lithuania regained independence in 1991 religion was allowed to prosper once more and Romuva re-emerged. Romuva is now an officially registered Baltic faith community. Lithuania will be hosting the next World Congress of Ethnic religions in June.
Inija and her husband Jonas Trinkuniene are also leaders of the ritual folk group Kulgrinda which has released several albums and performs public rituals and traditional rites of passage.
One response so far
Somethign in this vein you might find interesting, Speaking of Faith, http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/index.shtml, has an upcoming show will focus on Paganism perhaps with a slavis bent:
Pagans Ancient and Modern (late Apr./May)
We speak with Adrian Ivakhiv of the University of Vermont, whose interest in modern environmentalism and his Ukrainian ancestry led him to explore ancient pagan traditions in Europe. In post-Soviet Easter Europe, as in Western Europe and the 21st-century U.S, pagan philosophies are very much alive. Ivakhiv offers insight into what this is about, and how some pagan impulses are woven unconsciously into Christian rituals and everyday life.