Paper short abstract:

The presentation will examine the influence of cultural institutions and organizations on the concept of modern holidays and their traditions in Lithuania.

Paper long abstract:

The traditions of the annual holidays (and the various concepts of their traditions) are shaped by many factors. Specific social institutes play a significant role here, whose role is not equally significant and similar at different times. Religion, the dominant political ideology, the formal legitimacy of specific holidays, and the media played a major role in the formation of modern traditions of Lithuanian annual celebrations. Equally important was the role of various cultural institutions and organizations in popularizing one or another annual holiday or its specific traditions.

The presentation, based on a new empirical study, will discuss both the overall role of cultural organizations in the development of the most popular traditions of present annual holidays in Lithuania and the specificities of this impact at different periods of the 20th and 21st centuries.