Paper Short Abstract:

In this report, I'm going to examine the tradition of Christmas Eve dinner in a contemporary Lithuanian city and try to answer the question of how the different culinary traditions that existed in the past in the families of the husband's and wife's parents interact in the urban environment.

Paper Abstract:

When it comes to the Lithuanian ritual year of the late 19th - early 20th century, everyone had in mind the rural ritual year based on the flow of natural rhythms, religion and folk beliefs. In modern Lithuania, most of the population already lives in cities. In 1940-1941 and 1945-1989, the atheistic ideology, creation and introduction of socialist holidays and rapid urbanization led to radical changes in the ritual year. Already in 1988-1990, Lithuania started calling for the restoration of the old customs, discussing their adaptation to urban conditions. However, we can also talk about the rituals of Christmas Eve, which have been left behind by public debates, have been preserved and naturally modified by traditions passed down from generation to generation. My research on the Christmas holiday highlighted the culinary tradition of Christmas Eve in the city of Vilnius. Despite the atheistic policy of the Soviet era, the secularization of society and migration, the Lithuanian Christmas meals of Vilnius residents have not changed in principle even to this day. Preserved the specificity of fasting meals and a similar value hierarchy of individual meals. However, many urban families united people from different regions of Lithuania, sometimes of different religions (and different religiosity) and nationalities. How are the different Christmas culinary traditions that existed in the past in the families of the husbands’ and wives’ parents interacted in the contemporary urban environment? I will look for an answer to this question in the report, based on personal fieldwork data.