[ad_1]
Party on various occasions: celebration of names, birthdays, baptisms and weddings, sessions and parliaments of the Supreme Court of Lithuania, coronations and names of rulers. Numerous companies also gathered during Christmas, Easter and Mardi Gras.
Judging by the diary of the Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Albert Stanislaus Radvila, in 1632. At the end of the 19th century, he went to festivals in Vilnius 3-4 times a month.
Aristocratic parties took place in private, public houses and palaces at the Vilnius Town Hall. And if an official was shot in the head to save the city money, colleagues would immediately find antidotes.
1667 In April, Vilnius council members imprisoned treasurer Petras Koronas in the town hall prison and kept them there until they gave money for the amusement of the vait and council members in the town hall.
1667 In April, Vilnius council members imprisoned treasurer Petras Koronas in the town hall prison and kept them there until they gave money for the amusement of the vait and council members in the town hall.
The art of organizing a party
It was customary to prepare the feast scrupulously according to a certain order. Baroque culture in the seventeenth century. the hosts demanded as much ingenuity as possible so that the guests were amazed.
Watercolor by Marcelas Januškevičius. Lithuanian National Art Museum / Vilnius Town Hall in 1763.
Even relevant textbooks were written. In one of them, published in 1660. In Krakow, it is said that the party organizer should be clever and merciful, but not stingy.
The premises must be carefully ordered, the flies and fleas removed from the rooms, water and white cloths must be provided to clean the dishes and the dogs must be expelled with the tail. Another author taught not to save: “It is better to suffer a loss for a taler than to be ashamed for a half cent.
Several hundred knights and ponies attended important parties. Sometimes invitations-tickets were sent to the guests. Guests were greeted by solemnly decorated hosts and a resplendent palace.
Count Stanislovas Tiškevičius in 1773. In May, the entrance to his palace in Vilnius was decorated with “excellent and solemn symmetry of fire”, and in the palace the guests were greeted with lighting of lamps.
Weddings and other special parties were interrupted for several days, sometimes for an entire week. But the usual party started in the afternoon and ended at night, perhaps with the sunset.
If we believe the court documents, sometimes parties were organized in Vilnius just to divert attention from completely different ideas.
The mayor of Vilnius, Motiejus Kazimieras Gudelevičius, in 1710. In January, he complained to Vilnius Judge Grigorijus Stefanovičius Vargalovskis that he had instructed his wife to organize a party with music, dancing, drinking and shouting “vivat”, and at the same time he was horrifying the mayor’s house with like-minded people.
A party without dancing is not a party
A more serious celebration is unimaginable without music and dancing. In addition, the hosts organized other attractions, such as fireworks.
One party etiquette expert wrote that the only right thing to do was “quiet fun”: the music should be quiet, the dances should not be overly temperamental, and the best thing to do is walk around the garden.
However, these provisions were very rarely observed. In Vilnius, especially in the 18th century, the dances that dominated Poland at that time were the polonaise and the mazurka. In addition, the guests danced the minuet, the contradiction and the alemand.
Not everyone followed the other etiquette of the etiquette expert: refrain from gambling. Men and women sat at cards and dice, often gambling for money.
Men and women sat at cards and dice, often gambling for money.
A celebration in Vilnius in 1773. He began dancing in January, with the servants constantly carrying a variety of drinks and some guests sitting at the tables playing.
Figure LDKistorija.lt / Playing cards during a party
In the middle of the hall was a table laden with food. Afterwards, the guests watched the sumptuous fireworks through the windows, and then gathered at the front door illuminated in various colors.
Finally, 200 people were seated at two huge tables and dinner began.
Fight for the best places
Hosts were required to seat guests “correctly,” but officers sometimes clashed in an attempt to occupy the most prestigious places possible, closer to the ruler. They even pushed the women out of their chairs without any qualms.
During the reign of Jonas Sobieski, such hot spots were not allowed to sit at the king’s table at all.
To avoid disputes, round tables were sometimes set up, sometimes guests ate standing up. Some nobles hired a special person to read the guest list and show them the seats at the table.
It was agreed to follow the other rules: everyone knew who was the right one to offer a chair, open the door and the hand on the right hand, before it was necessary to remove the hat, and when it was enough just to nod.
According to experts in the history of food, the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In Europe the French service model prevailed, that is, the servants immediately placed all the dishes on the tables.
A similar procedure appears to have been followed in Vilnius. The custom of serving dishes one after another was established only in the 19th century.
Banquet menu: products and dishes
Judging from various sources, until the seventeenth century. At the beginning of the 19th century, the GDL did not avoid combining different flavors, such as sweet and sour.
Figure LDKistorija.lt / Service of dishes to the table in 1643.
The chefs used many spices and their style was shaped by the tradition of German cuisine. From the 16th century. Italian fashions (through Queen Bonn’s mansion) and oriental fashions (influenced by the Turkish, Crimean and Armenian minorities) spread.
In Europe, there was a kind of coup in the seventeenth century. in between, when the chef’s preferences began to be increasingly influenced by French culinary traditions.
People began to eat less meat dishes, especially seasoned and richly seasoned with spices, than in the Middle Ages. Pure meat was gradually replaced by stews of meat and vegetables.
Sugar, considered an independent dish in the Middle Ages and used in the preparation of meat, is now more commonly used in the manufacture of confectionery products. The motto of the “new wave”, as today, was naturalness and freshness.
However, in the kitchen of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania until the 18th century. the end of the 19th century was dominated by meat and the influence of French cuisine remained relatively small. The nobles ate mainly beef, veal, and poultry.
This is what Stanislovas Radvila, the GDL cutter, ate in 1783. January 15: For lunch: soup with various spices and meatballs, a piece of lamb fried on a spit, red cabbage with jerubas, fried chicken with sauce of fried mushrooms and fried rooster; for dinner: broth, prunes, soft-boiled eggs, and fried chicken.
And at parties, one of the most popular dishes was bigos, a cabbage and minced meat stew.
Sliding into festive tables, today’s human gaze would probably stop at caviar bowls – caviar a couple of hundred years ago was completely inexpensive. Parmesan-type cheeses were produced in Vilnius and the outskirts of the capital.
Jerusalem on the table
The hosts of the parties often surprised the guests with the abundance of food, shapes and, as we would say now, ideas.
17th century in the first half, Paul John Sapiega’s servants brought to the tables four large roasted wild boars, symbolizing the seasons, twelve roast deer (months), 365 sweet cakes (days).
In addition, 52 silver wine barrels were uncovered (weeks) and 8,700 liters of mead were delivered (both hours a year) to the servants of the manor.
At the party of Mikalojus Kristupas Radvila of the Vilnius Voivodeship, three giant pâtés were presented, which the Duke shouted: “Gentlemen to attack!”
And when he removed the hat of the first, a flock of live partridges, crickets, pigeons and thrushes flew off the post. And that’s not all.
Radvila’s chefs made rocks, an almond palace with grills, and fortifications with baked goods. According to a witness, a “Jerusalem-like image” was seen, and sugar crusaders with red crosses on their capes stood on the walls.
It should be added that in those days pâtés were highly valued and many times it was based on them so they decided the level of the host’s cuisine. The patés master was an extremely honorable specialty.
He made meat patés, vegetables, fish, cheese. He always baked in batter and didn’t skimp on spices. Patés are served both hot and cold, both as a main course and as an appetizer.
Find more historical texts on the page ldkistorija.lt
[ad_2]
