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The meaning of the cross then
Samogitia is a land of ancient crosses and chapels. Here you will not find a town without a chapel or a cross. In the past, people here built them on all kinds of occasions, like asking for God’s health, a good harvest. Also in difficult life situations, during war or illness, people often promised: if they survive, they will build a cross.
They also built them before important events. This happened just before the war, in 1940 in the village of Kumpikai, Kretinga district. All the people gathered here to build a cross, which still adorns the center of the town.
Double crosses, also known as Jotvingian crosses, were believed to protect against floods, storms, disease, and other disasters.
The crosses with two crosses arrived in Lithuania in the 17th century. At first they were used by the clergy as a sacred symbol, then they began to be built out of wood and by the common people.
Double crosses, also known as Jotvingian crosses or soldiers, were believed to protect against floods, storms, disease, and other disasters.
The cross was carried by five horses.
This year Angela Kontrimienei turns 85 Having survived the war and the cold land of Siberia, the woman perfectly remembers the whole story of the symbol of the Kumpikai people: the ancient cross.
Photo by Gabrielė Navickaitė / Angela Kontrimienė
In 1940, a local marksman, Angelė’s father, Feliksas Jonkus, found a cross in the center of the village. The cross, carved by a centennial oak carpenter, making it twenty meters high is a solid oak trunk.
The cross made from the neighboring town was brought by the Kumpikai people with five horses. Whoever contributed, if they could not transport, did not build, ate for those who worked.
Photo by G.Navickaitė / Hammer Cross
During the bombardment, everyone ran to the cross to pray
“There was a close front, the Germans withdrew. When the planes began to divide, also the sound, my mother and I ran towards the cross, holding hands”, Angelė smiled.
Fleeing with her mother to the cross, still a little girl, Angel found herself there throughout her village. The assembled people prayed and waited for the bombing to end. Therefore, during this war, the cross became a meeting place for common prayer for this people.
Soviets ordered demolition
This cross was a symbol not only of Christianity, but also of a united rural community, so the Soviet government in Kretinga at the time did not like it very much. Authorities repeatedly told the president of the collective farm to find someone who could demolish him. However, no matter how much they looked for volunteers, people didn’t even come for the money.
“They asked the locals, and it was so important to us that no one dared to do evil either against God or against the neighbors,” said a woman who was only slightly older than the town’s famous cross.
Authorities repeatedly told the president of the collective farm to find someone who could demolish him.
The angel does not even imagine how this symbol of the village’s faith could have been demolished by its own inhabitant. Thus, the cross, which had endured Soviet rule, remained standing until now.
Everyone from Siberia returned alive
The people of the Kumpikai village believe that they were protected from the cross by all the Soviet war and horrors. “We took many of us out, but we all came home, healthy and alive,” Angel said slowly and confidently.
The woman believes that prayers and a cross will protect her people, so success is with her. Grandma remembers how all the villagers, whenever they could, gathered to sing hymns and pray together near the cross.
In the past, men raised their hats, women bowed
In the past, people were extremely religious and highly respected crosses, the woman says. As they passed, all the men took off their hats and the women bowed their heads. This is how I grew up, “Angelė smiled.
From time to time she still goes to pray with some rural women to sing it on the cross. Although times change, the cross is still cared for: the flowers are planted every year, the atmosphere is maintained, if the cross fades, it is repainted.
Photo by G.Navickaitė / Hammer Cross
The woman thinks that when the old generation is gone, someone will take care of her, because it is not only a religious symbol, but also a legacy of the community of this town of the last century.
People around the world believe in various things: holy water, holy stone, holy wall, sculpture and the inhabitants of the Kumpikai village with its wooden cross. To show their uniqueness, people described and sang all these objects, just like the Samogitians: the cross.
“Kozn finds health at home, who builds the cross and stops the glory for himself. Because there is nothing bad that can be done to them, but all the bad happens,” is the line of the 19th century. Samogitianos Hymns. This, like the others, rang out at Hammer Cross during the war.
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