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– What should have been the bouquets of herbs that the women, who had come to one of the houses at night, were engaged in tying?
– Oooo … First of all, the bouquets were big in those days, definitely not as symbolic as they are now. Because there had to be many of those consecrated meadows of the orchard and the orchard, for all occasions. Medicinal plants must have been among them, since people believed that the plants consecrated through the Grass had greater healing powers. They themselves cured these plants and gave them to sick animals.
Herbal was a special holiday for the ancient Lithuanians, the planning of which began at Easter. The women ran to the sink and asked who would gather in the Grass, who would bring what.
They also used incense to the sick, to smoke the animals that were being herded for the first time. They put them in the bread that they fed the horses so that the grazing was successful. And cows were given to give more milk. And young animals were not forgotten: grow successfully, do not get sick. And in Suwalki, Dzūkija, and eastern Lithuania, these grasslands were even placed on the deceased’s cushion or coffin. In addition to the herbs already mentioned, the herb bouquet had to contain cereals: oats and rye. Because oats were important to the horse that worked on the land and rye was important to feed the family. The women also ate barley, flax, buckwheat, and peas. In a word, everything that helped the old Lithuanian family to be whole and live on the tributary. By the way, from the cereal branch, the consecrated grains were filled into the hopper, and the fields were scattered through them for sowing so that the future harvest would be good.
– You mentioned that the Dzūkė women also added vegetables and fruits to the bouquets of Žolinė. Was there such a tradition also in other regions of Lithuania?
– Oh no. Only in Dzūkija. However, Dzūkai also called this holiday cabbage, and women liked to put a small cabbage in a bouquet. In the twigs of the hazelnut, both apples and pears were soaked. In a word, everything that was found in the garden and orchard at that time was placed in the herb bouquet: cherries, plum twigs, bean stalks. After church, sitting at the table, the fruit was generally shared with the whole family (cut into as many parts as there were people in the family) and the soup was cooked with the vegetables. The distribution of food, their eating together symbolized family harmony, health.
Photo by Rimgaudas Žaltauskas
By the way, I heard a very interesting superstition about those apples. It was believed that women could not eat unholy fruits until the Herbal. And if the mothers had dead children (in the old days it was quite common), they also couldn’t eat apples until Herbal. Because on the day of the grass, when Mary in heaven divided the apples for the children, the elders mated, the angel whose mother did not suffer and ate the apples from the earth, and they did not receive them. In the herb bouquet, women also put a stalk of dill and pricked a cucumber on a stick. And then, with those consecrated dill, they soured cucumbers for the winter. If there was a poppy branch in the bouquet, it was added to the poppy milk during Christmas. In a word, every intelligent woman used bouquets of grassland everywhere so that the family, animals and the farm would have more benefits.
– I had to read that the girls wove and wore wreaths of nine different plants to church during Herbal. Was there really such a tradition?
– In my head, those herbs and crowns are mixed with the Ninth Feast, which is celebrated on the ninth weekend after Easter. In Samogitia, nine wreaths were woven for the Ninths and hung in the church, or nine different meadows were placed in wreaths across the Jonines. I think the magic number is more characteristic of those celebrations, but not of Žoline. The same goes for superstition: “If you don’t have a bouquet in your hand through the Grass, the devil will stick his tail in you.” It is a verb, not a bunch of herbs.
In those days, bouquets were large, certainly not as symbolic as they are now. Because there had to be many of those consecrated meadows of the orchard and the orchard, for all occasions.
– Many Lithuanians know perfectly well why they celebrate Christmas and Easter. But surely not everyone will say what celebration Herbal really is. Do you agree that this is the least known of all the state religious holidays for Lithuanians?
– Well yeah … We know our knowledge is falling somewhere in Grass (laughs). And we have it because the Christian tradition celebrates the grace of God: the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is a mandatory holiday for practicing Catholics. It is said that after the death of Mary, the mother of Jesus, the apostles stood guard at her tomb in Jerusalem. Peter saw Mary rise from the dead and the Lord took her to heaven. When the coffin was opened for inspection, the apostles no longer found the body of Mary, there were only many beautiful flowers in the coffin. That is why bouquets of flowers are tied across the Grass and celebrated in the church. “And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” Thus, the apostle John describes the Sunny Woman seen in the visions. 1950 Pope Pius XII proclaimed the belief that Mary was taken to heaven with body and soul as dogma.
– On August 15, the Festival of Herbs will take place throughout Lithuania. For a long time, indulgences for people are not just a religious holiday, but also a long-watched congress of relatives, all staying together.
– Really so. The congress of all the relatives, and then the long communication at the party table, is another important accent of the herbalists. There was even a saying in Varėna that if you didn’t come to celebrate through Herbal, it would still be scared. There is another saying, already very summarized: “He who does not publish through the Grass will have nothing for the rest of his life.” From what I read in the museum books, the Herbal was a special holiday for the ancient Lithuanians, whose planning started during Easter. The women ran to the sink and asked who would gather in the Grass, who would bring what. And in Aukštaitija, Žoline was even specially made from pork or mutton. Great parties were prepared. Everyone who was alive and could tremble was preparing for them. In a word, the herbalists of those days prepared almost like Christmas.
Photo by Rimgaudas Žaltauskas
“And where did those women put the bouquets of consecrated flowers in their house church?”
– When they got home, they dried up. Then they divided it into several parts, and everywhere they consecrated those consecrated twigs: for the sacred paintings, I bought for the beam. There was still a barn and a barn. So that the house is not struck by lightning. To keep every corner of the cabin safe. By the way, last year’s herb bouquet had to be burned in an oven; there was no way to throw it away. Written sources also mention that the children received gifts on the occasion of the Herbal. This is the kind of bunny cake my parents promised to find on the way home or what kind of candy they bought in Kermos.
In Christian tradition, the herb is called the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And the popular name of this festival, Herbal, took root because the grasslands were celebrated during the solemn mass of the festival. And the bouquet of those herbs had to be something more than the garden or the garden. It was necessary to find a place in the bouquet and herbs. And the most necessary is already necessary: wormwood or bitter starch. Green, undried, has a very pleasant aroma, has a beautiful appearance: it blooms with such small, yellow flowers. Lithuanians used it to drive worms and treat stomach ailments. With the same absinthe, you could get another moth out of the closet.
In Samogitia common thorns or rootstocks were also added to the herb branch. It was believed that it could protect itself from evils. By the way, the herb has been prescribed by doctors for a long time “from the beat of the heart”, to make it beat evenly. And the Samogitian men put the thorn in their jacket pocket and were very proud of it like a man in a bouquet of grass.
It was still believed in Lithuania that without the common hardwood, which grows on the roadsides, bushes, garbage, no branch of grass will be “consecrated”. At least women who lived in the 20th century. at first, they told ethnographers and wrote their stories.
– You are a senior museologist at the Lithuanian Folk Museum. Last year, during Žolinė, he introduced Kaunas residents and festival guests to medicinal plants and their healing properties. And which plants would you tie your own bouquet of herbs?
– According to the old Lithuanian tradition, I would put a simple starch, a parsley, a twig of a tree (I grow a tree in my garden). By the way, in Aukštaitija, trees were planted at the gates, so that when a stranger enters, he sweeps his arms and sides and stops all his evil intentions, leaving all evil behind the fence. After all, the fence in the Lithuanian worldview meant the boundary between the two worlds. Therefore, the yew tree was like a custodian of a private courtyard. I would still decorate my bouquet with mint, mockery and phlox, it smells so delicious. And I would add balsamic chamois, lemon catnip. It wasn’t rubbish, but he would necessarily have planted an apple on a hazelnut sprig just to share it with the whole family at home.
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