Jonas Vaiškūnas

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Papers by Jonas Vaiškūnas

Cosmological meaning of the "goat ceremony

The article discusses the tradition, practised by Lithuanian shepherds in the early 20th c., of, ... more The article discusses the tradition, practised by Lithuanian shepherds in the early 20th c., of, at the end of the herding season, to perform the “goat ceremony” which was meant to make it snow sooner and end the herding of the livestock. During the ritual one shepherd would climb a tree and say a speech while the other would walk a goat around that tree three times and lift it up. Sometimes the goat would be lifted up by tying it to the top of a bent birch tree. In the early 20th c. this tradition had turned into a sort of entertainment for the shepherds, but the testimony of historical sources on the Baltic tradition of sacrificing a goat at the end of the summer work allows us to look for remnants of this old ritual in the “goat ceremony”. The cartographic method for ethnographic and folkloric data helps us prove the link between the “goat ceremony” and the shepherd song “Eik, oželi, vandenio”. The range of their distribution overlaps, thus we can assume that this is a song that ...

Knowledge on celestial objects around Griškabūdis

The paper focuses on the inhabitants‘ of the old generation of Šakiai District around Griškabūdis... more The paper focuses on the inhabitants‘ of the old generation of Šakiai District around Griškabūdis traditional knowledge on the Moon, the Sun and stars. The paper is based on the 1992 field research carried out interviewing 65 respondents using the specific questionnaire designed to gather data on folk astronomy (Vaiškūnas 1989). The collected material is systemised and analysed based on the data provided by other sources. People‘s knowledge of astronomy in Griškabūdis like in other areas of Lithuania is very fragmentary and manifests itself as memories of the older knowledge possessed by the respondents' parents and grandparents. The fragments of folk astronomy knowledge gathered by Vaiškūnas allow to at least partially determine the type and content of the totality of ancient folk astronomy understanding. Most surviving knowledge of celestial objects is practical, related to breaking time into day and night and keeping track of calendar time as well as forecasting meteorologica...

Nearti dangūs

Periferinės viduržemio ir rytietiškojo zodiako tradicijų formos pagoniškoje Lietuvoje

I have previously presented some evidence concerning the possibility of a Baltic zodiac, document... more I have previously presented some evidence concerning the possibility of a Baltic zodiac, documented by archaeological artefacts and supported by historical sources (Vaiškūnas 2000). It seems clear that such knowledge was imported into the Baltic region from Classical and Medieval cultures to the south. If the Baltic zodiac was a simple copy of the Mediterranean one, it would be of minor interest for the iconography of Baltic constellations, but in the Baltic versions we observe very important differences from the Classical model. In this paper I analyse the relevant traditions in more detail and discuss these differences in the hope that it can offer us valuable information about sky mythology in northern traditions

What hides behind the mask of father Christmas?

The paper focuses on Christmas and Shrovetide traditions and aims to clarify what customs and mea... more The paper focuses on Christmas and Shrovetide traditions and aims to clarify what customs and meanings hide behind the contemporary image of Father Christmas. VAIŠKŪNAS attempts to trace the religious-cosmological origins of Father Christmas or his archaic ancestor as well as to reconstruct the religious content of the cross dressing Christmas-Shrovetide carnival. He does so by looking at the ancient, pre-Christian religion and mythology and especially Christmas carnival customs. The meaning of Christmas rituals and myths is studied in the context of the most important cosmic events of the time, that is, the winter solstice. In the context of the sun rescue myth witnessed in folklore and historical sources, Christmas and Shrovetide carnival is interpreted as a ritual embodiment of the sun rescue myth as well as the recreation of the new order of the world. The hypothesis is supported not only by Lithuanian ethnographic and folklore material, but that of other nations’, too. Masked c...