I returned from a 5 day visit to the wonderful country of Lithuania yesterday where I was visiting Vilnius, and more interestingly, the alternative post-folk and contemporary heathen culture festival Menuo Juodaragis (Black Horned Moon) in Zarasai.

First of all, Vilnius is a lovely little town with a ridiculous amount of churches. Religion is rather prominent in the city I would say. Having switched from Pagan to Catholicism, back to Pagan, to Russian Orthodox, with some more steps in between, they built a lot of churches.

Lithuanians are a nice bunch of people, they’re very friendly and helpful. Most young people speak English, but it was still a bit of a culture shock to be in a country where you don’t understand a single word (last time I had that was in Ghana). Lithuanian girls a very pretty: tall, long hair, deep blue or green eyes. Lithuanian women (35+) kind of lose that, how does that work?

Zarasai is about 150 km northeast of Vilnius, though it took 3,5 hours to get there. Somehow roads in eastern Europe are always under construction. The countryside consists mainly of forest, moors, and lakes. Very serene. The festival itself took place on an island in a big lake.

But enough babbling, just take a look at my pictures!

Ačhū!

Sorry, dutch only.

Sommige spam is best leuk. Ik houd persoonlijk erg van de Nigeriaanse 419 scams hoewel die niet zoveel meer langskomen. De laatste tijd zijn het ‘eenzame oost-europese meisjes’. Vandaag kreeg ik deze bijvoorbeeld:

“Hoi. Mijn naam is Natalia. Ik eenzame meisje zonder schadelijke gewoonten. ik 29 jaar. Ik zoek een man van 32 jaar voor ernstige relaties. mijn e-mail het gemakkelijker voor mij. Ik kan sturen brief en de foto elkaar. Natalia”

2 months ago I found out about this festival in Lithuania by clicking through obscure music genres in Wikipedia. I did not have any other real holiday plans, so I decided to make this my summer destination. Some details:

• Mėnuo Juodaragis is the festival of contemporary Baltic culture representing the heritage of heathen tradition, Baltic culture revival, post-folk currents and avant-garde of contemporary music
• At the Big Oak: 19.30 – Opening rites. The opening rites will be performed at a mighty oak on the Northern cape, where an altar will flare up.
• NO showers or lavatories in the island, – but there will be plenty of water in the lake. And we think that as long as this fest is pagan, clear lake is enough to stay clean and refreshed.
• The beer of the Festival “TAURAS” will cost 1,5 EUR per pint.
• The entire festival area will be guarded throughout the Festival by a professional security service, a motorbike-club and other personnel. (Post-soviet motorbike-club, that certainly will fit right in with the hippies!)
• Football tournament, and a beach volleyball area is also available. (That seems really off somehow)
  

Yes, I will bring my camera, and yes, I will make a lot of pictures.

See some pictures of last year’s Menuo Juodaragis. Music by Sieben.