Vilnius Ethnic Culture Center

Candle making is a traditional handicraft which used to be made by women and children during long winter evenings in the old times. Candles used to be an important and significant source of light. During the candle making workshop, you will learn how to make a candle from bee’s wax in a traditional Lithuanian way.

According to the old Lithuanian worldview, spirits - the souls of relatives who have left us - always live here, among us. Late fall was considered the time of the spirits, when those who are gone get closer to the living. Although the dead were not only remembered between October and November, they were the focus of attention at that time, when the fieldwork is done, the days are shortened and all the nature is no longer alive.

Would you like to learn authentic Lithuanian multipart songs called sutartinės?
Sutartinės are inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2010 and have a meditative character.

We cordially invite both those longing for the spring and the ones, who love winter entertainment, to join a colourful and joyful traditional Lithuanian calendar celebration – The Shrovetide. This year the feast is to be held on the 5^th of March and is going to take place on the Tauras Hill.

As the end of the winter is little by little approaching, it is a perfect chance to explore the traditions of the Shrovetide, a traditional Lithuanian celebration intended to shoo away the winter. Therefore You are kindly invited to visit the exhibition “Since Shrovetide until Shrovetide” to get to know with traditional Shrovetide masks, made by Saulius Tamulis, a significant folk artist from Šiauliai.

The opening of the exhibition – on 25th of February 2019 at 3 p.m. The folk ensemble of traditional craftsmen from Šiauliai region “Margulis” is taking part.

Visitors of the exhibition will not only be able to admire the works by Saulius Tamulis, but will possibly get a little bit frightened of charming attributes of scaring a winter as well.

The collection of masks is to be displayed at the exhibition gallery of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania (53 Gediminas avenue) until the 8th of March.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: each visitor of the exhibition should register by informing us via e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by the 21st of February. Arriving to the event, a visitor must have a personal document.