New Year in the Lithuanian Countryside

I went to Lithuania for winter holidays and was keen on celebrating the New Year in Vilnius by watching a bright spectrum of fireworks. However, New Year festivities in the Lithuanian countryside ended up being much more enjoyable. At first, celebrating in a traditional summer house with no central heating and water but only a well and a fireplace did not seem very tempting. While warming up in sauna, I found out that there are no showers so the only option was to jump into the lake with floating ice. There was no way in the world I was going to do that! Eventually, a notion of being sweaty into the year 2007 won over so I rushed to the freezing lake to wash off. Cooling off after the extreme heat in sauna was really refreshing… As a result, I rushed to icy water even more than once!

Following sauna, we all dressed up in traditional Lithuanian clothes.



Throughout the evening, we feasted, danced, sang, played many games, and exchanged little presents. The game with presents started off with all of us sitting in a circle, pilling up presents in a center and rolling a dice in turn. Once someone rolled out a correct dice combination, he could choose any present from the pile. The game got quite passionate, especially influenced by drinking each time someone won a present. After all presents had owners, it was possible to steal a desired present from anyone, either leaving it to yourself or giving it away. Once everyone had a present, the game was over. On top of all this fun, I still had a chance to admire fireworks. At midnight, we went outside to watch exploding fireworks we brought and drink champagne.