Easter celebrations at the Open Air Museum Of Lithuania

Come to the Open Air Museum of Lithuania in Rumsiskes on 9th of April and celebrate Easter Monday with a host of activities for all the family. Enjoy visiting old houses where traditional holiday exhibits are on display and where folk groups are singing, dancing and getting visitors to take part in the activities.

Enjoy playing traditional Easter games such as “Easter golf” and rolling decorated Easter eggs, search for Easter Granny gifts, and decorate your own egg to make a unique Easter gift. Watch traditional Lithuanian lalautojai, going from farm to farm and singing good wishes to all they meet, especially to young girls who, to show their gratitude, give them artistically decorated Easter eggs. Ride on horseback, drive, play on swings or simply enjoy seeing nature awakening – which gives an added charm to this holiday.

In Lithuania Easter is both the most important religious festival of the year, and also the most important secular holiday, and this is fully reflected at the Open Air Museum of Lithuania. The main events at the Museum take place on Easter Monday, and the museum normally has between two and five thousand visitors on that day.

If Easter is a holiday for all the family, then the First Sunday after Easter Sunday, called Atvelykis in Lithuanian, is exclusively a children’s holiday. They decorate eggs, sing, dance, roll decorated eggs, and play other traditional Easter games, following clues around the flower gardens to win a delicious honey cake or chocolates as a prize. Atvelykis will be on 15 April this year, and all of the activities mentioned will take place at the Museum.

About the Museum: The principal exhibits at the Open Air Museum of Lithuania in Rumsiskes (Kaisiadorys District) include dwelling houses, farmstead buildings and works of folk brought from the various regions of Lithuania - Aukstaitija, Zemaitija, Suvalkija and Dzukija, and reassembled in a 175 hectare area, in a beautiful location near the Kaunas Man-made Sea and Praviena rivulet. Some of the buildings are over 200 years old.

The exhibits make visitors aware not just of techniques of housing construction and the tools used in various periods, but also of the way of life. 140 buildings, both rural and urban, are exhibited: the rural buildings are set in a village, whilst the urban buildings are grouped around a square. The farmsteads show fences, wells, and gardens or terraces. Most of the interior exhibits display restored household articles and furniture, clothes, kitchen utensils and tools typically used in particular periods. The Museum also invites weavers, wood carvers, potters and other craftsmen to demonstrate their work to visitors.

The Museum was founded in 1966, but only opened for visitors in 1974. A 6 km walk is required to see all of the exhibits.

The Museum’s collection and individual folk artists’ exhibitions are on display in its exhibition hall.

For more about the Museum and tourism in Lithuania visit: Muziejai.lt / Travel.lt / Tourism.lt.

In Lithuania, there is something that you won’t find anywhere else – a unique culture and preserved traditions.