Restoration Day

Today is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the day Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada, about 2005. Toronto Al crafted this stained-glass Vytis.

(Here in Madison, the University Club is commemorating the anniversary with a special menu.)

ADDED: Here is a collection of clips Jonas Mekas filmed as he watched his television set that day.

"Krokodilo Ašaros"

Crocodile tears:

The truth is that crocodiles do not cry because they do not have the lachrymal ducts. The lachrymal ducts are unnecessary for them because they spend most of their time in water. The crocodile’s lachrymal glands produce the secretion that only moisten the eyes when an animal is out of water.

When crocodiles swallow large chunks of meat, their eyes water and it seems that they are crying. Since ancient times, people used to say that crocodiles mourned for their victims in such a way. However, crocodiles are crying because they are swallowing bigger bite than it fits in his mouth from the greed. The crocodiles’ lachrymal glands are close to the throat. Since crocodiles tear off large chunks and swallow it whole, the large chunks push against the lachrymal glands, forcing tears to their eyes in great amount.

It is believed that Roman historian Pliny was the first to explain this idiom in his work Historia Naturalis. Since than, the idiom “crocodile tears” has become the symbol of the insincerity and the fake regret[.]

 (Here's the article in Lithuanian.)

Northern Europe's first "cat café" ...

... opens in Vilnius.

Loose Moose

In Vilnius.

"Putin’s shameless swaggering fits the eighteenth and twentieth centuries far better than it does the nineteenth."

An historical perspective.

There are ethnic Russians living in Lithuania, too.

Anonymous petition asks residents of Klaipėda "to approve the region's accession to the Russian Federation."

ADDED: Here's a map showing the distribution of ethnic Russians in the Baltic States.

Independence Restoration Day

Today is the twenty-fourth anniversary of the day Lithuania's Parliament voted to assert its independence from the Soviet Union.

 

Video of the vote appears here.*

*In Lithuanian. The Lithuanian flag rises at 0:37 and the singing of the national anthem begins at 0:54. Displaying a flag and singing the anthem had been, since 1944, criminal acts.

My Mom (who believes dreams deliver messages) recounts how, during the Soviet Union's 1940-1941 occupation, she dreamed about a day when her mother, Jadzė, climbed to the attic, retrieved a hidden flag, and flew it in defiance. In the woken world, Jadzė died before World War II ended.

The "Citizenship Exception"

Lithuania grants citizenship to an American ice dancer. President Dalia Grybauskaitė's decree makes the skater, Isabella Tobias, eligible to compete for Team Lithuania with her partner, Deividas Stagniūnas, at the Sochi Olympic Games.

"Under existing laws, citizenship by exception can be granted by the president to individuals for special merits, given that they have been integrated with the Lithuanian society."

End-of-Occupation Anniversary

The Soviet army withdrew from Lithuania twenty years ago today.

Let's hope it stays out.

"[T]he last country to convert to Christianity"

That's the fact most Lithuanians recite when asked by foreigners about the meaning of "Lithuanian identity." Or so says a British expat living in Lithuania.
 
The last-country-to-convert narrative is the second thing that comes to my mind. I first think of the distinct language; that's second on this fellow's list.