Independence Restoration Day

On March 11, 1990, Lithuania's "parliament declared renewed freedom and independence for Lithuania, after the country had been occupied by the Soviet Union since World War II."

The Chicago office of the Consulate General of the Republic of Lithuania posted some photos from yesterday's celebration at Navy Pier.

Habits

Lithuania is "the most stork-dense of all the [E]uropean nations." The stork is the country's national bird. When our family traveled to Europe in 1971, my Dad got very excited each time we saw a stork pair because the birds reminded him of home.

Storks, who used to return to Lithuania after a wintering in Africa, are changing their migration habits. Will they become the seagulls of the European continent?

Near Šiauliai, Lithuania, August 2011. Another stork perches on its nest.

Thanks to my Toronto Cousin for making this photo available to us.

January 13

Here is a documentary about the 1991 Lithuanian uprising: Part One and Part Two.

(In Lithuanian with English subtitles.)

ADDED: The first-person account of Aage Myhre, editor of VilNews.

ALSO ADDED: The BBC report.

Do you recognize anyone ...

... here?

"Why is Vilnius so children-unfriendly?"

Wishing for a Chuck E. Cheese.

The Arrival of the First Wavers

Or, "How Chicago became Lithuania's second capital."

Chicago's Public Television station, WTTW, also addressed the subject in "Lithuanians in Chicago," an episode in its "Chicago Stories" series.

Read more here about the first wavers on Mr. Irene's maternal side of the family.

"Christmas in Siberia, 1942"

The experience of Lithuanian deportees.

See this post for how my family confronted this time frame.

Mushroom hunting is a sport.

"Mushroom hunting is probably Lithuania’s second most popular sport, after basketball."

Many Eastern European countries share a cultural affinity for mushroom picking. Mushroom recipes ripple through Lithuanian cuisine; Lithuanians even bake cookies that look like mushrooms. (There's a recipe in this book.)

I've always been nervous about eating wild mushrooms. I make an exception for morels because it's easy to identify them. Otherwise, I stay away. For example, Danutė—the wife of Mr. Irene's great uncle, Uncle D—used to harvest wild mushrooms in Indiana and Michigan. She then pickled and canned them. Everyone got several Mason jars—filled with the slimy preserving liquid and rubbery mushrooms—each time they visited her. I never tasted them: not even from the jars Danutė gave us on our wedding day. Or from the jars family found squirreled away in Danutė's basement after Danutė died.

I went mushroom picking one time, and I then was accompanying natives who'd been differentiating mushrooms for nearly a generation.

Choosing the wrong mushroom can be deadly.

Door County, Wisconsin, Spring 1978. Get some safety training before you go hunting.

"It's complicated."

Presidential politics and diplomacy are the topics of opinion pieces in Lithuania, too.

Where there once was a Lenin, there now is a Lennon.

I understand the idea inspiring the replacement of Vilnius's statue of Lenin with a statue of Lennon. But it's probably a good thing that it's made of sand.

Sostinės Dienos

The "Sostinės Dienos," or "Capitol Days," end this evening in Vilnius. There are some great photos of Lithuanian food—and accordion players—at the link.

I got a kick out of a T-shirt one vendor wears. It reads (in English), "And your point IS?"

Images ...

... from the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic.

(Via VilNews)