The coat of arms of Lithuania consists of a mounted armoured knight holding a sword and shield, known as Vytis. Since the early 15th century, it has been Lithuania's official coat of arms and is one of the oldest European coats of arms. It is also known by other names in various languages, such as Waikymas, Pagaunė in the Lithuanian language or as Pogonia, Pogoń, Пагоня in the Polish, and Belarusian languages. Vytis is translatable as Chase, Pursuer, Knight or Horseman, similar to the Slavic vityaz. Historically – raitas senovės karžygys or in heraldry – raitas valdovas.
Lithuanian mythology is the mythology of Lithuanian polytheism, the religion of pre-Christian Lithuanians. Like other Indo-Europeans, ancient Lithuanians maintained a polytheistic mythology and religious structure. In pre-Christian Lithuania, mythology was a part of polytheistic religion; after Christianisation mythology survived mostly in folklore, customs and festive rituals. Lithuanian mythology is very close to the mythology of other Baltic nations – Prussians, Latvians, and is considered a part of Baltic mythology.
Maironis was a Lithuanian Roman Catholic priest and the greatest and most-known Lithuanian poet, especially of the period of the Lithuanian press ban. He was called the Bard of Lithuanian National Revival. Maironis was active in public life. However, the Lithuanian literary historian Juozas Brazaitis writes that Maironis was not.
Aušrinė is a feminine deity of the morning star (Venus) in the Lithuanian mythology. She is the antipode to "Vakarinė", the evening star.
Saulė is a solar goddess, the common Baltic solar deity in the Lithuanian and Latvian mythologies. The noun Saulė/Saule in the Lithuanian and Latvian languages is also the conventional name for the Sun and originates from the Proto-Baltic name *Sauliā > *Saulē.
Žemyna is the goddess of the earth in Lithuanian religion. She is usually regarded as mother goddess and one of the chief Lithuanian gods similar to Latvian Zemes māte. Žemyna personifies the fertile earth and nourishes all life on earth, human, plant, and animal. All that is born of earth will return to earth, thus her cult is also related to death. As the cult diminished after baptism of Lithuania, Žemyna's image and functions became influenced by the cult of Virgin Mary.
h₂éwsōs or haéusōs is the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European name of the dawn goddess in the Proto-Indo-European mythology.
Baltic mythology is the body of mythology of the Baltic people stemming from Baltic paganism and continuing after Christianization and into Baltic folklore. Baltic mythology ultimately stems from Proto-Indo-European mythology. The Baltic region was one of the last regions of Europe to be Christianized, a process that began in the 15th century and continued for at least a century afterward. While no native texts survive detailing the mythology of the Baltic peoples during the pagan period, knowledge of such beliefs may be gained from Russian and German chronicles, from later folklore, from etymology and from the reconstructions of comparative mythology.
Pranė Dundulienė, was a Lithuanian ethnographer.
Lithuanian literature concerns the art of written works created by Lithuanians throughout their history.
The national symbols of Lithuania are used in Lithuania and abroad to represent the country and its people, history, culture, and nature. These symbols are seen in official capacities, such as flags, coats of arms, postage stamps, and currency, and in URLs. They appear less formally as recurring themes in literature, art and folk art, heraldry, monuments, clothing, personal decoration, and as the names of parks, bridges, streets, and clubs. The less formal manifestations may be classified as national emblems.
Kazys Bradūnas was a Lithuanian émigré poet and editor. He was born in Kiršai, in the Lithuania District of Ober Ost, a territory occupied by the German Empire.
Antanas Žmuidzinavičius was a Lithuanian painter and art collector.
The Prussian mythology was a polytheistic religion of the Old Prussians, indigenous peoples of Prussia before the Prussian Crusade waged by the Teutonic Knights. It was closely related to other Baltic faiths, the Lithuanian and Latvian mythologies. Its myths and legends did not survive as Prussians became Germanized and their culture extinct in the early 18th century. Fragmentary information on gods and rituals can be found in various medieval chronicles, but most of them are unreliable. No sources document pagan religion before the forced Christianization in the 13th century. Most of what is known about Prussian religion is obtained from dubious 16th-century sources.
Jonas Trinkūnas was the founder of Lithuania's pagan revival Romuva, as well as being an ethnologist and folklorist.
John of the Lithuanian Dukes was Bishop of Vilnius (1519–36) and of Bishop of Poznań (1536–38). He was the bishop when Protestantism was making the first inroads into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and took the first steps in combating it. John was an illegitimate son of Sigismund I the Old, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and his mistress Katarzyna Telniczanka.
Eduards Volters (1856–1941) was a linguist, ethnographer, archaeologist who studied the Baltic languages and culture. He was a long-time professor at the Saint Petersburg University (1886–1918) and Vytautas Magnus University (1922–1934).
Daiva Vaitkevičienė-Astramskaitė is Lithuanian folklorist, Senior Researcher, Department of Oral Folklore of the Lithuanian Institute of Literature and Folklore
Yesterday and Forever is a Lithuanian film created in 1984. This film is a joint creation by the director Gytis Lukšas, singer Veronika Povilionienė and scriptwriter, poet Marcelijus Martinaitis.
Marcelijus Teodoras Martinaitis was a Lithuanian poet, essayist, translator.
