A year is the time taken for astronomical objects to complete one orbit. For example, a year on Earth is the time taken for Earth to revolve around the Sun. Generally, a year is taken to mean a calendar year, but the word is also used for periods loosely associated with the calendar or astronomical year, such as the seasonal year, the fiscal year, the academic year, etc. The term can also be used in reference to any long period or cycle, such as the Great Year.
Lithuanian is an East Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the official language of Lithuania and one of the official languages of the European Union. There are approximately 2.8 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 1 million speakers elsewhere. Around half a million inhabitants of Lithuania of non-Lithuanian background speak Lithuanian daily as a second language.
Lada and Lado are alleged Slavic deities. Lada was first mentioned around 1405-1412 in the sermons of Lucas of Wielki Koźmin, which warned against worshipping Lada and other gods during spring ceremonies and folk performances. They owe their popularity to Jan Długosz, who in one of his sources recognized Lada as a goddess and in another as a god of war, the Polish equivalent of the Roman god Mars, to Aleksandr Faminstyn, who recognized the word Lada in Russian songs as the goddess of marriage, and to scholar Boris Rybakov, who insisted on recognizing her historicity. However, the vast majority of religious scholars and Slavists reject the historicity of these deities, believing that they owe their divine status to a misunderstanding of the song refrains by medieval scribes.
The coat of arms of Lithuania is 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 Waykimas, 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.
Perkūnas was the common Baltic god of thunder, and the second most important deity in the Baltic pantheon after Dievas. In both Lithuanian and Latvian mythology, he is documented as the god of sky, thunder, lightning, storms, rain, fire, war, law, order, fertility, mountains, and oak trees.
Birutė was the second wife of Kęstutis, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and mother of Vytautas the Great. There is very little known about Birutė's life, but after her death a strong cult developed among Lithuanians, especially in Samogitia.
Vilkija is a town in the Kaunas district municipality, Lithuania. It is located 21 km (13 mi) north-west of Kaunas city municipality, right on the north side of the river Nemunas, the most important river in Lithuania.
Aukštojas Hill is the highest point of Lithuania. It is located in the Medininkai Highlands, Migūnai forestry, approximately 24 kilometres (15 mi) southeast of the capital city of Vilnius. Its elevation was measured in 2004 at 293.84 metres by specialists at the Institute of Geodesy at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, using GPS technology. Previously, Juozapinė Hill, at 292.7 metres, had been considered as the highest point in Lithuania. Aukštojas and Juozapinė are located apprxomately 500 metres from one another.
The Romanian calendar is the Gregorian, adopted in 1919. However, the traditional Romanian calendar has its own names for the months. In modern Romania and Moldova, the Gregorian calendar is exclusively used for business and government transactions and predominates in popular use as well. Nevertheless, the traditional names of the months do appear in some contexts, for instance on ecclesiastical calendars produced by the Romanian Orthodox Church.
The Arabic names of the months of the Gregorian calendar are usually phonetic Arabic pronunciations of the corresponding month names used in European languages. An exception is the Syriac calendar used in Iraq and the Levant, whose month names are inherited via Classical Arabic from the Babylonian and Hebrew lunisolar calendars and correspond to roughly the same time of year.
A Lithuanian personal name, as in most European cultures, consists of two main elements: the given name followed by the family name. The usage of personal names in Lithuania is generally governed by three major factors: civil law, canon law, and tradition. Lithuanian names always follow the rules of the Lithuanian language. Lithuanian male names have preserved the Indo-European masculine endings. These gendered endings are preserved even for foreign names.
Juozas Adomaitis known by his pen name Šernas (1859–1922) was a Lithuanian non-fiction writer. He contributed to the Lithuanian-language newspapers Aušra and briefly served as editor of Varpas. In 1895, he moved to the United States where he worked as editor of the Lithuanian weekly Lietuva. He published about 20 popular science books about biology, ethnology, geography, history of writing.
While many Slavic languages officially use Latin-derived names for the months of the year in the Gregorian calendar, there is also a set of older names for the twelve months that differs from the Latin month names, as they are of Slavic origin. In some languages, such as the Serbian language these traditional names have since been archaized and are thus seldom used.
Ramūnas Karbauskis is a Lithuanian businessman and politician.
The Vilnius Goldsmiths' Workshop was a workshop of goldsmiths in Vilnius, then capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which was established on 23 August, 1495 when Grand Duke Alexander Jagiellon approved its statute. Together with the Vilnius Tailors' Workshop they were the first workshops in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Vladas Nagevičius-Nagius was a Lithuanian brigadier general, physician, archaeologist, museologist. He is the founder of the Vytautas the Great War Museum.
The 2nd Uhlan Regiment, from 1928 known as the 2nd Uhlan Regiment of the Lithuanian Grand Duchess Birutė was founded on 30 October 1920. Its first commander was Colonel Pranas Jackevičius. The regiment had four cavalry, one machine gun and one technical squadrons. The regiment was disbanded on 26 October 1940.
Mikas Petrauskas (1873–1937) was a Lithuanian composer and choirmaster best known as the author of the first Lithuanian opera Birutė (1906). He was an elder brother of the singer Kipras Petrauskas.
Vilnius Vytautas Magnus Gymnasium is a gymnasium in Vilnius, Lithuania. Established in 1915, it became the first Lithuanian-language high school in the city. During the interwar period, the school was one of the key Lithuanian institutions in Vilnius Region which was incorporated into the Second Polish Republic and claimed by Lithuania. Many prominent Lithuanians worked and studied at the school.
