Portal:Lithuania
Welcome to the Lithuania Portal — Sveiki atvykę į Lietuvos Portalą
Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, and the Russian semi-exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast to the southwest, with a maritime border with Sweden to the west. Lithuania covers an area of 65,300 km2 (25,200 sq mi), with a population of 2.89 million. Its capital and largest city is Vilnius; other major cities include Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai and Panevėžys. Lithuanians who are the titular nation and form the majority of the country's population, belong to the ethnolinguistic group of Balts and speak Lithuanian.
For millennia, the southeastern shores of the Baltic Sea were inhabited by various Baltic tribes. In the 1230s, Lithuanian lands were united for the first time by Mindaugas, who formed the Kingdom of Lithuania on 6 July 1253. Subsequent expansion and consolidation resulted in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which by the 14th century was the largest country in Europe. In 1386, the Grand Duchy entered into a de facto personal union with the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. The two realms were united into the bi-confederal Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569, forming one of the largest and most prosperous states in Europe. The Commonwealth lasted more than two centuries, until neighbouring countries gradually dismantled it between 1772 and 1795, with the Russian Empire annexing most of Lithuania's territory.
Towards the end of World War I, Lithuania declared independence in 1918, founding the modern Republic of Lithuania. In World War II, Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union, then by Nazi Germany, before being reoccupied by the Soviets in 1944. Lithuanian armed resistance to the Soviet occupation lasted until the early 1950s. On 11 March 1990, a year before the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union, Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to break away when it proclaimed the restoration of its independence. (Full article...)
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Mindaugas (German: Myndowen, Latin: Mindowe, Old East Slavic: Мендог, romanized: Mendog, Belarusian: Міндоўг, romanized: Mindowh, Polish: Mendog; c. 1203 – 12 September 1263) was the first known Grand Duke of Lithuania and the only crowned King of Lithuania. Little is known of his origins, early life, or rise to power; he is mentioned in a 1219 treaty as an elder duke, and in 1236 as the leader of all the Lithuanians. The contemporary and modern sources discussing his ascent mention strategic marriages along with banishment or murder of his rivals. He extended his domain into regions southeast of Lithuania proper during the 1230s and 1240s. In 1250 or 1251, during the course of internal power struggles, he was baptised as a Roman Catholic; this action enabled him to establish an alliance with the Livonian Order, a long-standing antagonist of the Lithuanians. By 1245, Mindaugas was already being referred to as "the highest king" in certain documents. During the summer of 1253, he was crowned king, ruling between 300,000 and 400,000 subjects, and got nicknamed as Mindaugas the Sapient by the Livonians.
While Mindaugas's ten-year reign as king was marked by many state-building accomplishments, his conflicts with relatives and other dukes continued. The western part of Lithuania – Samogitia – strongly resisted the alliance's rule. His gains in the southeast were challenged by the Tatars. He broke peace with the Livonian Order in 1261, possibly renouncing Christianity, and was assassinated in 1263 by his nephew Treniota and another rival, Duke Daumantas of Pskov. His three immediate successors were assassinated as well. The disorder was not resolved until Traidenis gained the title of grand duke c. 1270. (Full article...)
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Did you know -

- ...that Lithuanian book smugglers transported Lithuanian language books printed in the Latin alphabet into Lithuanian-speaking areas of the Russian Empire, defying a ban on such materials in force from 1864 to 1904?
Romualdas Marcinkus - ...football champion Romualdas Marcinkus (pictured) was the only Lithuanian pilot to serve in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War?
- ...Vilnius University is the oldest university in Eastern Europe?
- ... that the Church of St. Jacob, which had been used for centuries by Prussian Lithuanians in Klaipėda, was demolished by soldiers of the Soviet Armed Forces using tanks in 1959?
- ... that after being arrested for organizing a general strike in 1920, S. Girinis was sent to the Soviet Union following a Soviet-Lithuanian exchange of political prisoners?
- ... that one of the founders of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party, Andrius Domaševičius, had his own private gynecology practice, treating poor women free of charge?
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Topics
Military of Lithuania
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Public holidays in Lithuania | |||
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Date | English name | Local name | Remarks |
1 January | New Year's Day | Naujųjų metų diena | |
16 February | Day of Restoration of the State of Lithuania (1918) | Lietuvos valstybės atkūrimo diena | |
11 March | Day of Restoration of Independence of Lithuania (1990) | Lietuvos nepriklausomybės atkūrimo diena | |
Moveable Sunday | Easter Sunday | Velykos | Commemorates resurrection of Jesus. The first Sunday after the full moon that occurs on or soonest after 21 March. |
The day after Easter Sunday | Easter Monday | Antroji Velykų diena | |
1 May | International Workers' Day | Tarptautinė darbo diena | |
First Sunday in May | Mother's Day | Motinos diena | |
First Sunday in June | Father's Day | Tėvo diena | |
24 June | St. John's Day / Day of Dew | Joninės / Rasos | Celebrated according to mostly pagan traditions (Midsummer Day, Saint Jonas Day). |
6 July | Statehood Day | Valstybės (Lietuvos karaliaus Mindaugo karūnavimo) ir Tautiškos giesmės diena | Celebrates the 1253 coronation of Mindaugas, the first King of Lithuania, and the national anthem of Lithuania. |
15 August | Assumption Day | Žolinė (Švenčiausios Mergelės Marijos ėmimo į dangų diena) | Also marked according to pagan traditions, celebrating the goddess Žemyna and noting the mid-August as the middle between summer and autumn. |
1 November | All Saints' Day | Visų šventųjų diena | Halloween is increasingly popular and is also informally celebrated on the eve (31 October). |
2 November | All Souls' Day | Mirusiųjų atminimo (Vėlinių) diena | |
24 December | Christmas Eve | Kūčios | |
25 and 26 December | Christmas Day | Kalėdos | Commemorates birth of Jesus. |
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