I started school on Monday, and have had oh so little time to write, but I wanted to share this little piece of Lithuanian history from class today with you. This year marks the 1000 year anniversary of the first time Lithuania was mentioned in European texts. There were events celebrating this in Chicago before I left, Lithuania has been abuzz all year, and this week, Vilnius has 40,000 visitors singing or dancing in Dainu Svente (Song Fest) to commemorate this anniversary. It's a big deal.
So, Lithuanians were Pagan for a lot longer than other Europeans, and here's why. 1000 years ago, when the first Catholic missionaries came to Lithuania to convert the Pagans, the Lithuanians killed them all. Yep, and therefore
Lithuania was mentioned in European texts. Because we killed a bunch of Catholic missionaries. Hey, I mean, it was a pretty big victory. We got to keep our Thunder god for another 368 years before Mindaugas wanted to be King and needed the Pope's blessing to do it. As Andrius pointed out when we were discussing this at dinner, "everybody pays attention to crime news. If the Lithuanians had baked a pie for the missionaries, we wouldn't have made it into the books." Good point.
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