Baltic Pagan Solstice Ritual - Kūčios

Kūčios - the winter solstice - is the time when we say goodbye to the darkness on the longest night of the year and celebrate the return of the Sun - Winter Solstice ritual the Baltic Pagan way: with fire altar, burning of the log and Lithuanian polyphonic songs by “Giedula“.Kūčios is followed by Kalėda –the merry rituals celebrating the rebirth of the Sun, called Saule Motule (Mother Sun).Semantically, the word Kalėda comes from core words:“kalėti” – to be imprisoned, just like the mother earth is imprisoned by the frost, and “kalti” – to forge, hammer, as Perkunas forges the new Sun on the solstice to end the dark time of the year. Eventually, Perkunas (Thor-like God of thunder) becomes the Sun as later in pagan times his cult replaced the Sun worship. He is documented as the God of the sky, thunder, lightning, storms, rain, fire, war, law, order, fertility, mountains, and oak is often associated with the battle: light versus dark, day versus night