Family and community are important to Klaipėda State Musical Theater artists. “Human happiness and strong health. If you are healthy, everything will work out, all your dreams will come true,” says soloist Mindaugas Rojus. This is what we wish for everyone on the occasion of the upcoming holidays.
After reading the article, you will find out how theater creators prepare for the holidays: what dishes they prepare and what special ingredients they use to flavor them, and what they value most while waiting for St. Christmas.
Soloist Mindaugas Rojus and violinist Kamilė Rojė in the musical theater orchestra
Work is very intense before the holidays, but we always celebrate Christmas with both family and relatives. How else!
We are trying to show our daughter Leia the ancient Lithuanian traditions – as much as we know them ourselves and as much as our families follow them (for example, hay under the tablecloth of the Christmas table). Memories and respect for the departed are also very important.
Mindaugas’ signature Christmas Eve dish is “herring in bed”: I do everything traditionally, sometimes I mix a layer that must go after it, but it does not spoil the taste. This dish becomes special if I season it with pomegranate seeds. It is important not to spare the mayonnaise! The fatter the better. It’s just a pity that after the holidays the scale starts to scare you, then you have to remember fasting (laughs)…
On the occasion of the upcoming holidays, we wish everyone as much human happiness and good health as possible. If you are healthy, everything will work out, all your dreams will come true. What will happen – what will not happen, but the zemaitis will not perish! Very suitable for the whole of Lithuania!
Soloist Šarūnas Šapalas
We celebrate the holidays at my father’s place in Merkinė, we go together with my brothers and their families. Everyone’s children are still at the age when they are waiting for Santa Claus, so they have to improvise: dress accordingly and play him with a raised voice. During Christmas, we try to follow the traditions and always have twelve dishes on the table. After dinner – traditional gifts. At Christmas, we all go to my grandmother, who also lives in Merkinė, there is always a table full of the most delicious meals. Happy and warm upcoming holidays to everyone!
Theater chief choirmaster Vladimir Konstantinov and director Karina Novikova
We usually celebrate Christmas at home. Vladimir’s children and relatives gather, and sometimes we meet them later. Friends come too. We like having a lot of people at home, but at the same time we don’t want to oblige anyone. Karina usually prepares too many dishes out of enthusiasm. One of them is Karina’s grandmother Žaneta’s beetroot salad – beetroot, garlic, prunes and walnuts. And the other, a bit more exotic, is a goose neck stuffed with mashed potatoes and baked. So when we’re all sated, we usually listen to the turntable and discuss something out loud, because it’s a special pleasure to meet live.
Soloist Šarūnas Juškevičius
I could not say that St. Christmas or New Year is celebrated in my family in a special, original way. The most important emphasis has always been, and still is, being with the dearest people. Of course, to eat deliciously. And my wife Virginia always knew how to do that. And it wasn’t any special dishes. It’s just that everything is made with love, that’s why it’s delicious. When my parents and Virginia’s were alive, we tried to visit them during the holidays. At some on Christmas Eve, at others on Christmas Day. Or invite guests. When we lost them, our grown children – son Povilas and daughter Agnė – took over the initiative. Now we usually gather at their house and we are happy that we all live in the same city and can “get together” without problems.
Due to the specifics of my work, the New Year was often celebrated in an unusual way. For many years, the theater hosted concerts on New Year’s Eve, sometimes two. I was always busy both as a soloist and as a concert host. I arrived home almost in the last minutes of the Old Ones. And often all night long, because after the concert or performance in the theater, there were still private events waiting for them, for which they paid well. Therefore, sometimes I had to raise a glass of champagne at midnight and with complete strangers.
I don’t know what to wish for on the occasion of the upcoming holidays, apart from the usual ones – joy and love. What I want most is peace and spiritual peace. And so that the source of health keeps flowing and does not dry up. I wish that to everyone!
Soloist Loreta Ramelienė and choir artist Arūnas Ramelis
Christmas is the most beautiful and most anticipated holiday in our family, because it is the time when the whole family gathers at home after studies or work: the children return from the capital, we always spend Christmas Eve together, and on Christmas morning, as in childhood, we all go to look for presents from Santa Claus, after the whole family goes to Holy Mass to be filled with spiritual joy, and finally – a festive feast. However, the greatest happiness is simply for the family to be together.
On our holiday table, you will always find dishes with mushrooms we have collected ourselves, because we love mushroom picking. Sometimes a cold dish is born from them, and sometimes a hot one. On the Christmas table, the traditional dishes of Žemaitsa predominate: hemp, chives, but when we go to the husband’s family, we enjoy the traditional and ancient dishes of the Highlands, such as oat porridge, which is unusual for the people of Zema. The young people of the family are happy to taste everything – they are trained to follow traditions from an early age. The Christmas table is unimaginable without the traditional poppy seed cake, and the Christmas lunch without the special family baked ham, which we cook only at home.
We prepare all the dishes only at home: the husband is happy to join in the process, and if he returns earlier, so do the children.
On the occasion of the holidays, we wish that the joy and peace of the newborn baby Jesus will visit everyone’s hearts, so that love, understanding, and peace will prevail. And that we all have hope and a great desire that wars end as soon as possible and that no more innocent people die.
Concertmaster Carmelo Giuseppe Longo and deputy concertmaster of the viola group, education coordinator Monika Longo
The time before the holidays is very busy and difficult for musicians, so after a marathon of work, we really enjoy socializing, being at home and doing nothing. This is the biggest holiday for us!
Cooking before the holidays is like a relaxing ritual for us, when we don’t have to rush anywhere and we can cook chebureks for half a day, or rather an Italian dish very similar to them, Pidoni messinesi. This is a Sicilian (more precisely, Messina) dish. And indeed, when you look at it, it looks like cheburek, but the composition of the dough is somewhat different, and there is no smell of meat in it. This dish came to our family during the first quarantine, when we had to celebrate the holidays at home alone. The most difficult part is probably kneading and rolling the dough. But this is a mandatory step, because the more skillful and thinner you roll out, the crispier and tastier the dough becomes. This vegetarian dish is perfect for Christmas. By the way, the Italians themselves prepare them during the holidays, and sometimes during Christmas. We do not forget our traditional Lithuanian dishes.
That’s what we wish for everyone: make time for each other, take your time to chat, listen, hug… Just be and enjoy!
KVMT inf.
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– 2024-03-30 15:22:43
