Sacrality in ethno-cultural tradition

Abstract

This paper deals with the expression of ethno-cultural traditions in archaic and modern / post-modern times. Based on the work of sociologists, ethnologists, and religious historians, attempts are made to determine the internal functioning patterns of ethnic culture. At the same time, we can find facts and arguments in favour of ethnic cultural vitality based on a support mechanism.
One of the most important, essential traditional ethnic culture-defining features is integrity, manifesting itself as sacredness / sacrality, which in various forms can be found in traditional rural lifestyles, customs, as well as in material and spiritual realms.
The processes of civilization and the expansion of the great religions, modernization and globalization, along with destroying traditional culture, destroyed also its most important connecting integrative link-sacredness. The decline of ethnic culture is associated with the loss of sacredness as its main component. Supporting the vitality and capability of ethnic culture in many cases is associated with the search for and reconstruction of sacredness.
In Lithuania, in the 1960s, the ethno-cultural movement began; it was associated with various old forms of sacredness – symbols, the revival of calendar and family holidays, as well as the revival of the old religion.
In contemporary Lithuania, traditional sacredness is manifested in secular, religious, and modern forms; it is determined by the continuously growing religious pluralism and the old faith acceptance by Lithuania’s population.