Romuva is a modern revival of the indigenous Baltic religion practiced by the Lithuanian peoples prior to Christianization. An expert is someone widely recognized as a reliable source of knowledge, technique, or skill whose judgment is accorded authority and status by the public or their peers. ... The Baltic Sea The Balts or Baltic peoples (Latvian: balti, Lithuanian: baltai), defined as speakers of one of the Baltic languages, a branch of the Indo-European language family, are descended from a group of Indo-European tribes who settled the area between lower Vistula and upper Dvina and Dneper. ... St Francis Xavier converting the Paravas: a 19th-century image of the docile heathen Ansgar, the 9th century apostle of the North in an 1830 drawing. ...

The terms Romuva, Romovė and Ruomuva are derived from the Old Prussian word, for "temple" or "sanctuary". Old Prussian is an extinct Baltic language spoken by the inhabitants of the area that later became East Prussia (now in north-eastern Poland, Lithuania and the Kaliningrad oblast of Russia) prior to Polish and German colonization of the area beginning in the 13th century. ... The Akshardham Hindu temple, Delhi, India The word temple has different meanings in the fields of architecture, religion, geography, anatomy, and education. ... Sanctuary has multiple meanings. ...

Romuva was the recognized state religion of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, until 1387. Romuva and the closely related Latvian indigenous religion Dievturi were the longest enduring pagan religions in Europe. Latvia and Lithuania were amongst the last nations to be christianized in Europe. The presumable banner of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with the coat of arms, called Пагоня in Belarusian, Vytis in Lithuanian and Pogoń in Polish Another version of the Lithuanian banner The Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Lithuanian: Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė, Belarusian: Вялі́кае Кня́ства Літо́ўскае (ВКЛ), Ukrainian: Велике Князівство Литовське (ВКЛ), Polish: Wielkie Księstwo Litewskie) was an... Events June 2 - John Holland, a maternal half-brother of Richard II of England, is created Earl of Huntingdon. ... Pagan may refer to: A believer in Paganism or Neopaganism. ...

There are adherents of Romuva all over the world, but the religion primarily exists in Lithuania and the former Eastern Bloc nations. Romuva has close ties with sentiments of Lithuanian and Baltic nationalism. Lithuanian ancestry is not a prerequisite to acceptance by the Romuva religious community. Practicing the Romuva faith is seen by many adherents as a form of cultural pride, along with celebrating traditional forms of art, retelling Baltic folklore, practicing traditional holidays, playing traditional Baltic music, singing traditional dainas or hymns & songs as well as ecological activism and stewarding sacred places. Eastern bloc During the Cold War, the Eastern Bloc (or Soviet Bloc) comprised the following Central and Eastern European countries: Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Poland, Albania (until the early 1960s, see below), the Soviet Union, and Czechoslovakia. ... // Nationalism is an ideology that holds that (ethnically defined) nations are the fundamental units for human social life, and makes certain cultural and political claims based upon that belief; in particular, the claim that the nation is the only legitimate basis for the state, and that each nation is entitled... Ecology is the branch of science that studies the distribution and abundance of living organisms, and the interactions between organisms and their environment. ...

Beliefs

Romuva is a polytheistic pagan faith which asserts the sacrality of nature as well as the practice of ancestor veneration. Adherents of Romuva believe that the soul of those who die continues to exist in the afterlife and stays with the living family and descendants. Polytheism stevenis gay, or worship of, multiple gods or divinities. ... Paganism (from Latin paganus) and Heathenry are catch-all terms which have come to connote a broad set of spiritual/religious beliefs and practices of a natural religion, as opposed to the Abrahamic religions. ... In various religions, sacred (from Latin, sacrum, sacrifice) or holy, objects, places or concepts are believed by followers to be intimately connected with the supernatural, or divinity, and are thus greatly revered. ... The deepest visible-light image of the universe, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. ... Ancestor worship, also ancestor veneration, is a religious practice based on the belief that ones ancestors possess supernatural powers. ... The soul, according to many religious and philosophical traditions, is a self aware ethereal substance particular to a unique living being. ... The afterlife (or life after death) is a generic term referring to a continuation of existence, typically spiritual and experiential, beyond this world, or after death. ...

Rituals

The Baltic aukuras or "fire altar" is a stone altar in which a fire is ritually lit. Participants wash their hands and face prior to approaching the aukura, and then they sing dainas or ritual hymns as the fire is lit. Food, drink, grasses and flowers are offered to the flame as the group sings the dainas. After the primary offering, participants offer their own verbal or silent contributions which are carried to the Gods and ancestors with the smoke and sparks of the flame. It has been suggested that Firetending be merged into this article or section. ...

Romuva deities

• Laima
• Žemyna
• Perkūnas
• Dievas
• Velnias

In Latvian mythology and Lithuanian mythology, Laima (luck; also Laime, Laimas māte) was the personification of fate and of luck, both good and bad. ... Lithuanian PerkÅ«nas, Latvian PÄ“rkons, Prussian Percuns was the common Baltic god of thunder, one of the most important deities in the Baltic pantheon. ... Dievas (sometimes Praamžius or Okopirmas in folklore) is the god of the sky, lightness, peace and friendship in Lithuanian mythology. ...

Soviet suppression of Romuva

The Soviet Union forcefully annexed Lithuania in 1940 and renamed it the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. Due to the nationalist nature of Romuva, the faith was suppressed during the Soviet Occupation and many practitioners were executed or deported to slave labor camps in Siberia. A clandestine Romuva group is known to have existed within a labor camp in Inta, Russia. After the members were released and returned to Lithuania around 1960, Jonas Trinkūnas(1939-) formed the Vilnius Ethnological Ramuva and began organizing public celebrations of traditional Lithuanian religious holidays in 1967. In 1971 the Soviets expelled the members from the university they attended and exiled the leaders. 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... State motto: Visų Å¡alių proletarai, vienykitÄ—s (Workers of all countries, unite) Official language Lithuanian, Russian (de facto). ... Siberia Siberia (Russian: , common English transliterations: Sibir’, Sibir; from the Tatar for “sleeping land”) is a vast region of Russia and northern Kazakhstan constituting almost all of northern Asia. ... 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1971 calendar). ...

During the Cold War most organized Romuva activity was largely based in North America. However, by 1988 when the power of the Soviet Union was waning and Lithuanian independence was on the horizon, Romuva groups began reorganizing in the Baltic nations and practicing their religion in the open. Under the auspices of the Law on Religious Communities and Associations which was passed in Lithuania in 1995, Romuva gained recognition as a "non-traditional" religion. Lithuanian law requires a minimum 25 years of existence before such a religion can receive the state support reserved for "traditional" religions. The Cold War was the protracted geostrategic, economic, and ideological struggle that emerged after World War II between the global superpowers of the Soviet Union and the United States, supported by their respective and emerging alliance partners. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

See also

• Lithuanian Mythology
• History of Lithuania

Lithuanian mythology is an example of pagan mythology containing archaic elements. ... // Before statehood Baltic tribes The first Lithuanians, or Liths, were a branch of an ancient group known as the Balts, whose tribes also included the original Prussian and Latvian people. ...

External links

• Neopaganism in Central-Eastern Europe
• Sacred Serpent Romuva-Canada
• Lithuanian Mythology and Religion
• Lietuvos Romuva
• World congress of Ethnic Religions: Romuva