The Social background of the maskers' plays in Lithuania: the road to modernity

ENThe inhabitants of the village almost up to the First World War formed a quite closed territorial community where the activities of individual members were effectively controlled by the public opinion of the village. The latter made the members of the community keep within certain norms of behaviour, which were, in their turn, directed to the codification, preservation and handing down of the information which was important to all the inhabitants of the village, to the younger generations. Even in the relatively late tradition of the first half of the 20th century the villagers of all age groups took care of the performance of the rites. As mentioned above, most of the calendar customs functioned in the shape of the village community’s agrarian rituals up to the very end of the 19th century. [p. 30].