Parish festival - Misplaced Pages

A parish festival or parish fair or indulgence feast (Lithuanian: atlaidai; Polish: odpust parafialny) is a local annual festival held by Roman Catholic churches in Poland and Lithuania on a feast day of the patron saint of a given parish. Many of the festivals have long historic traditions that date back to the Counter-Reformation in the 16–17th centuries. Almost every parish has such festival with some churches having several. Participants in these festivals can receive indulgences for themselves and their dead relatives. The festivals include masses, religious processions, performances by church choirs, other music performances and are often accompanied by traditional craft markets. The feasts reinforce local identity and foster a sense of community. Some of the larger festivals, like the Great Žemaičių Kalvarija Festival, last for a week, attract thousands of people, and are major pilgrimage events.

Major parish festivals in Lithuania:

Of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Žemaičių Kalvarija in July (see the Great Žemaičių Kalvarija Festival)
Of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Pivašiūnai and Krekenava in August
Of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Šiluva in September
Of Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn in Vilnius in November
Of Saints Peter and Paul in Vilnius in June
Of Our Lady of Trakai in Trakai in September

References

Thomas, William Isaac; Znaniecki (1918). The Polish Peasant in Europe and America: Monograph of an Immigrant Group. G. Badger. pp. 354, 431.
Ostling, Michael (2011). Between the Devil and the Host: Imagining Witchcraft in Early Modern Poland. Oxford University Press. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-19-958790-2.
^ Liutikas, Darius; Motuzas, Alfonsas (2014). "The Pilgrimage to the Hill of Crosses: Devotional Practices and Identities". In Pazos, Antón M. (ed.). Redefining Pilgrimage: New Perspectives on Historical and Contemporary Pilgrimages. Compostela International Studies in Pilgrimage History and Culture. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. pp. 115–116. ISBN 9781409468257.
^ Liutikas, D (2016). "Indulgence Feasts: Manifestation of Religious and Communal Identity". In Jepson, Allan; Clarke, Alan (eds.). Managing and Developing Communities, Festivals and Events. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 148–164. doi:10.1057/9781137508553_11. ISBN 978-1-137-50855-3.
^ Zdanys, Romualdas (2018-08-31) . "Atlaidai". Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija (in Lithuanian). Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos centras.
Motūzas, Alfonsas (2011). "Atlaidai". In Savoniakaitė, Vida (ed.). Lietuvos etnologijos ir antropologijos enciklopedija (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: Lietuvos istorijos instituto leidykla leidykla. ISBN 978-9955-847-41-0. Retrieved 27 March 2020.

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