The most important Winter festivals commenced when the farm chores had been completed—from November through the middle of January. In order to ensure a plentiful harvest for the next year, certain rituals, representing fortune and plenty, were performed. The most important Winter festival is Christmas, celebrated just before the New Year. The four-week period of Advent preceding Christmas is a time of staidness and reflection, and the rituals and songs of Advent and Christmas reflect that mood. Songs can be identified by their refrains. Christmas songs, for example, contain vocables such as kalëda, lëliu kalëda; oi kalëda kalëdzieka, while Advent songs contain vocables such as leliumoj, aleliuma, aleliuma rûta, aleliuma loda and others. There are certain melodic differences as well. Songs of Advent and Christmas are the most long-lived in Lithuania and are still sung today in the southeastern area of Dzûkija.
Christmas songs are usually thematically related to upcoming weddings, relationships between young people and family members. Songs are rich in associations and parallelisms--human relationships are portrayed through images of birds and plants. This parallel imagery creates a branch-like structure in these songs.
There are several typical melodic characteristics associated with Christmas ritual songs, such as a narrow range, three-measure phrases, dance rhythms, a controlled slow tempo, and a tonal structure based on phrygian, mixolydian or aeolian tetrachords.

Shrove Tuesday songs are quite unique. They depict the most important moments of the Shrovetide ritual: the battle of Spring with a Winter unwilling to yield, boisterous banquets, abundant and satiated Nature in anticipation of an abundant year. Movement, such as riding sleighs through the fields, often accompanies them to evoke a good harvest. The songs are usually performed in a unique "shouting" singing style. Shrovetide songs have survived only in the eastern part of Lithuania, in the regions of Ðvenèionys, Adutiðkis and environs.
Since riding to and fro was such an important Shrove Tuesday ritual, it is distinctly reflected in the songs. Reference is made to horses, steeds, riding through fields. There are also some ballad-like songs, such as the one about the young soldier who fell off his steed. Another important Shrove Tuesday ritual was the parade of masqueraders. Special songs, such as beggar songs, accompany the parade.
Most Shrovetide songs are recitative-like and their melodies contain the most archaic ritual melodic characteristics. 

Songs of Lent also belong to the Winter cycle. They were sung between Shrove Tuesday and Easter, when Church canon forbade weddings, dancing and singing. Just as during Advent, all were to observe a strict fast, pray and repent. During this time folks sang sad songs, reminiscent of laments. They usually told a story with a tragic ending, such as the ballads found in many cultures about black crows, a king who perished in the hunt, or an orphan weeping at his mother's grave. Most of the melodies are very similar, related to archaic work songs, and especially to laments.

The festivals and rituals of Spring and Summer are associated with reawakening and the flourishing of nature. The most important days of this cycle are Easter, the feasts of St. George, St. John, St. Peter and Pentecost.
Easter rituals in Lithuania stress success and plenty. Some of these rituals are accompanied by special songs. In southeastern Lithuania there is a tradition of walking through the village, greeting neighbors and singing certain songs, called lalavimai (from the word lalëti—to make a racket). Lalavimai were usually performed by men, and the common refrain in these songs was vynelis vyno þaliasai (wine, green wine), a refrain that is only found in lalavimai. Not many songs have been written down which directly reflect the actual ritual of lalavimai. In the ones that do exist the performers complain that their trip was filled with hardships, as they traveled in the dark night through the black mud, asking the landlords for presents. Other lalavimai sing about young people and nuptials. Most lalavimai melodies attest to their ancient origins.

During the Easter celebration and Spring in general, the tradition of swinging on swings was quite widespread (in some places during Shrove Tuesday as well). Swinging has magical powers, which induces everything, flax in particular, to grow more quickly. Very distinctive swinging songs have been collected in northern and eastern Lithuania, urging to push the swing as high as it will go. There are also humorous swinging songs, mocking those who failed to hang a swing and those who refuse to participate. There is an entire repertoire mocking young men. The melodic rhythm of these songs is of particular importance, since it has to do with the movement of swinging. Tonally the swinging songs resemble archaic work songs.

The songs of the feast of St. George are associated with the reawakening of Spring. Some of them reflect ancient beliefs in the magical power of words, such as the special incantation urging to pick up the keys, unlock the earth and release the grass. In eastern Lithuania we encounter intoned shouts, which attest to their use in rituals. The feast of St. George is traditionally related to animal husbandry. On that day the herds are let out to pasture for the first time, accompanied by shepherding songs, which we usually find classified among work songs.
The Spring feast of Pentecost (or Whitsunday in Great Britain) is the celebration of renewal and flourishing greenery. In its traditions we encounter remnants of pagan beliefs in the magical power of plants. It is also the shepherds' day of festivity, during which they adorn their herds in green wreaths and indulge in food and drink. Before and after Pentecost, tradition demanded that everyone "visit" the crops. Songs called paruginës (from the word rugiai—rye) associated with this tradition can still be encountered in eastern Lithuania. They were sung by women, who walked through the fields in groups, "visiting" the crops. They sang of the cornflower, of the picking of hops, about relations between daughters-in-law and mothers-in-law, and in some there is reference to the actual "visiting."

There are not many songs accompanying the feast of St. John which have survived. Those songs that have been written down make passing reference to the feast, although the rituals themselves are widely practiced to this day. One of the most widespread traditions is the visiting of fields between the feasts of St. John and St. Peter. The feast of St. John is also known as the Kupolë festival (kupolës are medicinal herbs, gathered on the eve of St. John's.) 
Most of the St. John songs which have survived are found in northern Lithuania, including exemplars of the unique polyphonic sutartinë form. These polyphonic St. John songs are commonly called kupolinës, which include refrains and vocables such as kupolële kupolio, kupolio kupolëlio, or kupole roþe.
The feasts of St. John and St. Peter marked the end of the calendar festival song cycle. Songs which were sung during the Summer and the Fall accompanied chores and belong to the genre of work songs. The exception is Vëlinës on November 2^nd during which the dead were commemorated (vëlë is the word for soul). However, there are no specific songs that have been recorded relating to this day. Laments and orphans' songs are often associated with Vëlinës. 
 

Compiled by Skirmantë Valiulytë