Paganism of Lithuanians and Prussians: ritual laughter

A. Vaicekauskas summarizes his work on Shrovetide similarly, saying the abundant sources in the late 19th and 20th centuries show the development of the costumewearing tradition of the calendrical winter holidays which led to the disappearance of the ritual functions of the traditions and the domination of the entertainment function in the 20th century [41, p. 20, pp. 40-48, p. 79].

Some of the abovementioned authors hold a contrary view. For instance, Lina LaurinaviciOte-Petrosiene who researched the written sources from the 15th to the 18th century on the meaning and content of Shrovetide says in her monograph the raucous fun should be considered equal in merit to the other ritual functions, and in the case of Shrovetide "the function of fun and entertainment is the foundation, essence and core of this holiday" [20, pp. 16-20].

Auksuole Cepaitiene expanded on this statement saying holidays (not just Shrovetide) cover all possible and equally necessary aspects of the life of the people. They are at one and the same time a ritual, entertainment and communication, and social events bringing the community together [12, p. 477]. Dainius Razauskas-Daukintas holds a similar view as well. Discussing the mythical image of "the laughter of the Sun" in Kristijonas Donelaitis's "Metai", Dainius Razauskas-Daukintas doesn't just connect laughter with the light of the sun, but also "with light in the abstract, mental sense", and a new crucial thought, a decision, a new knowledge, spiritual illumination can 'be born' in this way in the inner world, while in the outer world the image of mental affliction can be exactly night or winter, from whose clutches a new being emerges or escapes in the morning or in the spring [33, pp. 33-34].

As we see from the humble history of our research, investigators mainly focused elements of fun found in descriptions of Lithuanian traditions and folklore in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Such a study, however, should begin primarily from an examination of the religious rites of our and other peoples in the pre-Christian era, and then go on to reflections of these in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. This is the only way we can come to terms with the genesis and meaning of the traditions of this time-period.

The genesis of ritual laughter. So, in this case we should discuss ritual humor and its reflections. What is it? How did it arise? The question is problematic because the opinions of researchers differ on the origin and development of humor. Thus, there are many different definitions formulated for ritual humor. I will present a few of them which correlate with the material used and the aims defined in this article.

V. Propp's view of the genesis and semantics of humor is especially useful to us here in this article. Propp says laughter in the mythical worldview is not just life's companion but life itself, vitality, and hence the creator of the entire world [30, p. 225).

Russian researcher M. Ryumina says ritual humor is a borderline state between life and death, a strange threshold and even a necessary precondition for moving out of one opposition into another. The laugh is always "between" [34, p. 132]. Inga Vidugiryte believes ritual laughter is a specific behavior (laughing) connected with religious the purpose of which (as with any other religious segment - R. B.) is to control or affect the forces of the supernatural world which do not obey man [42, p. 19].

Anthropologists tend to explain ritual laughter through specific demands of the social structure. Several theories exist. One of them claims conflicts are resolved and collected social tension dispersed through ritual humor. Another says communication with the supernatural world demands maximum exertions which are compensated by interruptions of laughter [42, p. 24].

Olga Frejdenberg's starting point in discussing humor is the assertion laughter is one of the metaphors of cosmogony. It is exactly that important in renewal rituals whose semantics have survived in culture till today: we are accustomed to cry during funerals and have fun during weddings, and we believe this to be the voice of our emotions and consciousness, but alongside our traditions there are others in which there is baleful wailing during weddings and joking around on the day of death. Genetically, both one and the other are not the act of the individual person, but collective societal facts which are understood as the origin of cosmogony whose metaphors are "laughter" and "tears" [15, p. 105].

A large number of cosmogonic myths posit the world is created out of a monster (dragon) defeated by the gods or heroes. So the world - all that grows, breathes, laughs and cries - comes out of death. For the same reason the ancient agrarian rituals of the change of seasons (sowing, reaping the harvest) used to contain one prerequisite element of ritual: the murder of the hero (ruler, accomplice of the god) [15, p. 98, p. 153]. In other words, it is again emphasized in the archaic conception of the world that a new life is inconceivable with the death of an old life. And it was exactly from these rituals (cosmogonic and later agrarian) that also gave rise eventually to carnival-style fun and games.

This seems to show that ritual humor and fun have been connected from the very beginning with rape, violence and conquering. A significant circle of 20th century investigators have come to that conclusion and have written about it. For instance, Joshua Gregory says humor has come to us out of the mists of time with blade in hand [16, p. 13]. L. Karasev makes a similar comment, saying that it took millennia of barbarically deafening, roaring laughter marked by animal passion and the constant battle to survive to make a baby laugh [17, p. 20]. Thus, laughter is an ennobled howling [22, p. 30] or put another way, ritual laughter is only purified in the process of civilization.

Examples from the ancient religion of the Greeks and Romans are a good place to start looking at the expression of ritual humor and fun. Memorable in this regard is the Greek god of fun and excess, Comus, son of Dionysius and Circe. In ancient Greece in festivals dedicated to him men and women would trade clothes. The Greeks also knew of the personification of laughter, Gelos, whose temple was in Lacedaemon. Gelos's Roman counterpart was Risus [24, p. 145]. And of course, there was also Dionysius, Bacchus, Thalia (goddess or muse of comedy) and so on. One of the best-known Greek myths, the myth of Demeter and her daughter Persephone, also illustrates the significance of laughter. Laughter is understood in the myth as a sign of all forms of vitality. Its influence is universally significant, equally important to the human being, to animals and to foliage. When Hades kidnaps and locks Persephone in his subterranean realm, the goddess of abundance and fertility, Demeter, is deeply afflicted by the loss, no longer laughs, and from then on the grass and flowers no long grow and bloom on the earth and the birds no longer sing. Iambe her servant finally causes Demeter to laugh. The goddess's laughter brings spring back to the earth and all nature awakens from being frozen [29, pp. 79-114].

There is an even older Persian tradition about the prophet Zarathustra (Zoroaster) who, when he was born, did not cry (as is usual), but laughed instead, and as he laughed he emitted a holy light; his aura shone light above the city [32, pp. 255-256].

The Yakuts long ago worshiped the goddess lyeiksit (lyeksit) who protected women giving birth, laughing severely at the birth itself [28, p. 186]. The rite for ushering lyeiksite out, performed on the third day after birth, is very significant. One of the female participants in the ritual begins to laugh and guffaw, which is immediately copied by the other women. The point of the laughter is the pregnancy of and successful future birth by the participants in the ritual [28]. We should draw the conclusion that laughter in this case is a necessary condition for fertility.

There is a form of laughter recorded in the Old Testament in the word sahak; this is laughter arising from joy and true exaltation, from the spirit of holiness. This is the name which Isaac received from God Himself, Yghq-El ("God made me to laugh"), as foreseen in the book of life: "And we told her her son's name which was destined and written on the heavenly tablets: Isaac" [9, p. 16, pp. 3-4].

There is another cosmogonic myth ascribed to the Egyptians and Greeks which should be mentioned; it says: "The god laughed seven times and the seven gods guarding the world were born. The seventh time the god laughed especially joyfully and Psyche was born" [26, p. 66].

We could cite more examples and similar examples, but it's apparent from the myths and passages of them already presented we can say confidently laughter was the companion of the world as well as of the birth of the individual, or, as stated earlier, the crucial prerequisite for both.

Moving on to the written sources of the Balts, we should also mention Raimonda Ragauskiene's article "Dvaro 'juokdario institutas' Lietuvos Didziojoje Kunigaikstysteje XIV a. pabaigoje - XVIII a. pradzioje" [The Clown "Academy" of the Manor Estate in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the Late 14th to the Early 18th Century] where she says: "Lithuanians apparently had no deity on their Olympus which was 'responsible' for the field of humor", but, she believes, "different mythological beings may be associated with the world of laughter from the anthropological point of view. These are difficult to characterize mythological trouble-makers who cause chaos: devils, witches, aitvarai and even the new moon". Ragauskiene assigns the latter to the category of humorous mythological characters based on the texts of brief prayers: "You shine for us always, you make us happy. We see him and we all calm down, all of us have had fun to our content" (Rokiskis) [31, nr. 4, pp. 262-270].

We could discuss the formulation of this claim, arguments for and against and the material used, but we won't do that here. Let the sources "speak" for themselves. The information they contain and an examination of that information will together answer the question of whether Lithuanians (and other Balts) had a patroness of laughter and fun in their pantheon.

Ritual laughter in the Baltic religion. It seems laughter was viewed favorably by the ancient Balts and by some of the gods they adored. Grunau's chronicle which contains among other things the Laws of the Brutenai on "how they should live" says:

Third, we must feel respect and fealty towards our brightest gods and our Krivis krivaitis (crywen kirwaito) because after this life they will give us beautiful women, many children, sweet drink, good food, white clothes in summer, warm cloaks in winter, and we will sleep in wide, soft beds, and out of health we will laugh and dance (emphasis added). From evil people, who will not worship them, they will take everything they have, and they will torture them greatly there [3, p. 93].