VILNIUS - Year after year I am fascinated by the huge crowd of people that assembles in Cathedral Square on Feb. 16. Everyone wants to join in the celebrations, to listen to the concerts, to patriotically wave their mini-size flags about and to watch the firework display at the end of it all.
The reason why so many people 's including myself 's brave the freezing mid-February temperatures is the symbolical need to celebrate Lithuania's Independence Day, or, to be more precise, to commemorate the Independence Act signed on that day in 1918.
But to be really precise about it, the strange fact is that not a single person among the many people who annually come to celebrate the occasion has ever actually seen the official document that certifies the country's independence, and for one very good reason: it's missing. Yes, literally missing. Two copies of the document, which was endorsed on Feb. 16, 1918, disappeared soon after being signed.
God knows how many legends have sprung up to explain the disappearance and possible whereabouts of these two rather important pieces of paper. One of the more interesting ones that I've heard tells the story of how the In-dependence Act signatories celebrated the occasion at a special party where they unfortunately mislaid the documents, presumably after one glass too many.
Another such story explains that the oldest of the signatories, Jonas Basanavicius, took the document home to hide it in his library from its many enemies, but then, having thoroughly hidden it, he promptly forgot where he'd concealed it. Okay, granted, it's not the most plausible of theories.
Today, 87 years on, there is still all sorts of gossip surrounding the missing act but the latest theory as to its whereabouts, which only came about a few days before the Feb. 16 celebrations, looks like it might finally elucidate this long-standing mystery.
Romualdas Budrys, a well-respected Lithuanian historian, recently visited the Institute of the Lithuanian Language in Antakalnis, an area only several minutes away from the Old Town in Vilnius, to give his version of events.
The Institute of the Lithuanian Language was formerly a palace and used to be the home of the architect Petras Vileisis, who was probably the richest person in the country at the turn of the 20th century.
Soon after Feb. 16, 1918, Vileisis' brother Jonas, who is thought to be one of the main authors of the Independence Act text, was spotted entering his brother's palace with a briefcase in his hands and later leaving the building empty-handed. (I imagine it was a pitch-dark night, but Jonas' black figure was surrounded by the bright snow and could be noticed from afar 's it's a legend, after all, so I felt I should add a little something to it.)
As he was descending the stairs of the house, Jonas Vileisis was supposed to have mysteriously said: "Let this stay for the future."
Now it is well-known that the rich commonly used to have various secret hiding places where they could hide their valuable knickknacks in times of need, as well as protecting them from the threat of thieves and fire. Only close family members were supposed to know about these secret hiding places.
Historians are fairly sure that Vileisis had some secret wall in the building that he had designed himself as a hiding place, and feel confident that it's only a matter of time until the missing Independence Act document is found there. "If the document existed at all, it can't be anywhere but here," Budrys said.
Having heard this latest theory, employees at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language started looking for the document right away. So far they haven't had much luck in finding the missing national treasure but if they decide to apply ultrasound and spectroscopic methods 's which they are considering 's the search might bear fruit sooner rather than later.
As I read about all this with great curiosity, I was reminded of Tutankhamen's tomb and all its hidden treasures. It took thousands of years to reveal Tutankhamen's opulent secrets. How many would we need just to retrieve a dusty piece of paper?
