Independence gets stylish

VILNIUS - Independence Day events came with a difference in Lithuania this year. The commemorations in the first half of the day were traditional and similar to previous years. But as soon as darkness fell, pop stars whipped up a patriotic fervor among heaving crowds of flag-waving youngsters.

It was Feb. 16 the 84th anniversary of the establishment of the modern Lithuanian state. On that day in 1918, it was announced that Lithuania, with Vilnius as its capital, was finally free of over a century of Russian and German occupation.

Germany had administered Lithuanian territory since 1915, but for more than a century prior, the country languished under czarist occupation. The joint Polish-Lithuanian Republic had been partitioned in 1795 by Prussia, Austria and Russia.

Feb. 16 is the country's main national holiday. Events celebrating the date also took place in Lithuanian communities around the world.

But in Vilnius, this year was a turning point, according to Mayor Arturas Zuokas. "Because we are free citizens of a free Lithuania, we will celebrate Feb. 16 in a jolly way," Zuokas told a crowd on Cathedral Square.

Lithuania has a new generation, he said, who remember only the times of a free Lithuania, not an enslaved one. He wanted to celebrate with joy rather than with tears.

The jolly feast began in the square at 7:30 p.m. Lithuanian pop and rock stars sang to a crowd of about 10,000 people, mostly teenagers - precisely the audience Zuokas wanted the occasion of Independence Day to reach - waving hundreds of small yellow-green-and-red national flags.

On stage - built next to a towering monument of Lithuania's medieval leader Grand Duke Gediminas - the winners of the Lithuanian pre-Eurovision Contest group, B'avarija, and pop veteran Stasys Povilaitis, nicknamed Lithuania's Frank Sinatra, kicked up a rush of enthusiasm.

People danced, sang and screamed themselves into a frenzy.

Vytautas Kernagis, sometimes calling himself Vytautas the Great after another of Lithuania's grand dukes, sang songs by Danielius Dolskis, a pre-World War II crooner.

Erica Jennings, Irish vocalist in the popular Lithuanian group Skamp, stunned the audience by singing in Lithuanian.

The concert ended with a short appeal by President Valdas Adamkus, who said that a free Lithuania would make a positive influence on world culture.

The celebration was accompanied by an impressive fireworks display in the night sky as multicolored lights blasted off from Gediminas Hill and the roof of the cathedral.This concert should change the tradition of sad Feb. 16 commemorations, said Ruta Vanagaite, director of the public relations company Acta Publica, one of the organizers of the evening in Cathedral Square.

Ausra Bickauskaite, a local student, said, "Independence Day should be happier, like the concert we've had tonight, then young people will be more willing to celebrate it. And more beer during the feast, please!"

She added that one thing that had kept people away from the event in the past was the cold. This is why July 6, a day to celebrate the crowning of Mindaugas, Lithuania's first king, is becoming more and more popular.

"Perhaps Lithuania's founding fathers should think about it and set our main national day at a time more suitable for celebrations," she said.

On the eve of Feb. 16, the current affairs magazine Veidas published the results of a survey conducted by the pollster Spinter. It showed that more people planned to celebrate St. Valentine's Day than Independence Day. Some 14 percent said they would celebrate Feb. 16, while 24 percent said they would celebrate Feb. 14. Only 8 percent said they would celebrate both holidays.

For a majority of the population, Feb. 16 is a day off for the family. "I won't be celebrating so much. I'll go with the man I love to the coast, to Nida, for the weekend," said businesswoman Zita Repeckiene.

Wise words

Independence Day events began at noon, when Cardinal Audrys Juozas Backis celebrated Mass in Vilnius Cathedral. He appealed to the crowd for optimism.

"One farmer told me his grandfather, father and he himself were always working very hard, but never complained. He added that his children came to visit him in fancy cars and complained about how bad life was," Backis said.

After Mass, 2,000 people gathered near the house on Pilies Street where the 1918 Independence Act was signed. The house has been turned into a museum, the House of Signatories.

Social Liberal MP Arturas Skardzius and Conservative MP Vytautas Landsbergis spoke from the balcony of the building.

"This balcony doesn't belong to right- or left-wingers. It isn't privatized. This balcony belongs to Feb. 16 and to all of us," Skardzius said.

Landsbergis spoke of Lithuania in 1918 as a phoenix rising from the ashes. He reminded the crowd how czarist Russia banned the Lithuanian language. "There were inscriptions on administrative buildings that read, 'It is forbidden to speak Lithuanian.'"

A military parade passed a monument to General Jonas Zemaitis, commander-in-chief of Lithuania's postwar anti-Soviet partisans. He was killed by the Soviets in 1953.

During a party at the Lithuanian Embassy in Washington, Ambassador Vygaudas Usackas reminded those present, who included U.S. senators, congressmen and other guests, that Lithuania is unique in that it has several independence days. On July 6, there is Mindaugas Day, marking the start of several centuries of a large Lithuanian empire. There is also March 11, which celebrates the day in 1990 when Lithuania again re-established its independence.

"I hope we will not need to have one more independence day in the future," Usackas said.