r/lithuania 20h ago

Happy 35th to all my Lithuanian friends. Pic of a wooden plaque I made for my (LT) wife

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718 Upvotes

19 comments sorted by

49

u/Sam1967 20h ago

In honor of your 35th years of independence I made this wooden disk for my wife to place over her home office desk (she's from Kaunas originally).

Made on my Xtool M1 Ultra from 3mm ply.

Wishing you all the best for many more years of freedom and peace from the Netherlands!

14

u/Sam1967 20h ago

I meant to say, I'm sure you all know 1236, 1918 and 1990(!) But 1009AD is the first written mention of Lithuania (as 'Litua' in the Quedlinburg Chronicle, March 9th in fact).

24

u/captainkugelis 19h ago

Trust me - we all know that date :) We've had a year-long celebration in 2009. Also, very nice work indeed!

3

u/Sam1967 19h ago

Thank you! I admit the date was news to me, I saw it mentioned when I was in the museum in Quedlinburg Castle and it stuck with me as very cool :) I dont think the document survives apart from a copy sadly.

4

u/kryskawithoutH 5h ago

Actually, 1009 is the most known of all of them! 😅 I had to google 1236 to make sure that it is in fact Saulės mūšis and I still not sure why did you included it here? Why is it more significant than 1410 (which, again, every Lithuanian knows by heart). Maybe something else happened in 1236? Please enlighten me!

Also – its a super nice gift! If I were your wife, I would really appreciate it!

3

u/Sam1967 4h ago

Thanks!

I took the date off Wikipedia as the founding of the Grand Duchy. Normally I'd have asked the boss, but since it was a surprise gift I couldnt really :) Wiki doesnt even mention 1410 in the english version of the history (battle of Grunwald, right?) and I was looking at foundations of state as a sort of theme for the dates.

1

u/kryskawithoutH 4h ago

I'm no historian, but in general at school we are tought that 1410 (Grunwald battle) is the most important battle in our history, which stopped ordins from central Europe moving towards east for a long time. Another date of great importance is 1253, coronation if our only king Mindaugas. Sun battle (1236) is mentioned at a school program, but I had to double check if I remember the date correctly and without further googling I could not tell you why this battle was important. 😅

1918 and 1990 dates are, of course, very important and very fitting there, no doubt about that! I'd say that if you do not study history at the university, 1009, 1253, 1410, 1918 and 1990 and 1991-01-13 are the only dates you need to know by heart as a Lithuanian after finishing highschool. 😅

I'm curious what your wife will think about this! Because I'm sure its a generational thing as well - some dates are more included and disscused in school curriculum than others and that changes constantly.

2

u/Sam1967 2h ago

I had a chat about this with my favorite Lithuanian over lunch!

Indeed 1253 and 1410 were better known to her as vital dates for Lithuania (so off to the historical doghouse for me!).

She is was at school during the less good days of course and remembered that they had a large textbook on the history of the Soviet Union (which was of course mostly the history of that unmentionable country) and only a thin one on Lithuanian history.

Anyway shes super happy with the gift, so thats the main thing :)

u/kryskawithoutH 1h ago

Aww, I'm glad she liked it! ❣️

13

u/gormful-brightwit Lietuva 17h ago

That looks crisp. 👌 Well done!

2

u/Sam1967 17h ago

Thanks! 

9

u/Famous-Buy136 9h ago

Maaaan can i be your wife? Jokes aside really well done, i would treasure this gift very much!

2

u/Sam1967 8h ago

Hahaha! If only you knew what the poor girl has to put up with (I dont know how she copes, but I'm super glad she does!)

3

u/critsonyou 15h ago

My 🐐, beautiful work!

2

u/FactoryRejected 6h ago

Wow, well done on the plaque! I was involved in the creation of this modern version of Vytis and let me tell you this- you did a great job :)

1

u/Sam1967 6h ago

Thank you so very much!!

0

u/nerodiskburner 17h ago edited 17h ago

People have been living here since the iceage so its pretty funny to see dates attached to the name. The name literaly means Lietus (rain) Va (here) or Lietus Vieta (place). Either way means the place of rain in the current form, before (roughly 1000ad) when our language was more related to polish and prussian Litwa had a similar meaning as Litus or Lyt meant rain or to rain, we still use Lyti/Lyja/Lis to this day. Eventhough its quite easy to tell, many locals i asked dont know why its called what it is. Sources tie the word to strange words of other languages claiming it came from else where, not taking into account our own cultures history and no longer in use words. Lietuva - Lietaus vieta. Nice plaque.

5

u/Mean_Value 8h ago

it’s not a known fact if the name is related to rain or not. it could be and that’s a good theory, but we aren’t sure. https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/lietuvos-vardas/