A date with summer in Trakai
If one sees summer – it’s only where the eyes are dazzled by the brightest colors, if one smells – it’s only where the smell of white transparent apples and lime blossom honey spreads, and if one hears – it’s only in music where the soul is visited by an uncontrollable joy, where one wants to celebrate not only summer but also life. Poet and prose writer Jurga Ivanauskaitė said purposefully that summer can be recognized even with your eyes blindfolded – it’s due to the sweetness of the berries or the bitterness of the wormwood, or the richly bright and abundant peony flowers.
One can experience the arrival of summer by coming to Trakai. Town festival the “Summer of Trakai” involves not only citizens and guests from other Lithuanian cities but also tourists from abroad in its whirlpool of fun every year. The three-day event is fun, full of colors, art festivals, attractions, entertainment, joyful music and good mood – it’s a great opportunity to get acquainted with both intangible and tangible cultural heritage of Trakai district. The event presents everyone with the opportunity to get to know the old capital from every angle. From interactive games and routes to the Town Hall Market, theatrical marches, concerts and spectacular fireworks as well as laser féeries.
The origin of the festival dates back to the 1990, when the priest of Trakai consecrated St. John of Nepomuk Roadside Pole. Then the first Trakai town festival took place. Neither the economic blockade nor the rain or the wind prevented the locals from being together, enjoying and having fun. The celebrations begun with Mass at Church of Vytautas the Great, after it the procession went on to the Roadside Pole where people put flowers and candles, told poems and sang songs. Later, everyone were invited to the second and the third as well as subsequent town festivals.
Every year, the festival program is very diverse, therefore children, parents and grandparents always find pleasant festivities for themselves. During the festivities, everyone has the opportunity to experience a sense of community, get acquainted with the multiculturalism typical of Trakai as well as enjoy the abundance and colors that prevail in the festival.
To discover, familiarize and, later, protect is one of the main objectives when fostering and preserving our own cultural traditions. Festival the “Summer of Trakai” is a great opportunity to familiarize with them and also understand how powerful the past is, and how important it is when creating the present. It is not just an element of our personal identities, it is also a bridge to the communion in which palms our history and culture lie securely.
The program will be announced later.
