Festivals and dances originated from early humans' lack of understanding of natural seasonal changes. People celebrated the end of work seasons by dressing in animal costumes and performing rituals and dances associated with seasonal transitions like spring, summer, autumn and winter. Over time, these agrarian festival dances and customs came to represent the importance of nature's laws and cyclic changes in the seasons as well as the ending and beginning of new work seasons. Folk traditions and dances played a significant role in developing social and cultural life by preserving customs and conveying history from one generation to the next.

1. How did festivals
appear?

2. The oldest human rituals and dances came from the lack of
understanding of surrounding nature changes – why do
seasons periodically change: spring after winter, summer
after spring, autumn after summer. Season works, festivals
and dances associated with these changes changed as well.
At the end of the work season people used to celebrate
dressed in various imaginative animal costumes (totems) as
if they were responsible for the harvested income.

3. All the rites and myths are closely related and came from
the work they did. Lithuanian customs are closely
associated with the magic and mythology which came from
the oldes mankind‘s philosophical understanding .

4. Folk traditions, customs, rites and dances have played a
significant role over the years in the development of social,
cultural and spiritual life.

5. Seeing this we can reconstruct
the development of human
consiousness . Almost all of the
folk culture achievements,
especially the verbal and artistic
creativity, are firmly established in
our customs and dances, which
slightly modified are retelled from
generation to generation.

6. Even this was encouraging a routine, but this helped to
preserve an allowed to remain for the whole folk material and
historical sources, which now can help to reveal the
development of the progress of human consiousness.

7. All the dances came and were maintained by the anual human
work and life. Each major anual festival is related with the
different traditions and customs. We can firmly state that the
amount of diversity of customs is as big as amount of people
which celebrate them.

8. Even Christian festivals, which are celebrated globally, are
celebrated differently in various countries. We can divide
dances into three main kinds: the old ones, which came
through the generations from the immemorial times; the
Christian ones and those which are generated by the
surround almost artificially.

9. Agrarian festival dances and customs came from the
importance of the sourrounding nature laws and periodic
change of the seasons (winter is changed by spring – the
return of the sun; spring changed by summer meant seeding
and earthwork; summer changed by autumn meant harvest
time; autumn changed by winter meant the end of the synny
days) and the end of the work seasons.

10. The end of the one work meant the begining of the
another: the first ground work, the first animals in
the fields, the first seeding, the first hay harvest,
harvesting and other...

11. Various dances were danced and rite performed in such
occasions. A very rich and complex art was created during
these celebrations, which evolved from people philosophical
understanding.