Abstract
In this paper the author attempts to systematize ethnographic information about Lithuanian calen dar customs which relate closely to the cult of the desceased. The popularity and significance of the elements of the dead ancestors' cult in Lithuanian calendar feastdays rites shows, that even in the rel atively late tradition of the beginning of the 20th century, the cult of the desceased was a natural part of the agrarian rites the village community imag ined itself in close unity with the dead and living completely integrated in the surrounding world. The cult of the dead ancestors is the heritage of a patriarchal tribal community. That is why the great number of elements which genetically belonged to the cult of the desceased testifies, that the mode of life which prevailed in the traditional Lithuanian village was very archaic by its nature.
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