Samogitian Calvary Hills Prayers and Songs: Between Tradition and Innovation

Abstract

The Catholic Liturgy comprises of the St. Mass and supplementary services. Supplementary services are religious practices of the community designed to be performed not during the Mass but in local language before or after the service, also at home and in chapels. In Lithuania, these are various religious songs and prayers. Lithuania’s ethnographic region, Samogitia, distinguishes itself by a very special form of singing, Samogitian Calvary Hills (hereafter – Hills) prayers and hymns. Today, this specific devotional practice is called ‘Old’ or ‘New’ Hills. The main aim of the article is to describe these two distinctive forms of prayers and singing. Research showed that the ‘Old’ Hills tradition of devotional practice was born in 1681 and had existed until the publication of a new Liturgical prayer book in 1968. From 1968 to 2016, six Liturgical prayer books with the new edition of ‘New’ Hills were released. The new version was influenced by the directives of the Second Vatican Council which took place in 1962–1965. Since 1991, liberal and free market-based economy in Lithuania has ousted the traditional ‘Old’ Hills practice. The article proves the hypothesis that today Hills prayers and hymns are performed in both traditional and new ways.