Culture In Lithuania

THE HISTORY OF CULTURE IN LITHUANIA Culture is defined as the beliefs, social forms, and traits implemented in everyday existence shared by people in a place or time from a racial, religious, or social group. Other elements of culture include values, religion, language, arts and literature, forms of government and economic systems. Lithuania is a country in Europe that border’s Poland, Latvia and Belarus. Founded 10th March 1009, Lithuania is grouped with Latvia and Estonia into Baltic States. The three Baltic states all have similar lowland geography, land area and population. Lithuania and Latvia are also similar culturally. Vilnius has been the capital of Lithuania since the fourteenth

The physical geography and climate of the region compared to the United States, Lithuania is slightly larger than West Virginia. The climate is transitional, between maritime and continental. There are wet, moderate winters and summers. Lithuania’s total area is 65,300km2 with the land area being 62,680 km2 and water area being 2,620 km2 . Lithuania was smoothed by glacier retreat during the last Ice Age, and is now mostly flat lowlands in the west, with some low hills. The east and southeast contains numerous small lakes, but also the Baltic Highlands which dominate the landscape, where much of the land is covered by dense forest. The highest point in Lithuania is near the Belarus border where the Juozapine stands at 964

The Russian language was both mandatory and ubiquitous during the Soviet occupation (1940-1990), making virtually everybody in the older generations (i.e. those born ~1980 and before) fluent in it.

With the most popular foreign language to learn to be English, it is spoken by 30% of total population and 80% of total youth. For foreigners, Lithuanians expect them to know English as it is widely used in modern museums, hotels, tourist signs, and city/resort restaurant menus. 14% of Lithuania’s citizens are fluent in Polish, 8% of the population speaks German and with French and Spanish being the fifth and sixth foreign languages spoken by only 2% and 1% of the population.

In conclusion, social organization, customs and traditions, religion, language, arts and literature, forms of government and economic systems make up the elements of culture. Located in Europe, Lithuania founded in 1009 is a country grouped with Latvia and Estonia into Baltic States. The geography, religion and languages spoken are cultural changes that occurred throughout Lithuania's transformation from a former country of the Soviet Union to an independent Baltic