Redmond wrote this wonderful story at around age 13, and was kept and shared by his mom, Janice. It was read at the memorial service by Emma Sweeney.
A Lithuanian Christmas is not for the weak stomach; its main purpose is to weed out the weak from the strong in the Lithuanian culture. To be considered strong at Lithuanian Christmas dinner, you must strive to be the best at three things; eating fish, drinking vodka, and driving home. After a while Lithuanians got pretty good at all three and if you weren’t you didn’t get invited.
A Lithuanian Christmas dinner is a traditional homage to a time before communists or Nazis when Lithuanians were proud people, a race of simple farmers with hot daughters and national alcohol tolerance rivaling that of Ireland. The traditions performed today can be traced back to that glorious time. The dinner consists of a 12 course meal. A daunting feat for the aspiring Lithuanian, before anyone mentioned every single dish is fish. 12 different bizarre, ancient eastern European recipes for sea life, each one more intimidating and potentially hazardous than the last.
After dinner comes ‘Chaltus Baltus’, or in English ‘cold white’, described as the national pastime. Vodka. You are not asked whether you want straight shots of hard alcohol, you are simply served and expected to have emptied your ornate, massive Lithuanian shot glass by the time the host returns to refill your glass. There’s no stopping until the alcohol dries up. When the alcohol dries up, the musical portion begins. The men sing the songs they learned as boys in Lithuania, passionate and somber. Everyone is quiet and still, remembering the past and the hardship.
Lithuanians are a persuasive hard -drinking people, and literally don’t take no for an answer. So when the thought crosses an aspiring Lithuanian’s mind: ‘what if I can’t?’ ‘Or don’t want to?’ In regard to surviving a Lithuanian Christmas, they may find comfort by telling themselves: ‘it’s not up to me and I’m going to end up doing it whether I like it or not.’
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