In our contemporary culture, wedding is still considered to be a very important family celebration. How the preparation for it would look like if it were held in 1900?

The main differences between modern and traditional wedding can be seen in customs, ceremonies, and the duration of the wedding. Nevertheless, the main common feature is that the focus has always been on the future bride. Still, during the first cycle of a traditional wedding, when the future bride’s property was inspected, both her character and diligence were evaluated. The most important proof of her diligence was her dowry, which the future bride began to prepare from early adolescence. The dowry mainly consisted of woven linen fabric, bedspreads, towels, and other things that could be useful in marriage.

The present exhibition “I’m Getting Married. 1900” presents the works of two folk artists from Rokiškis.

Romualdas Kaminskas is a woodwork artist who has devoted the last years of his creative work to the production of chests and other functional items (spoons and towel hangers) used in the household. We will not see exact replicas of the traditional chests in Romualdas’s works. They have distinctive features which display originality and uniqueness, especially of the above-mentioned chests.

Genė Šimėnienė is a weaver who learned this delicate craft from her mom, also a famous weaver. Her works reveal the traditions of our great-grandparents’ creation, transferred from generation to generation and expressed in subtle national patterns. Similarly to the bride of the last century, Genė Šimėnienė weaves towels, tablecloths, napkins, and folk girdles, using natural linen and cotton. In 2010, her works were awarded the National Heritage Certificate of the Republic. In the same year, she was awarded as the Folk Artist of the Year of Rokiškis. Genė’s fabrics are known not only in Lithuania but also abroad: in Scandinavian countries, Germany, the USA, and Turkey.

Thus, the joint exhibition of the folk artists demonstrates the things what every woman who was planning to get married had to prepare.

Authors of the exhibition: Romualdas Kaminskas ir Genė Šimėnienė

Partner of the exhibition: the Kaunas City Museum

The exhibition will be open from until June 13th at Kaunas City Museum Folk Music Branch (L. Zamenhofo Str. 12).