Her family moved to Vepriai 34 years ago. She was employed at the Agriculture School. It has long been closed and its neglected buildings are currently a big sore on the town's body. The site has been handed over to the State Property Fund and is crumbling from neglect.
Another big problem that the town has – floating islands in Vepriai Lake. In strong winds, peaty formations overgrown with bulrush and trees can travel quite fast and bring destruction to anything that happens to be in their way.
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| Veprių seniūnė Dalė Urbonienė |
“Since the Soviet times, there was a statue of Neptune built in the middle of the lake. One day, an island swam by and knocked it down. We fished it out and put on the shore,” Urbonienė recounts. “But the biggest threat is to the dam. If some island tears it down, our lake will swim away. On several nights, my husband and I would keep vigil near the dam, so that if an island approaches, we can let out some water manually.”
At the moment, one of the floating islands is threatening to sweep away a beach that was so carefully tidied up by local people. The town elder once tied the island to a tree on the shore with a metal cable, but scrap metal hunters stole it. Then the locals “nailed” the island down to the lake floor with wooden poles. The disaster was averted for several years, until last autumn, when heavy rains flooded the lake, the island sailed off again.
“We wait with anxiety until the ice melts. What are we to do with the island? We might try to drag it away with a helicopter, because boats are no longer enough. God willing, the winds will be favourable and might blow the island away,” Urbonienė hopes.
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| Veprių miestelis |
– You've been the elder of Vepriai for thirteen years. How big is your domain?
– Our eldership is small enough, but it is alive and pulsating. At the moment, Vepriai has the population of 720, while the entire eldership has 1,238 residents. Over 100 pupils go to Vepriai Secondary School, 16 of them are graduating this year.
We cannot complain – there still are children here. We have two kindergartens, an outpatient clinic, a paramedic point, a post office, two libraries, two arts centres, even two cemeteries. We know each other by heart, notice every move someone makes. If some stranger comes, we know about it in an instant.
– And you are also very fond of celebrating festivals.
– That is true. Our get-togethers are short but frequent: on the New Year's Eve, 11 March, the Earth Day, St. John's, 6 July. But our biggest festival, of course, is Pentecost. We celebrate it for three days, introducing new traditions each time.
For example, now we raise the national flags on Pentecost. When we were celebrated the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald, one company offered townspeople a bargain on flags. 22 litas (6.4 euros) each, if I'm correct. I then thought – why not consecrate the flags?
On Friday, the first day of Pentecost, we put our parish priest in a car and took him across the entire town so he could bless all flags with holy water. Those who weren't fast enough to hoist their flags, held them in hands. My soul was trembling with agitation – everyone was out on the streets, some making the sign of the cross, others kneeling, waving hands. Now, people do not just hoist their flags on state holidays, but on personal occasions, too. It graces the town a great deal.
– Vepriai is also famous for its Way of the Cross. Does it attract many pilgrims?
– It depends. Sometimes more come, sometimes fewer. We ourselves take care of the Way of the Cross. Trimming the grass on the pathway, thinning the bushes. Before Pentecost, everyone in the town clean their houses and wait. We want to show the best of ourselves. But I always say that the church, too, should contribute more to this celebration. We prepare the site, it's up to the church to invite pilgrims to come.
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| Veprių miestelis |
– It is odd, though, that part of the Way of the Cross and the Cedronas creek is private property. How did that happen?
– It only shows the kind of job that our planning department does, how they solve the issue of land restitution. A thing like that could not have happened. That said, we have had no problems with land owners – even though I personally apologize for trespassing their property each Pentecost.
– There is a sufi community settled in the vicinity. How do people of Vepriai get along with them?
– At first, we were at each other's throats. People in the village complained they were running naked, beating drums, going in circles. We all thought it was a sect of some sort. Meanwhile they insisted they picked out the best from all religions.
When the sufis built a house of prayer on a land marked out for other purposes, we were at arms. It took a long time to calm us down. But a court ordered the municipality to accept the changed land zoning. And all protests ended.
Now, we all live peacefully – we do not feel any bad things or influences coming from the sufis. They do not ask us anything and we, too, have no demands on them – let them be.
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| Veprių miestelis |
The history of Vepriai
The town of Vepriai is situated in the middle of an 8-kilometre radius meteorite crater, in the valley of the Šventoji River. The fact that it is a crater was discovered in 1978, after a mining drill unearthed rocks formed under high pressure. Judging by their age, a big meteorite possibly fell there some 150-160 million years ago.
There are three Ways of the Cross in Lithuania – the Samogitian Calvaries, Vilnius Calvaries, and Vepriai Calvaries. The Way of the Cross in Vepriai was built in 1846, it is 5.5 kilometres long and consists of 35 chapels and gates. The calvaries were torn down in 1963, the paths were dug up, but the faithful continued to come to Vepriai. In 1989, the Calvaries of Vepriai were restored using money donated by parishioners.
Next to the Way of the Cross of Vepriai, there are also stations of Our Lady or, as locals call it, “Mary's Paths.” These are the twelve last stops on the Way of the Cross, some two kilometres long. Worshippers walk “Mary's Paths” in the opposite direction than the Way of the Cross. It is an interesting Catholic tradition.
The most significant monument in Vepriai is a baroque roadside chapel built around 1772-1798 to commemorate the 1768 Bar Confederation.
