little curves, wave pattern, broken line, zigzag pattern
What are zigzag and wavelet?
The zigzag is a broken line, while the wavelet is a softer, waving line. Both motifs are easily repeated in textiles, sashes, margučiai, and wood decoration.
These signs are most often read through movement: water flows, a wave rises, lightning cuts across the sky, a snake winds, and the pattern moves across the surface of the object.
The meaning of water and wave
The wavelet naturally connects with water, river, spring, and lagoon. In Lithuanian mythological symbolism, water is the field of life, boundary, passage, and cleansing, so the wavelet pattern may have more than decorative meaning.
In textiles the wavelet may also function as a boundary: it separates pattern fields, frames a sash, or joins motifs into an unbroken sequence.
Zigzag between water and lightning
A sharp zigzag can be read in two ways. In one context it recalls the movement of waves or a snake; in another it means lightning and Perkūnas' storm.
For that reason this section separates zigzag from the Lightning Sign. The zigzag page speaks about the general line ornament, while the Lightning Sign speaks about more specific storm and Perkūnas semantics.
How not to read the line too narrowly
People often search for meanings of Lithuanian patterns by simple form: zigzag, wavelet, little curves. The answer should be clear, but not too narrow.
The best interpretation allows one line to have several meanings, while always returning it to the concrete object: sash, margutis, textile, or wood ornament.