Spring
The first spring thunder
When thunder is first heard in spring; no fixed calendar date
The first thunder can only be entered in a calendar after it has sounded. This difference from a festival with a date known in advance helps explain its place in traditional understandings of time. This page considers the meanings assigned to it in folklore and how to read a researcher’s examples, keeping the account, its interpretation and our questions to the source distinct.
Tradition context
- When
- When thunder is first heard in spring; no fixed calendar date
- Season
- Spring
- Themes
- Seasonal threshold, Perkūnas, the awakening earth, fertility beliefs, sowing, grazing, folklore sources
In folk belief, the first spring thunder could mark the earth’s awakening and a new phase of seasonal work. Surviving texts link thunder with the growth of grain, flax or turnips, but these accounts should not be combined into a single custom followed throughout Lithuania.
A natural event in the calendar
The first thunder is a relative marker: what matters is that someone hears it for the first time that spring. A single unchanging day of the month does not fit this kind of marker. Read an account from the participant’s perspective: does it recall a sound actually heard, or repeat a saying learned from elders? Both are interesting, but they offer different evidence of personal experience.
Perkūnas and the image of the stirred earth
In her studies of Perkūnas, Nijolė Laurinkienė considers the sound of thunder alongside the image of the deity. Beliefs cited as LTR 761/5 and LTR 763/50 connect the first thunder with stirring the earth; LTR 1032/122 connects more frequent thunder with better growth. These references reveal a narrative connection between a sound in the sky, the earth and the hoped-for harvest.
Pilviškiai: thunder and leaves on the trees
In his study of customs around Pilviškiai, Libertas Klimka connects the first thunder with the beginning of true spring (p. 5, references [12], [6], [9]). In the same area, thunder before the trees had leaves was considered a sign of a poor spring [1, 3, 7]. These interpretations draw attention to the stage of plant growth too. This is a comparison of local beliefs, not a weather forecast.
Similar actions, different crops
In LTR 1041/116, women rolling on the ground at the first thunder are linked with flax; LTR 374c/1310 refers to turnips. Comparing them, we can ask what is shared: the season, participants or movement? What changes: the crop and the desired result? This is more useful than assuming that everyone performed an identical rite. The accounts describe belief; the expected effect is not an established cultivation method.
The beginning of work and shepherds’ accounts
Laurinkienė also discusses the first thunder in relation to sowing, grazing and other activities. In the St George’s Day section of Birutė Imbrasienė’s festival collection, a shepherd turns a somersault on hearing the first thunder, seeking grass growth and protection. This supplies another participant and action, which should be kept distinct from the women’s actions associated with flax or turnips.
What can a belief tell us?
A text about a hoped-for harvest primarily reveals the result people wanted and the sign they considered meaningful. By itself, it does not establish whether sowing on that farm really began only after thunder. That would require more information about the place, year, work and speaker. Caution does not diminish the source’s value; it clarifies which question the available evidence can answer.
Comparing family memory with a publication
When recording a family account, ask who taught the custom to the speaker and where they lived at the time. Note separately whether they witnessed an action or only knew a saying. Find a comparable motif in a publication and record the differences. Mentioning the first thunder alone is not enough to identify two accounts as the same variant. Avoid adding details that were not recalled merely to make a memory resemble a book.
Learning exercise: sign, action, expectation
Choose two of the texts referenced here and draw three columns: the observed sign, the human action and the expected result. Leave a space blank if that element is absent. Then mark what belongs to the speaker’s belief and what is explained by the researcher. This exercise explores the custom through reading and comparison: its purpose is to understand a text’s structure and limits.
Which sources were actually consulted?
The archival references on this page come from the consulted Laurinkienė publication. They do not imply inspection of the original manuscript collections or listening to their recordings. Her broader article on Perkūnas provides mythological context, while Imbrasienė’s volume supplies a separate shepherd-custom example. The thematic illustration does not document a historical action; the verification date records editorial source consultation.
Main First thunder customs and meanings
These motifs are presented as cultural history. Each archival number points to an individual text; adjacent numbers do not themselves establish that accounts were collected in one place or at the same time.
The first thunder is associated with entering a new phase of spring.
Individual actions and explanations are compared through published texts.
First thunder: songs, sutartines, and related pages
The Perkūnas page explores the deity more broadly. St George’s Day provides a comparison with another threshold of spring work and grazing, while rye-harvest customs introduce a later stage in people’s relationship with the crop.
First thunder: frequently asked questions
On what date is the first thunder observed?
There is no fixed date. The name refers to the first thunder heard in spring.
Were these actions shared throughout Lithuania?
The texts establish individual motifs. They do not demonstrate a universal practice.
What does an LTR number show?
It is an archival reference given in the publication. Place, date and speaker must be established from the individual record.