Heraldry. Salakas has never had a historical coat of arms. The Heraldry Commission, discussing the ideas for a new coat of arms together with representatives of the local elderate and community members, agreed with a suggestion of using a falcon, holding a cross and standing on stone blocks. This image illustrates a legend of the origins of the town’s name, while the cross and the stone blocks represent the text, featured on a memorial stone tablet on the wall of the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Sorrows: “Lord, bless those, who contributed to this work, either in building it from hard stones, or sincerely maintaining it.”
A falcon is a solar symbol, representing manhood, heavens, sincere servitude, pursuit of goals and nobility. In Lithuania this bird is also an image of a warrior defender. In Christian tradition the cross symbolises the passions of Christ and his victory as the Saviour. The cross is also a general symbol of the Christian faith. Red colour in heraldry represents bravery and love. The standard coat of arms was designed by the artist Arvydas Každailis. This coat of arms was approved by the Heraldry Commission on 10 June 2004 and by the decree No. 144, signed by Artūras Paulauskas, the acting President-in-Office of the Republic of Lithuania, on 4 July 2004.
History. Salakas elderate is situated 19 km south-east of Zarasai and the same distance east of Daugailiai. The area of the elderate is 172.8 km2. The territory of the elderate includes Salakas, Gudėniškės and Tumiškės forests. They take up about 5700 ha. The territory of the elderate is crossed by Šventoji river and features more than 30 lakes. The elderate is proud of the sixth largest lake in Lithuania — Luodys (area — 1320 ha, maximum depth — 18.4 m, shore line length — 28.5 km).
Tourists coming to this region can stay at 4 recreation sites. The elderate has 9 tourist attractions, as well as the cognitive bicycle trail of Gražutė Regional Park, built in 2008, and 46 objects of cultural heritage. Salakas town has a post office, a dispensary, a community centre, a dairy, a forestry, a mill, a wood processing company, a lower secondary school, a cultural centre, a department of Zarasai Art School, as well as Aukrudė resort and the recreational base of UAB Degesa.
Salakas town is situated in north-eastern Lithuania, 18 km south-east of Zarasai and the same distance east of Daugailiai. What makes it different from other places is the even highlands, surrounded by the lake on one side, as well as beautiful pine woods, hills and valleys on the other. The eastern homesteads of Salakas rest against the huge Lake Luodis.
Reading the town’s name SALAKAS backwards, you will find that it says SAKALAS (Lithuanian word for falcon). According to legends, Salakas was founded by the Duke Utenis. This was the centre of the hunting grounds of the Lithuanian nobility. Hunters used to breed falcons, thus giving the location the name of Sakalas. Some claim that in the ancient days the location of Salakas was surrounded by island-like lakes.
Presumingly the locals were mostly fishermen, referred to as salokai, while their village — Salakas. The history of Salakas is old, but there are also many legends. The name of the Lake Luodis, situated close to Salakas town, was mentioned in the documents of King Mindaugas back in 1253. However, the official date of the establishment of the town is 18 March 1496, when Nikolajus Petkevičius donated 3 peasants with their lands to Salakas parish, obliging the parson and vicar of Salakas to remember the family of Petkevičiai during the mass.
In the 16th c. Salakas was on an important strategic and economic road between Vilnius and Livonia. In the days of Vilnius Bishop Abraham Woyna (1631–1649) Salakas was a volost, which included Salakas town and manor, 18 villages, 20 homesteads with 289 voloks of land, 581 peasants, 65 lakes and 3 rivers: Šventoji, Ligaja and Žiegė. According to Salakas inventory documents of 1731, which survived to this day, in those days Salakas manor had a brewery, a cheese dairy, a mill and 108 homesteads, 14 of which were in town.
Salakas was granted the privilege of hosting Sunday markets. Quite a lot was achieved by Antanas Poderis, a teacher and member of Aušrininkai political-literary movement, who came to work the town in 1906, and the church parson Antanas Kryžanauskas. In 1907 they initiated the establishment of a cooperative. During May celebration in 1909 the people of Salakas sang the Lithuanian Anthem for the first time. There were also performance nights, the first of which took place in 1907, featuring the play Genovaitė. The pride of Salakas people is the unique church, which was started in 1906 and completed in 1911, as well as the monument for Independence, built in 1930, dedicated to the 500th death anniversary of Vytautas the Great, the Grand Duke of Lithuania.
During the years of German occupation the Jews of Salakas were killed and the town itself was seriously damaged: some of the houses on Bažnyčios street were burned, the church had lost the tip of its tower, some of its façades and roof. Many people were killed or exiled. In 1982 the population of Salakas was 680 and in 2011 Salakas Lower Secondary School was attended by 115 pupils.
The residents of Salakas were very glad about the restoration of Lithuanian independence. Salakas and its elderate have their own traditions: memorials, festivities and other events, which usually begin at the church, near the Freedom Monument and continue at the cultural house, attract crowds of people.
Today Salakas is the centre of the elderate. The town is constantly sprucing up, attracting lots of tourists during the summer season, who admire the beautiful nature, visit V. Žilinskienė Museum of Sea Fauna and Flora at the Visitors’ Centre of Gražutė Regional Park, as well as get to know the regional park and its nature. In 1996 the town has built a market pavilion. On 29-30 June 1996 Salakas townspeople celebrated the town’s 500th anniversary, building a wayside shrine in the Free Square and issuing special booklets and anniversary mail stationery.
In 2010 the town began the reconstruction of the Free Square, paving sidewalks and installing lighting for the square and the church façade. On 25-26 June 2011 Salakas celebrated its 515 anniversary, while the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Sorrows — its 100th anniversary. For this occasion the town has built an anniversary wayside shrine, consecrated by J. Kauneckas, Bishop of Panevėžys.
All this is far from everything that makes Salakas beautiful and famous. Take a walk, enjoying the town’s streets, fields and forests, listen to someone still talking in the old Aukštaitian dialect, and you will understand how much love for their native land still lives in their hearts. Notice, how many homesteads lovingly cultivate trees and flower gardens. Take a look at men’s hands, skilfully carving wood. Open the chests of professional weavers with wonderful tablecloths, bedsheets, towels and other beauties! Listen to local songs and melodies. Only then you will understand the true beauty of Salakas and its surroundings.
St Peter’s Feast in Salakas
St Peter’s Feast is a traditional annual celebration in Salakas elderate. The intensive preparations and the course of the festival are well-illustrated by Rasa Lukošiūnaitė, Director of Salakas Culture Centre:
“Be it rain or wind, or too much sun…” I think those are the words of one of the most famous Lithuanian popular songs, promoting love no matter what difficulties life may throw at you! They say that you can’t take words out of a song — the same as you can’t turn off rain or the burning heat of the sun. Well, here I can easily prove you otherwise:
…the morning of 29 June: gloomy, grey and wet with endless rain, falling out of the sky. I patiently (although really slowly, hoping for the rain to stop during the process) unfolded my umbrella and made my first steps to St Peter’s Feast — one of the largest summer festivities in Salakas. My consciousness was complaining about the lack of festive mood in the gloomy and rainy sky, while my hopeful heart tried to soothe it, determined to celebrate no matter what! And so I went…
My mind kept returning to the football match and soaked players, attempting to score on the slippy grass of the football field in the school’s stadium. “Way to go!” I thought to myself, glad about the sports enthusiasts participating at the match despite the rain. In total there were four teams: Salakas, Kupiškis, Dusetos and Antaliepė!
2 p.m. — the opening of the park near A. Podėris Museum. The vision was revolving around sandy paths, blooming flowers, green grass and nymph-like girls hiding behind trees, thus creating an aura of mysticism and secrecy, occasionally gazing from behind the tree trunks like tree faeries… What about the rain? The paths and flowers were great, everything was very beautiful and very wet, while the tree nymphs, live music and nice words had to seek shelter under the roof. But don’t you ever think for once that this ruined our mood: we thanked the rain for growing our trees, the air — for its freshness and the roof — for its shelter. It was truly pleasant to see representatives of the first graduates of Salakas school, sharing their memories about the school and good times, expressing their joy about the newly-renovated building, decorated with threes, flowers and memorial stones for its graduates, with names and years, when they studied here.
At 4 p.m. people were slowly gathering at the concert hall of Salakas Culture Centre… Strange — there was something already happening on the stage. Some hubbub, a guy in pink pants, actively gesturing and quickly chattering something into the phone (V. Eidėjus), a woman with a large hair bun and even larger glasses (M. Kluonienė), trying to calm some “strange” lady, sitting in front of her (E. Matušovienė) and occasionally reaching for acetone or some other liquid… Not to mention the long-legged blonde (D. Baubinaitė), disarming everyone with her charming smile, or the administrator of a beauty parlour, drilling her surroundings with her gaze through horn glasses (R. Putrimaitė), or the extremely self-loving businessman (I. Matušovas)… Everything’s all right — that’s how the members of the drama club met their audience at Salakas Culture Centre. They performed a one-act comedy April’s Fools by K. Saja — yet another piece of entertainment that we offered to the guests of the festival. I believe that many of those, who visited the Pink Panther beauty parlour that day, had many opportunities to smile or even burst with sincere laughter.
And so evening came… AND THE RAIN DIDN’T STOP!!!!!!!! “We made it!” rejoiced my hopeful heart, shouting it out to all sceptics, who kept complaining to me all day about the rain and how it will ruin the festivities.
At 7 p.m. it was time for the concert. It would have started if it wasn’t for the head of our elderate, who disappeared together with our young Retro dancers. I grabbed my phone and started sorting out the problem with the entire audience listening (stress, you know…). It turned out that their being here on time was prevented by some technical obstacles. But they were quickly eliminated by Visaginas Bikers’ Club, who brought all performers to the place of event! And so it began: songs, dances, speeches, greetings, games… Time fled, the rain finally stopped, while our guests — Vajasiškis and Katlėriai communities, Išrinktasai band from Zarasai Youth Centre, as well as Liveta, Ingrida and Petras Kazlauskai — didn’t let us sit still for a minute. Not to mention the dashing DJ Birutė (B. Minutkienė, Director of Užpaliai Culture Centre) — the dance took until 3 a.m. (I’m very proud of all friendly dancers, who didn’t cause any “problems” — you rock!)
The town finally went to sleep with the first sun rays of the dawn… People needed to rest before the celebration of St Peter’s Feast at Salakas church. Sunday began with a slightly better weather with the sun offering more occasional smiles and warmth, thus all coming to the mass could focus on their prayer and offer a sincere thanks for the beautiful moments.
And that was it for this year… It’s a pity that good things pass so quickly, but we keep growing, improving and are already thinking about the next year’s festivities!
Have a good and the greatest of summers!
Rasa Lukošiūnaitė, Director of Salakas Culture Centre
