This year, we spent the traditional Wellness and Sports Day 2015 in the Dzūkija National Park, the largest in Lithuania, in the Varėna district. On the autumn morning of 12 September, we gathered in Merkinė – the capital of the Dainava region, which five centuries ago was one of the most important cities in Lithuania.
We started our sightseeing trip with the enchanting views of nature that opened up when we climbed the recently opened Merkinė observation tower. The tower’s structure is a bit cosmic and moving, so on the upper platform at 25 metres, some people had ambivalent feelings – both beautiful and scary. But soon our eyes drifted to the spectacular distances of the Nemunas Landscape Reserve, drinking in the sights of the forests beyond the river valley and into the horizon.
After being between heaven and earth, we visited the Merkinė Museum, which houses a rich ethno-cultural heritage of the old traditions and customs of the Dukes of Dzūksy, as well as their everyday life and unique crafts, and we heard the magnificent history of the town of Merkinė.
The journey continued to the Čepkeliai State Nature Reserve, which belongs not only to the Lithuanian system of protected areas, but is also protected internationally. A guided tour along the 1.5 km-long nature trail enriched our knowledge of how the country’s largest raised bog and continental dunes were formed, and what grows and lives there.
On the way from Čepkeliai, we stopped for a Dzūkija snack in the pine trees and finished the cultural part of the day at the Marcinkoniai ethnographic farmstead – museum. Here the witty Uncle Jonas told us all sorts of interesting and funny stories from the life of the Dzūkai people, we saw the rich exposition, and learned that the horseshoe symbolising good luck and happiness should be wrought at the door so that it forms an arch, and not the other way around.
We spent the second part of the day playing sports in the yard of another beautiful old Dzūkija farmhouse in the village of Darželių, where we not only played square, football and other games, but also danced with the Marcinkoniai Ethnographic Ensemble.
Before heading home, we sat around the campfire, talked, joked, enjoyed each other and the opportunity to hang out together, have fun, recharge our batteries and recharge our emotions for the work ahead.
Uplifting
Personnel and Administration Unit
