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Witness / Attend in Rumsiskes
Uzgavenes
A village on the Kaunas Lagoon east of Kaunas, home to the Open-Air Museum of Lithuania, one of Europe's largest ethnographic museums, which reconstructs the country's historic rural regions across 175 hectares of farmsteads and fields.
No overall organizer. Open-Air Museum of Lithuania anchors the event; the rest belongs to the streets.
Dates & details verified against: The institution itself ↗
Why here
Uzgavenes is Lithuania's Shrovetide carnival, a pre-Lenten rite to chase out winter that predates the Christian calendar wrapped around it, and the Open-Air Museum at Rumsiskes stages the biggest version of it in the country. Villagers and visitors put on carved wooden masks of devils, goats, witches and the Jew-and-Hungarian trader figures, parade between the historic farmsteads, stage the mock battle of the fat Lasininis against the lean Kanapinis, and finally burn a straw effigy called More to end winter. You eat your way through stacks of pancakes as you go. It is folk tradition performed as living practice, in the open air, rather than displayed behind glass.
Best months
Uzgavenes is a movable feast tied to the church calendar, falling on Shrove Tuesday, 47 days before Easter, in February or early March. The Rumsiskes carnival is an outdoor winter event, so dress for cold, snow or mud. Dates: 17 February 2026; 9 February 2027.
Getting there & around
Rumsiskes is about twenty kilometres east of Kaunas and roughly an hour and a half from Vilnius, just off the A1 highway; a car is easiest, though buses run from Kaunas. The museum grounds are very large and the carnival spreads across them, so expect a lot of walking outdoors. Buy museum entry on the day and check the published Shrovetide programme for the procession and More burning times.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (1)
Open-Air Museum of Lithuania
OrganizerThe Open-Air Museum of Lithuania at Rumsiskes was established in 1966 and opened to visitors in 1974. Spread over 175 hectares, it gathers about 140 farmsteads and buildings from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, arranged to represent the four ethnographic regions of Aukstaitija, Samogitia, Dzukija and Suvalkija. Each February it stages Lithuania's largest Uzgavenes Shrovetide carnival, with masked processions and the burning of the More effigy to drive out winter.