Challenging religious hegemony

This work applies the theoretical framework of the religious marketplace to examine the religious landscape of Lithuania as a hegemonic field where the dominant Catholicism is regarded as an integral part of the national identity. The research interest aims at exploring the Ethno-Pagan movement Romuva and its strategies to counteract the social authority of the Catholic Church and build legitimacy through maximization of cultural capital. I advance the hypothesis that the ritualized form of the celebration of the spring holiday Jorė could be regarded as an attempt to construct an alternative, counterhegemonic narrative of identity, which portrays a worldview where the ethnical, cultural, natural and political aspects of Lithuanian reality come together to form a comprehensive unity under the guidance of the Ethno-Pagan religion.