Lithuania · Straw gardens in Lithuania

Issue date25 Sept 2024

Total mintage500,000

EU maximum500,000

Editions2

Edge letteringLAISVĖ ★ VIENYBĖ ★ GEROVĖ ★

InscriptionLIETUVA / 2024

DesignerTomas Dragūnas

mintUAB Lietuvos monetų kalykla, Vilnius (Lithuania)

Issue occasion

The occasion is the inscription of the Lithuanian tradition of straw gardens on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The design depicts a stylized straw garden made up of geometric shapes of different sizes, with points facing toward the sky and beneath the earth, as well as the inscription “LIETUVA”. Straw gardens are a Baltic cultural tradition with decorative and ceremonial significance and are associated with well-being and spirituality.

The design

The coin depicts a stylized straw garden made up of geometric shapes of different sizes. One of its points faces upward (toward the sky), while the other faces downward (beneath the earth). The coin also bears the inscription “LIETUVA” (Lithuania), the year of issue (2024), and the mintmark of the Lithuanian Mint. Straw gardens are a Baltic cultural tradition with decorative and ceremonial significance. They are associated with well-being and spirituality. The national side of the coin was designed by Tomas Dragūnas.

The twelve stars of the European flag are depicted on the outer ring of the coin.

Background on the topic

The inscription of “Straw garden making in Lithuania” took place in 2023. In Lithuania, these structures are called *sodai*, literally “gardens”. They are not woven baskets or wreaths, but light, three-dimensional suspended constructions. Dried cereal stalks are cut into uniform pieces and joined with threads to form pyramids, octahedra and composite structures made from them. Small figures, such as birds, often complement the basic structure. Suspended freely from the ceiling, the structures can rotate even with slight air movement.

The geometric order is traditionally understood as a reduced model of an ordered world. Individual levels and axes can express ideas about the relationship between people, ancestors, nature and the cosmos. The cereal straw used also refers to agriculture, the harvest and the cycle of life. However, the precise form and interpretation are not the same everywhere, but depend on the region, family, occasion and the individual makers.

Straw gardens were made especially for domestic celebrations and transitions in the course of life. They could be suspended above a wedding table or a cradle and were also part of the furnishings used for seasonal celebrations. Their making and use were thus integrated into communal activities. For a long time, the knowledge was passed on primarily within families and local communities. Today, it is also taught by craftspeople, cultural centres, schools and workshops. Alongside traditional forms, new compositions are created without abandoning the basic technique.

The UNESCO List records not individual material objects, but knowledge, skills and social practices. Its inscription is therefore intended above all to support the transmission of the making technique and its cultural contexts. The coin issue in the following year made this international recognition visible in everyday payment and placed a tradition that continues to be practised, rather than a single historical object, at the centre.