Dark Galaxy

Hi! Thanks for the question, it always delights me when someone cares enough to investigate and make sure.

Your second guess is almost spot on. For me it sounds like a vocative case of an older form of Lithuanian that might have been used in the beginning of 20th century. It is very likely the form still lives on in some regional dialects, though I've not encountered it in real life standard language or in modern texts. It's still a masculine form, btw.

Hi @svngriche! I don't know Latin, but hopefully I'll manage to be somewhat helpful. All these are sort of variations of "little (one)".

"Mažius" is a noun and literally means a person (or animal) that is little/small. It's a rather informal cutesy term (not really Hannibal's style, if not used in crack context).

"Mažiukas" and "mažasis" can both be adjectives and nouns. Kind of like "dear" in English. "Little/small" is actually "mažas" in Lithuanian. By adding a diminutive suffix you get "mažiukas" (also can be "mažytis", "mažuliukas" - don't get me started on all possibilities :D), which essentially means "very little" or "tiny".

"Mažasis" is a special form of adjective that in some contexts can be used as a noun. I'm not even sure if there is a term for this form in English (didn't find anything in quick google search, but I'm not a linguist so maybe I just don't know what to search). The additional ending adds a layer of specialness among the others with the same feature and means that you refer to a specific person/thing.

So here you go. If you ask me, I'd say Hannibal would most likely use "mažasis" as it kind of approximates the meaning of affectionate "dearest" with a tinge of "little" thrown in. ("Mažoji" would also be very appropriate for him talking to/about his sister.) Sassy and playful Will could go for "mažius" when teasing Hannibal. And "mažiukas" is somewhere in the middle.. :)

I’ve read some fics where despite being outwardly very polite and proper, Hannibal sometimes secretly curses in Lithuanian. And I find this idea pretty hilarious. :) So I thought, why not make a menu of most common traditional Lithuanian swear words/phrases for anyone to avail themselves of in their imagination? :D

Though Lithuanian millennials and especially gen Z are increasingly cursing in English, there’s still a rather wide array of very unique Lithuanian expletives that can be more or less popular among different age groups. The origin of some of them is totally lost even to native speakers, ‘cause the literal meaning and actual use diverged inexplicably. But that makes them even more fun! 

In general Lithuanian curses are rather mild and less crude compared to English or especially Russian (but very inventive and some can be used ironically as a sort of joke). While some English and Russian swearwords or their literal translations are not uncommon, I’ll skip those, ‘cause they’re not originally Lithuanian and at least in my headcanon they fit Hannibal even less so than Lithuanian ones due to their harsher/more obscene flavor.

So here we go:

General exclamations in unfortunate situations:

“Šūdas!” - literally “sh*t” and used in the same occasions as that one or interchangeably with “f*ck” when something doesn’t go the way you planned/expected or surprises you in a bad way. Used widely in the population, maybe a bit more among younger generations as they tend to be more comfortable with a bit stronger words (I’d say it’s a rare case of being a bit more abrasive than the English counterpart).

“Velnias!” - literally “devil”, but used in the same cases as “šūdas”. Milder than the last one, so it’s not a huge offence even when used in more polite company. Probably more likely to be used by Hannibal if you can imagine him cursing at all.

“Po velnių!” - it’s not really a correct traditional grammar so could be translated to approximately “under the devils” or “to the devils” while meaning something similar to “(the) hell!”. Common when you get into trouble, something is really not going the way you wanted. Mainly used for the same purposes as the two above and as the next ones. I’m just trying to list them in terms of frequency of use (most to least common, but as always this is highly dependent on particular person and social group). Not especially vulgar (as the rest of this group, except maybe for the first one), so not a very long stretch to imagine Hannibal muttering it.

“Velniai griebtų!” - translates roughly to “devils may grab”. 

“Po perkūnais!” - means “under the thunders” or “to the thunders”. 

“Prakeikimas!" - literally “damnation”, used in similar situation as the above ones, just maybe a bit less common.

“Rupūs miltai!” - literally “coarse/wholemeal flour”. This is probably the least common IRL. Mainly still used by the older generations, but could occasionally leave a youth’s mouth ironically as a joke curse. I personally find it very funny and can imagine Hannibal using it in cracky scenarios, ‘cause he just carries that old-fashioned atmosphere with flare. 

“Dieve (mano)!” - this isn’t actually a curse, I guess, and can definitely be used in very fortunate situations [wink wink], but probably fits the general vibe. Literally “(my) God!”. Used pretty much in the same situations and frequency as the English counterpart. 

Insults towards someone:

“Velnio išpera” - literally “devil’s spawn”. Sort of equivalent to “son of a b*tch”, but can be used against any gender and signifies some real maliciousness of the person in reference.

“Asilas”, “avinas”, “avigalvis” [when directly addressing a person “asile”, “avine”, “avigalvi”] - respectively meaning “donkey”, “ram” and “sheep-headed”. In essence probably closest to “ass/asshole”, but the accent is on stupidity/idiocy and stubbornness, not maliciousness of a person. Used against males. 

“Šunksnukis” [when directly addressing a person “šunksnuki”] - literally means “dog faced”. Use is similar to “son of a b*tch”, referring to a person’s bad intentions. Meant to be referred to males. 

“Gyvatė” [when directly addressing a person “gyvate”]. Mainly used against a female. Literal meaning: “snake”. Can be sort of approximated to “b*tch”, but mostly accentuating the malicious cunning of the female in question. Does not have any positive friendly connotations, like “that’s my b*tch”, used only to talk someone down or insult them. On the other hand, it’s still rather milder than “b*tch” when the latter is used on the harshest end of its meaning spectrum. No sexual connotation whatsoever, just for pure malicious patterns of behavior. 

“Žaltys” [when directly addressing a person “žalty”] - literally “grass snake” and it’s a male equivalent of “gyvatė”. Same connotations, just against a male.

“Rupūžė” [when directly addressing a person “rupūže”] - literally “toad”. In meaning similar to “gyvatė” and “žaltys”, but the accent is on pure maliciousness without necessarily involving cunning/manipulative tactics. 

“Būk prakeiktas!” - literally “damn you” or “be damned” addressed to a male, while talking to a female it would be “būk prakeikta!”. Used in the same manner and probably the same frequency as English equivalent. If you want to say “damn him” - it’s “tebūnie jis prakeitas”, or “damn her” is “tebūnie ji prakeikta”. 

“Eik po velnių!” - literally “go to the devils” or “go under the devils”. In essence an equivalent of “go to hell!”.

“Kad tave perkūnas nutrenktų! / kad tave žemė prarytų!” - literally “may the thunder strikes you! / may the earth swallows you!”. I’m not aware of accurate English equivalents, but you can probably intuit the intention from the translations. It would be said to someone who’s done something terrible or is following a totally different value system than your own (but also signifies a pretty malicious intention from yourself, if I may make an observation).

“Kaip tave žemė nešioja?!” - translates to “how does the Earth even carry you?”. Supposed to express anger/disdain against a person one thinks is the absolute worst. Of course, it often ends up used in the heat of the moment towards a person one doesn’t truly believe to be the worst in the world. :) When talking about other persons, i.e. him/her/them(male)/them(female), instead of “tave” one uses “jį/ją/juos/jas”.

“Kad tau liežuvis nukristų!” - literally “may your tongue falls out”. Used against someone you believe is a liar/manipulator and you (aggressively) wish them to cease this practice.

There are, of course, many other Lithuanian expletives, so if you’re interested to find out something in addition, want a specific translation - feel free to contact me. 

Christmas

(This is Part 4 of the series. Other parts can be found here: Prologue, Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.) 

Christmas day itself has no specific peculiarities compared to other countries. Religious families would go to Christmas morning mass.

The whole family would open presents (if they were left under the Christmas tree at night), have 3 meals together. Meat and poultry is finally allowed. Frequently a whole duck/goose/turkey would be cooked for dinner. I know that everybody laughs at and/or are disgusted by the fish aspic Hannibal serves in Tome-wan. It’s presented as a Ukranian dish, but Lithuanians (and, I guess, other countries in the region) actually have a very similar thing. But it’s meat and not fish based. It’s called “Šaltiena”. It’s not a specific Christmas thing, but a dish that used to be rather common during cold season (it’s popularity declined somewhat recently, ‘cause people are not as patient with their meals preparation anymore). It’s still not a strange occurrence to find it on a Christmas table. It looks somewhat like this (though it can take any shape, depending on the form of the container it’s been made in):

Kūčios (Christmas Eve) dinner/supper

(This is Part 3 of the series. Other parts can be found here: Prologue, Part 1, Part 2 and Part 4.) 

Kūčios dinner is supposed to consist of 12 dishes. Nowadays, however, it has not escaped the clutches of over-consumerism and more often than not it becomes “at least 12 dishes” and the table can start overflowing with food. 

No matter if you’re a traditionalist of strictly 12 dishes or a more liberal generous one, your Kūčios dinner is always ALWAYS vegetarian: consisting only of vegetables, mushrooms and fish (no poultry or red meat). Some people go even stricter and do not make anything that includes eggs or milk. 

It is customary that everyone eats a little bit of every dish, so they’re usually served in already divided chunks. Everybody helps themselves by taking pieces of food into their own plates from the dishes placed in the middle of the table. A table usually looks similar to this:

A table can be decorated with spruce/fir/pine branches, cones, straw, candles. No flowers, though. It’s a remaining tradition from the old times when flowers were not available during winter.

There’s a tradition that’s recently less and less practiced, especially in cities. Straws would be put on the table beneath the tablecloth. And a practiced spell was that family members would draw (without looking) a straw from beneath the tablecloth. The length of the drawn straw would symbolize the length of your remaining life, and the thickness - the material riches awaiting you in the future. It’s a rather morbid ritual to the modern eye, but I guess morbidity was a much more common and accepted part of the lives in the old times.

Another vanishing (but still practiced by some) tradition is allocating sitting places and plates for recently deceased family members. A burning candle is usually placed on their plate. More superstitious people believe that spirits of those dead relatives come to hang out with the family on Kūčios night. There are no strict rules on how recently the relative has to have died to be included. So if it’s someone extremely important to you, you could in theory give them a place and a plate at your Kūčios table for the rest of your life. I imagine that Hannibal could probably do this for Mischa and Abigail indefinitely.

It’s common to begin Kūčios dinner by symbolically breaking “plotkelės” (even for families that are not really religious, it’s become a part of tradition). These are basically Eucharist wafers that are given out during catholic masses as a symbol of Christ’s body. But they’re bigger and rectangle shaped, with Christ nativity themed embossed pictures. You can get them at your local catholic church for a certain offering of cash. Every family member gets their own “plotkelė” and then other members break a little peace from each of the other family member while looking into their eyes (sort of similar like during a toast) and then eats them. The remaining parts of “plotkelės” are further broken down and put on dishes present on the table. More religious families would also say a prayer. While the head of not so religiously inclined ones would give a short speech along the lines of how happy we are to be gathered here all together and hopefully luck and health would not leave anyone during the next year. “Plotkelės” look like this:

(photo from wikipedia) 

Probably the most traditional and almost obligatory dish on Kūčios table is “Kūčiukai”. These are small bakery products served in sweetened poppy seed milk. Usually they’re eaten at the end of the supper as a sort of dessert soup. They look like this:

Examples of other traditional dishes:

“Kisielius” - a thick, almost jelatinous sour-sweet drink (it can be made of various fruits and berries, but on Kūčios it’s usually cranberry based).

Various kinds of “Mišrainė” - that’s a sort of thick kind of salad consisting of boiled, pickled, dried and otherwise preserved vegetables, legumes and wild mushrooms with thick, usually mayonnaise or oil based sauce (might also include eggs, fried or smoked fish). It’s not just only a Kūčios thing, but common throughout the cold season, heritage from the old times when people did not have access to fresh greens or other fresh plant ingredients in winter (outside of Kūčios ir can also include ham). Examples:

Various kinds of herring dishes with vegetables and wild mushrooms (though we DO NOT have this extremely fermented foul smelling Scandinavian type of herring that’s almost close to rotting point). Examples:

Different kinds of fish. Though white meat fish has been traditionally more common, recently salmon or trout or even some seafood has begun to gain popularity.

Wild mushroom stuffed pastries (filling can also include cabbage and/or carrots). Like this:

After Kūčios dinner some more religious families would go to late Christmas Eve Mass. It’s called “Bernelių/piemenėlių mišios” (translates to “shepherds’ mass” and is called after the shepherds who were first informed about the birth of Christ according to the Bible). IRL this is also used by not so religious people who take this opportunity to meet with their friends from childhood and high school whom they don’t meet very often anymore due to the fact that they had moved to live in different places, but now came back to visit their families in the same native town).

Before Kūčios (Christmas Eve)

(This is Part 2 of the series. Other parts can be found here: Prologue, Part 1, Part 3 and Part 4.) 

Before Christmas there’s a 4 week period of advent. It’s a time of restrained eating (especially no meat on Fridays), no especially rigorous/noisy work, no parties or other festivities. This is a blend of heritage of both pagan (time for spirits before solstice) and Christian (awaiting arrival of the son of God) traditions. I personally don’t know anybody who strictly follows the rules of advent, but there might be some people who do. It’s up to a creator if they want Hannibal’s dead or surviving family to follow this tradition. In my personal headcanon, they might be inclined towards preserving some cultural (even pagan influenced) traditions more than genuinely following catholic commandments (based on Hannibal’s not very conventional thoughts on God, but who knows - maybe he’s just a weird pear in an apple basket, and what a “surprise” that would be, haha).

It is customary to have a deep clean of the house/apartment in the morning and during day of Kūčios. Basically you clean and polish every nook and cranny of your home, shake out mattresses, change bed sheets, etc. In the countryside it also used to be a sort of intensive bathing day (with sauna) for family members themselves. 

Kūčios is the last day of advent so you’re supposed to still be fasting: at least not eat meat the whole day. More traditional families do not eat anything at all until the festive supper in the evening.

In general about Lithuanian holiday season

(This is Part 1 of the series. Other parts can be found here: Prologue, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.)

Despite predominantly catholic religious beliefs, Lithuanian festive traditions are still rather significantly influenced by our past pagan rituals (though it can be observed in most western festivals, it is especially prominent in one of the last European nations to be converted to Christianity). It is not uncommon for even rather religious families to practice little rituals that cannot be explained by anything else than just pagan heritage (though that doesn’t say anything about their conscious awareness of this).

The time of Soviet occupation really tried to eradicate any explicitly religious ceremonies, though they have been reviving more and more after regaining independence in the ‘90s (of course, they were also practiced semi-secretly even during that time). I’ll try to indicate any significant differences between now and then, if relevant.

Christmas Eve is kind of more important than Christmas day. That’s a very typical Lithuanian thing. As in other countries, it is a time for the whole family to gather in one place.

Christmas Eve has a separate name in Lithuanian - Kūčios - which reflects its individual importance. (Christmas - is “(Šv.) Kalėdos”. “Šv.” being an abbreviation for “saint”, which you use or don’t depending on your religiousness).

Christmas tree is, of course, an almost obligatory attribute at home during this time. Alternatively (or in addition to a Christmas tree) people might decorate a spruce/fir/pine branch or several in a vase. A mini variety of traditional straw decorations called “sodai” can be used. Originally “sodai” are not linked to Christmas and were used as home decorations during weddings, above baby cribs, etc. But I feel Hannibal would be rather inclined to use them on Kūčios and Christmas. They’re very beautiful. Examples:

Christmas gifts can be exchanged among family members after Kūčios dinner or could be secretly put under the tree at night to be found on Christmas morning. In bigger family gatherings one of the adult family members might dress up as Santa Clause and perform the whole gift giving show for the children. In Lithuanian he’s called “Kalėdų senelis”, which translates to “Christmas grandpa/old man”. Children are usually asked to recite a poem, sing a song, dance or perform some other trick of their choice to “earn” their gift.

So.. @byk23 whispered to me that some fannibals might be interested in Lithuanian Christmas traditions. Maybe they’d like to fantasize how Hannibal could recreate some of them? Who knows? Surely I do, sometimes (fantasize various Hannibal scenarios, that is, not know what other people like to do with their free time). :) Hence, this series is born.

There are 4 parts:

Part 1: In general about Lithuanian holiday season

Part 2: Before Kūčios (Christmas Eve)

Part 3: Kūčios (Christmas Eve) dinner/supper (traditional culinary galore)

Part 4: Christmas

I’m neither an author nor an artist so I’ve only been passively enjoying all Hannigram content so far. But if possible, I’d be very happy to give back at least a tiny bit to this fabulous fandom. 

Coincidentally, I’m a co-national (at least by birth) with one Hannibal Lecter. :) And rather self-gratifyingly I’ve been fond of every Lithuanian reference in fics. Though I agree with some writers’ opinion that strictly canon-compliant Hannibal would hardly want to have a lot of contact with his Lithuanian past due to his prior trauma, there’s still a huge creative space where this can be exploited very cleverly and originally and it’s certainly been done and I enjoyed such fics very much!