Halloween is not a Lithuanian holiday, and nobody in Vilnius pretends otherwise. It arrived the way most borrowed things arrive, through films and bars and people who came back from somewhere else with a costume in their bag. But it lands in a city that takes the end of October seriously in its own way, and that makes Halloween in Vilnius stranger and better than the version you might know.
The loud night before the quiet days
The first two days of November belong to the dead here. All Saints' Day and Vėlinės, All Souls' Day, are both public holidays, and families travel across the country to tend graves and light candles. After dark the cemeteries glow with thousands of small red and white lights; Rasos, the old cemetery on the edge of the Old Town, is the best known of them. It is quiet, and it is worth seeing, as long as you go as a visitor and not as a party.
Halloween is the other half of the same weekend. If Vėlinės is for remembering, the night of 31 October is for the living: costumes, too many drinks, and the particular pleasure of a cold night with somewhere warm to be.
Where to go
Halloween in Vilnius happens in the Old Town. The crowds and the louder parties gather around Pilies and Vokiečių gatvė, where the bars spill out onto the street and you can walk from one to the next in a few minutes. Most of the city's Halloween parties are in bars and clubs rather than in the street, so the night is about choosing a room.
Ours is on Stiklių gatvė, the old glassmakers' street, a few minutes from Town Hall. A big room, dark wood, amber light, and a bar that has made something specific for the night. Not a haunted house; a good place to sit in a costume for a long time.
What we pour
For Halloween the bar leans on one producer, the historic distillery at Pakruojis Manor in northern Lithuania. Pakruojo dvaro spirito varykla has been making spirits on the estate since the eighteenth century, and its Cherry Brandy is dark, sweet, and very well suited to the occasion.
Vampyro Bučinys, Vampire's Kiss, is Pakruojis Manor Krištolinė vodka and Cherry Brandy, with lemon juice and syrup. Deep red, sour and sweet, and gone faster than it should be.
Juodas Kraujas, Black Blood, is for the table: four shots of Pakruojis Manor Cherry Brandy and Guinness. Cherry and stout is an old pairing, and the name does the rest.
Something to eat
The kitchen keeps to the season. A pumpkin soup, warm and plain, for anyone coming in from the cold. And Velnio Sparneliai, Devil's Wings, because the velnias, the devil of Lithuanian folk tales, is a better host for the night than any vampire. On Fridays and Saturdays the kitchen stays open until 01:30, and the rest of the menu is there too.
Dress for it
You do not need a costume to come in, but this year there is a costume contest, so the effort will not go unnoticed. The best ones are usually the simplest: something you can still sit, drink, and talk in at one in the morning.
The practical part
Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, so we are open from 17:00 until 03:00. Walk in, or call ahead for a table; for a group of ten or more, see events. We are at Stiklių g. 4, in Vilnius Old Town. Come dressed as anything you like.