The festive period was the time when Lithuanian citizens who had gone abroad came back to visit their relatives or the latter themselves went to visit emigrants.
According to "Skrendu.lt" data, according to the plane tickets sold, most of those who came to Lithuania for the holidays are not in a hurry to leave - even 57 percent. passengers flew to Lithuania during the holidays without a return ticket. Meanwhile, 85 percent everyone who flew abroad during the holidays had a return ticket. Psychologist Asta Blandė commented on the importance of visiting family members living in another country during the holidays. Seeing relatives is especially important for children and teenagers whose parents work abroad.
Returns without a return ticket
According to Skrendu.lt flight data analyst Dovilė Krekenaitė, the reasons why most returnees do not yet know the date of their return trip can be various. Some want to stay in their hometown longer, during all the winter holidays, others return after finishing seasonal work and stay for the holidays. 43 percent passengers who buy plane tickets go to Lithuania already having a return ticket to the same country they came from. The main countries from which people return to Lithuania for the holidays are the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Norway, Italy, Denmark.
"The desire to return to one's hometown during the most important holidays of the year is different for everyone and depends on how strongly a person feels that his roots are where he was born and what his relationship is with his closest family members or friends. If the connection is strong, people experience a feeling of longing and rush to their homeland. For them, this place remains a kind of starting point from which all life journeys began. People who have been here feel calmer and after that they can return to the homes created abroad and continue their lives. However, some create a stronger connection with the environment they went to and put down roots there, gathering a circle of important people. Sometimes it is in a new place that people want to stay and celebrate one of the most beautiful holidays of the year", says psychologist and book author A. Blandė.
stays longer in Lithuania
According to the "Skrendu.lt" analyst, people returning to Lithuania with a return ticket tend to spend here from 8 days to two weeks, and even a third stay even longer. D. Krekenaitė names various reasons for this.
"Part of the passengers are students who are not yet working and may spend more than a week at home after the end of the semester until the start of their new studies. Also, some Lithuanian expatriates value Christmas at their parents' house, so they save vacation days all year round and use them for a longer period of time to spend time with family and long-lost friends here in Lithuania. Only 22% of people return to Lithuania for just a week or less, which means that Lithuanians tend to spend the entire festive period in their homeland - both Christmas and New Year, and do not hurry to return to work immediately after the New Year," says Skrendu.lt analyst D .
Children feel longing the most
If not all adults feel the longing for their loved ones, then the holiday season becomes especially sensitive for children and teenagers whose parents work abroad for most of the year. It can even become the cause of psychological difficulties.
"The experience of a long separation is a great test for a family. Family members live as if on a swing: with ups and downs, they are constantly faced with a feeling of extreme excitement and anxiety of leaving. I understand that for some families such a choice is a necessity and an unavoidable situation, because there is a lack of opportunities to live with dignity in their own country. However, I notice other trends in my practice. Sometimes the desires and ambitions of adults are so great that they surpass the very important and fundamental need of the smallest family members: to live together with all family members. Sometimes parents leave their children and teenagers to go through difficult and unpleasant feelings in order to get a better bite, an even nicer house, an even bigger reward, even more trips. Children are not ready for separation and do not understand such necessity", says A. Blandė.
The new fashion is to visit emigrants
Lithuanians living abroad do not necessarily return home, but this does not mean that they have abandoned their loved ones. Holiday traditions were diversified by trips of parents and friends to foreign countries to visit their compatriots.
"The statistics of flights from Lithuania during the holidays show a slightly different picture than the data of other months of the year. If normally there are slightly more than half of those departing without a return ticket, then during the holidays even 85 percent. all those flying abroad buy tickets together with their return to Lithuania. Only 15 percent departs with a one-way ticket", observes the flight ticket analyst of Skrendu.lt.
The reasons for this can be various, one of them is that people travel during the holidays to visit relatives abroad, but do not plan to stay there for a long time. It is also interesting that the only city to which one-way tickets fly more often during the holidays is Kiev. This shows that, similar to Lithuanians working abroad, Ukrainians working in Lithuania try to return to their loved ones for the holidays without rushing back.
Skrendu.lt's expert also named the cities to which most people fly from Lithuania during the holidays. These are London, Oslo, Copenhagen, Dublin, Barcelona and Rome.
There is no single rule
According to psychologist A. Blandė, when it comes to holidays and longing for loved ones, it would be difficult to write rules that would be suitable for all family and all cases of life. Her brother's home is also overseas, so the experience is all too familiar.
"It is very important for people who feel important to each other to talk, discuss and find the best solution at the time. Sometimes it is possible for everyone to meet at the birthplace, and sometimes it is easier or more interesting for relatives to go to the place where their loved one created his environment. It is important to be together, feel and rejoice. Having visited my brother myself and spent a lot of time as a guest, I understood how he lives, what surrounds him and why he is happy there. When you understand that, you feel calm," admits A. Blandė.
The psychologist assures that neither place nor gifts determine how important a person really is. According to her, sometimes just the little things mean a lot: a call, an inquiry, a visit, a look in the eye and a warm hug. Therefore, the presence of loved ones or at least the attention shown are necessary attributes of the big holidays of the year, necessary for us to find strength and be able to move forward.
