Židikai ( Samogitian: ''Žėdėkā'') is a town in

Mažeikiai district municipality Mažeikiai District Municipality (, ) is located in the north-west of Lithuania, on the River Venta in Telšiai County. The administrative center of Mažeikiai District is the city of Mažeikiai. Its territory of is composed of of towns and ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

. It is located 21 km west of

Mažeikiai Mažeikiai (; Samogitian: ''Mažeikē''; ; ) is a city in northwestern Lithuania, on the Venta River. It has a population of around 32,000, making it the eighth largest city in Lithuania and eighteenth largest city in the Baltic States. Th ...

. Židikai is the seat of Židikai elderate. Židikai is known for being the home of Marija Pečkauskaitė – Šatrijos Ragana, a famous Lithuanian writer (1877–1930) for the last 15 years of her lifetime. Zidikai police office 1938

Etymology

Name ''Židikai'' originates from the words ''Žydi kaip laukas'' (''blooms like a field'' in English), or from the word ''Židikis'' (meaning ''tough''). Židikai was first mentioned in historic records in 1568 AD.

History

From 1614, Židikai was held by the

Kražiai Kražiai (; ; ) is a historic town (Lithuania), town in Lithuania, located in the Kelmė district municipality, between Varniai (32 km) and Raseiniai (44 km), on the River. The old town of Kražiai is an archeological and urban monument ...

Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

. In 1659, during the

Northern Wars "Northern Wars" is a term used for a series of wars fought in northern Europe, northern and northeastern Europe from the 16th to the 18th century, primarily between the territorial rivals of the Swedish Empire, Tsardom of Russia, Poland–Lithuani ...

, Swedish forces burnt down Židikai. Between 1918 and 1939, when Lithuania was established as an

independent state Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of a ...

, Židikai prospered. It was both the center of a Catholic parish and the center of local governance. In the interwar period Židikai population reached nearly 1,000. Before World War II, Židikai had an important Jewish community. According to the census of 1923, there were 893 residents in the

shtetl or ( ; , ; Grammatical number#Overview, pl. ''shtetelekh'') is a Yiddish term for small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish populations which Eastern European Jewry, existed in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. The t ...

, 799 being Jewish (89%). During the summer of

1941 The Correlates of War project estimates this to be the deadliest year in human history in terms of conflict deaths, placing the death toll at 3.49 million. However, the Uppsala Conflict Data Program estimates that the subsequent year, 1942, wa ...

, hundreds of Jews were murdered in mass executions perpetrated by an

einsatzgruppen (, ; also 'task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the imp ...

of Germans and Lithuanian collaborators. Economic activity in the village stalled. After the war, during the years of

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

occupation, Židikai developed similarly to other small towns in Lithuania: in 1952, a hospital was established in the former parsonage; in 1954, a secondary school was established replacing the primary school; and in 1956, Židikai's Culture Center was founded. Židikai's population in 1959 was 429. After the re-establishment of independence of Lithuania in 1990, Židikai became the seat of the Židikai elderate.

Progress

Currently, there are three grocery shops, a gymnasium, a dispensary, a public library, a music school and a Culture center. Public parks were created in 2006 and 2008. In 2007, the President of the Republic of Lithuania approved a new coat of arms of Židikai. On 30 April 2010, a project to renovate the center of the town began. It was financed by the EU and Mažeikiai District Municipality's funds. During the project, the Nepriklausomybės and Turgaus squares as well as the buildings of the Culture center and Židikai elderate were renovated. The project was finished in 2012. Its value was LTL 731,677. The old town of Židikai is an urban monument with its street plan protected. The large Lithuanian company,

ORLEN Lietuva Orlen Lietuva (former Mažeikių Nafta) is a subsidiary of the Polish PKN Orlen and owns the Mažeikiai oil refinery as well as the oil-processing plant in Lithuania, the only oil refinery in the Baltic States. Refinery The Mažeikiai refinery ...

has a presence in the Židikai eldership.

Design

Židikai town has a radial layout, established from the time of the Wallach land reform of 1547. Conserved buildings are predominantly one or two floors high and date to the early 20th century. There are also post

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and later 20th century buildings. The old part of Židikai is a monument of urbanistics, protected by the state.

Culture

Židikai is noted for its resident of 15 years, the author

Šatrijos Ragana Šatrijos Ragana ("Witch of Šatrija") was the pen name of Marija Pečkauskaitė (; March 8, 1877 – July 24, 1930), a Lithuanian humanist and romantic writer and educator. Her most successful works are (''In the Old Estate'', 1922) and ''Irko ...

. In the center of Židikai, there is a museum dedicated to her . Its exhibits document both her childhood and youth as well as her later life in the town. The Židikai Culture Centre encourages regional traditions and leisure activities for the youth and other residents of the town. The building of the Culture Centre was completed in 1967 with two halls: a larger hall with a capacity of 200 seats for large events, concerts, disco parties ''etc''. and a smaller hall for events such as art exhibitions and board game tournaments. Židikai public library was opened in 1939. In 2004, the library had about 9,000 documents and books in its possession. In 1994, the library moved to the new premises in the building of the Culture Centre (which is also home to the town's music school). The public library is a branch of

public library."Mažeikių rajono savivaldybės viešoji biblioteka."
MRVB website.

Governance

Židikai is the center of Židikai eldership and the largest town within the eldership. The area of the eldership is . The population density of the eldership is 3.044-man/km². In 2009, five sub-elderships were established, one of which was located in Židikai itself.

Education

The Židikai Marija Pečkauskaitė Gymnasium opened in 1865 and is the oldest school in the Mažeikiai District Municipality. In the town there is also a branch of the Mažeikiai music school which was founded in 1986. There, students have an opportunity to learn to play the piano, accordion, saxophone or guitar as well as to learn music theory and history. It is located in the Židikai Culture Centre.

Religion

Židikai has one Roman Catholic church and one chapel (in the cemetery of the town). The first church in Židikai was built in 1636 by the

Jesuits who held the town from 1614. The parish of Židikai was established in 1853. The existing St. John the Baptist's church was built in 1821 and St. Ann's Chapel was built in 1941. The most important religious festival and the biggest festival of the town is Saint Ann's Feast celebrated annually during the last weekend of July. On the Sunday of the feast,

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

is celebrated in front of the cemetery chapel.

Notable residents

* Marija Pečkauskaitė – Šatrijos Ragana (1877–1930), a Lithuanian author and educationalist, who lived in Židikai from 1915 until her death. She was buried in the Židikai cemetery. * Alfonsas Bukontas (born 1941 , Židikai parish), a poet a translator who graduated from Židikai secondary school. * (born 1938 near Židikai), an author, journalist and editor who graduated from Židikai secondary school. * (born 1941 near Židikai), a politician and signatory of the

Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania The Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania or Act of 11 March () was an Declaration of independence, independence declaration by Lithuania adopted on 11 March 1990, signed by all members of the Supreme Council – Reconstituent Se ...

who graduated from Židikai secondary school.