Mardi Gras is a traditional Lithuanian holiday celebrated at the end of winter season. People wore frightening masks to scare winter demons away and to wake the frozen earth for a new life. This holiday developed from a cult festival in paganism to a fun celebration nowadays.

Mardi Gras masks are usually carved from wood and portray frightening and even repulsive faces (huge noses, wrinkled cheeks, disproportioned eyes, missing teeth, etc). Originally these masks had a cult meaning and were used to invoke the ancestors' spirits to breath new life into the soil and to increase its fertility.