Table of Contents
- Jāņi (summer solstice)
- Ziemas saulgrieži (winter solstice)
- Name days
- Cemetery festivals
Jāņi (Summer Solstice)
Jāņi is the most popular Latvian festivity. It is a day when
cities vacate and every civil servant and bank clerk shows their pagan side. It
originated as an ancient fertility festival celebrated after sowing the crops
and before gathering harvest.
Latvians sing, dance, eat and are merry during Jāņi. Cheese
with caraway seeds, meat patties and beer, are a must for every table. People
light bonfires, jump over them and celebrate until the sunrise. Romantic
couples leave the crowd to look for the “flower of the fern”, which is alleged
to bloom only in the night of Jāņi.
Families get together in their countryside homes. They make
bouquets and wreaths out of herbs, flowers and leaves. Women traditionally wear
flower wreaths, while men have theirs made of oak leaves or twigs. The
livestock and fences are adorned with wreaths. Gates and rooms are decorated
with birch, oak, and rowan branches.
The celebration used to take place during the longest day
and the shortest night of the year, June 21. The Christianization of Latvia
moved the date forward to the eve of June 24, the St. John Day. The Soviet
authorities prohibited the celebration altogether in the 1960’s as
nationalistic. Many defied the ban and went on to express their national
identity through the traditional festivities.
Jānis is the most popular Latvian personal name. Currants
are called “jāņogas” “berries of Jānis” in Latvian, as they mature around
Midsummer.
Ziemas saulgrieži (Winter Solstice)
"Ziemassvētki" or Christmas in Latvia is
marked by an inextricable mix of ethnic, religious and modern traditions making
it a truly unique experience. While most in the western world celebrate
Christmas as the birth of Jesus Christ, according to pre-Christian Latvian
pagan traditions it is the rebirth of the Sun Maiden.
Typical ethnic Christmas traditions include participation in
ķekatas or mumming as well as dragging the Yule log. Both these traditions,
though different in character, serve a similar purpose. The mummers, who are
costumed and wear masks of animals and such macabre figures as living corpses
and death, bring blessing to the households, encourage fertility, and frighten
away evil spirits. The dragging and subsequent burning of the Yule log
symbolizes incineration of last year's problems and misfortunes.
Ancient Latvians integrated pagan rituals into Christianity,
what resulted in new traditions like the decoration of firs on Winter Solstice.
Rīga is
recognised as the birthplace of the first Christmas tree, put up and decorated
as early as 1510 by some accounts. Today Latvians still decorate natural fir
trees with lighted candles and ornaments. Others decorate their houses with
straw ornaments, evergreen branches, junipers and other natural materials.
An integral part of every Christmas is a lavish meal,
consisting of 12 foods which usually include such traditional dishes as a Christmas
roast and grey peas, as well as traditional treats such as bacon rolls and
gingerbread cookies.
Still, no matter the particularities, celebrating Christmas
around the world has one unifying element - family. Either it is in a church,
by a cosy fireplace or out mumming in the snowy countryside, Christmas is about
family and being grateful for what we have.
Name Days
The Coolest Latvian Celebration You Probably Haven’t Heard
of
Latvians and our weird traditions. We love to celebrate a
lot so we make up different things to celebrate. This story is about our Name
Day Tradition.
Every Latvian is happy to celebrate the day of their name,
as marked in the calendar. It rivals the scale of birthdays and is at least as
popular. Each day in the Latvian calendar includes up to four names, and there
is a date, May 22 to celebrate the names not included in it. The tradition is
somewhat related to the church calendar of the Saints, however is practically
secular today. The State Language Agency updates the calendar every two years.
The bearers of the name receive flowers, congratulations and
small presents. They celebrate with families at home and with colleagues at
workplaces. Different from a birthday, it is customary that anyone can join a
name-day party without an invitation.
To a person who has grown up celebrating their Name Day
every year, as well as that of your mom, dad, cousins, aunts, uncles, friends
and classmates, the puzzling look of people at first made one feel
uncomfortable, almost apologetic, as if one made up a story and now can’t
proceed convincingly with their own lies. To most people, the idea of
celebrating someone’s name appears amusing, if not flat-out weird. For it is a
beautiful tradition that one took for granted while living in ones home
country, Latvia,
and one of the things they still miss now.
Latvia is
one of a few countries in Europe that has a
tradition of celebrating Name Days. The tradition started as part of the
Christian church calendar, commemorating the saints and angels, then evolved
into a celebration of those people who were named after a saint, and
eventually, became a celebration of all people’s names. Nowadays, however, the
tradition in Latvia
has no connection with Christianity. There are one to five names assigned to
each day of the year. The dates and names can’t be interchanged. The only
alterations allowed in the calendar are addition of new names or removal of
names unused for a long time after approval of a Calendar Names Commission. The
celebration for all the names that are too rare to be included in the calendar
has a designated Name Day of 22 May. Or, if a year has an extra day in
February, they can also choose to celebrate on 29 February.
Name Day is a big deal in Latvia! All the regular calendars,
agendas, diaries and notebooks are printed showing names for each date. Radio
stations at the beginning of the morning news, broadcast whose Name Days are
being celebrated today. The biggest newspapers, next to their date of issue,
print the names related to the date. You literally can’t escape being informed
or congratulated. It’s like a birthday, but in some ways even better.
Your name is mentioned everywhere. Radio hosts send greetings to you, your cell
phone plan provider sends a text greeting, networking sites send an e-mail
greeting, friends and relatives call to congratulate you the whole day,
co-workers bring flowers, you most probably buy sweets or chocolates to bring
to the office as a treat. Kids bring sweets to school for their classmates.
Your closest family has a cake waiting for you to be enjoyed with them and
anybody else who might turn up at your doorstep. Yes, the unwritten rule of a
Name Day celebration in Latvia
is that people are free to come over without an invitation "that rule
wouldn’t work for birthdays, showing up without an invitation is considered
rude". The anticipation and surprises follow you throughout the day, and
it makes you feel oh, so special! Well, special in many ways. If you have a
very common name, like me, it also might bring laughter and experiences you
will remember for a lifetime.
Cemetery Festivals
“One may not attend the cemetery festival only if one is
dead.”
/A woman in Latgale/
/A woman in Latgale/
Peculiar at first sight, these community get-togethers show
the respect of Latvians towards their ancestors. Most every cemetery gathers
extended families on specific summer weekends, especially at the countryside.
Latvian customs similar to the festival nowadays were documented by immigrant
German Catholics as early as 1428.
Families dress up and visit the graves of their loved ones.
They tend the graves and adorn them with fresh flowers and candles. A priest
gives a sermon and local musicians perform afterwards. The festivals are more
flamboyant in Latgale and Vidzeme than in Kurzeme.
Revised: 25 March 2016
