Location: 11. novembra krastmala (Vecrīga)
Length of event: 19:00 - 4:30
Frequency of event: Once per year
Līgo, Līgo!
Happy solstice! While in the United States and much of the world the longest day of the year comes and goes with little fanfare, in Latvia and much of eastern and northern Europe mid-summer is still one of the most important dates on the calendar. Although technically the shortest night goes from June 21-22, in Latvia it's observed on the night of June 23-24 as the festival of Līgo (June 23) and Jāņi (24). I don't think it's an overstatement to say that this night is at least as important as Christmas for most of the country, with the festival often being called “the most Latvian holiday.”
Traditionally, Latvians go out to the countryside, build bonfires to dance around, sing songs, grill food over open fires, jump over campfires, make flower crowns (girls) or oak wreaths (boys), and do a host of other traditions and rituals. Many Latvians still go out to the countryside for this event each year, around 30% according to a recent study published. Līga and I went out with friends in the last two years far away from Rīga, and although we were looking forward to doing the same this year, we decided it was probably best to stick around in Rīga with our wedding coming up in just a few days. Staying in the city to celebrate such a countryside-related holiday is considered sacrilegious by many Latvians, but I also saw this as an opportunity to see how Rīga celebrates this important night.
The day before Līgo, we decided to check out the “Zāļu tirgu” (green market) that had been set up in Doma laukums (Dome Square). These types of markets happen here in the square every few months for different holidays, and feature artisans, craftsmen, artists, farmers, florists, and other merchants from throughout the entire country. As always, there was singing and dancing on a main stage right in the middle of the event.
One of the favorite traditions for Līgo is the making of flower crowns for girls and women and oak wreaths for boys and men. Traditionally, only unmarried girls are supposed to wear the crowns, but that's a technicality that's overlooked by almost everyone.
Uh oh... There was a guy selling reprints of vintage maps. Maps are like an electromagnet to me, so I had absolutely no hope. I left with a very cool reprint of an old map of Rīga showing all of the traditional manor territories we usually write about in our different posts. I justified it by telling myself it would be useful when writing about those places.
We also found Līga's aunt who was taking part in the market, selling very cool silk scarves.
The next day, festivities began on the road along the Daugava's coast at 7:00 PM. We didn't get there until a bit after that, but we hadn't missed much by the time we arrived. As we walked toward the event area, I took a picture of Līga wearing the flower crown she had just bought in the almost empty central market with the train bridge and national library in the background. As you can see, the normally bustling 11. novembra krastmala between Akmens tilts (stone bridge) and Vanšu tilts (suspension bridge) was completely closed to traffic.
As we walked into the event area, we were impressed by just how expansive the festivities were. The first stage we came across had a folk band playing music designed for dancing to, and the crowd in front of it was being taught how to dance together to each song. This provided a perfect opportunity for people new to Latvian folk culture to dip their toes into singing and dancing for the first time.
There were different food and drink stands set up all throughout the krastmala, as well as picnic tables as far as the eye could see. The biggest shock of the night for me was just how cheap beer was going for. 500 ml of Mežpils (a very good Latvian beer) was just €2.50, virtually unheard of in any of the bars in Vecrīga. Although the event was designed to be affordable for ordinary people, I feel like they easily could have charged at least €4.00.
In the very middle of the event was a massive festival-sized stage where Intars Busulis and Labvēlīgais Tips would be performing later in the evening. A sitting area facing the stage had been set up for people wanting to enjoy the music in a more relaxed setting.
Further on down the krastmala were some different games set up for children, including a large memory flipping game, tic tac toe, and bowling.
At the far end of the event was another outdoor stage with more folk musicians and space for dancing. This stage shut down a bit earlier in the night, but up until about 22:00 or so quite a few people were enjoying the music and dancing along.
My favorite thing by far about the event was how even though tasty food was for sale all throughout the area (especially traditional shaslik meat cooked on a skewer over hot coals), there were many fire pits which were completely open for people to use by bringing their own meat, vegetables, or whatever they wanted to cook. Many other such events would have discouraged or outright banned people from bringing their own outside food with so many vendors here, so I thought it was very cool that the organizers were promoting the spirit of Līgo and encouraging people to do it themselves as they would in the countryside.
Intars Busulis and his “Abonementa orķestris” (subscription orchestra) started at 21.00 and played an impressive nearly three hours straight, with just two short breaks. The show was a mix of his own songs and a few traditional Līgo songs thrown in here and there. He tried his best to get the audience to sing along with him, but there weren't enough people who knew the words (or willing to sing) for it to be audible. I at least sang along to all the words of “Nākamā pietura Depo” although I'm pretty sure I was the only person who did so.
In one large tent at the very far end of the event near Vanšu tilts and the castle, nearly a thousand people were packed in sitting around tables and standing, singing and dancing along to different Latvian songs with lyrics on projector screens at the front. The screens were too small to be useful for most of the people in the tent, but so many people already knew all the words to most of the songs that it didn't particularly matter.
At 22.30, just as the sun was going down, Intars Busulis paused the show for a few minutes so that the large bonfires could be lit. There were two large stacks of logs, one on each side of the stage. Men had been pouring lighter fluid over the logs for the twenty minutes before they lit them, so I think that most of the crowd were expecting the logs to go up in an impressive blinding flash as soon as they were lit. Thankfully, they had been designed in a more safety-conscious way as you can see in the video. The announcers reminded the crowd over the loudspeaker that the fires would stay lit until the first light of the morning shone over the krastmala, per Latvian tradition.
As Busulis and his orchestra continued, we finally decided to start standing in line for some chicken shashlik. Līga elected to get some fries as a side, while I went for the more traditional sautéed cabbage. All of the picnic tables were full as far as we could see, so we sat on the grass in true Līgo fashion.
After dinner we went back to the dancing area we walked by first, which by now was completely full with a mix of people from all walks of lives and corners of the Earth. We stayed for a few minutes but weren't quite in the mood for folk dancing, so we headed back to the main stage where Labvēlīgais Tips was getting ready to perform at midnight.
Labvēlīgais Tips played a respectable two-hour set that included virtually all of their hits, although I was a bit disappointed that they didn't play my two favorites Desmetais Tramvajs and Koka Klucis Konstantīns. Līga and I were glad though that they ended with their new song Frāzes, which we've been overplaying lately.
We left at 2:00 at the end of LT's set. Although there were still two and a half hours to go until daylight, we were quite tired and still had a lot of wedding planning to do at that point. When we left, the Jāņi fires were still burning strong.
Overall, I was quite impressed by Līgo on the krastmala. Considering that Līgo/Jāņi is a festival that is so heavily associated with the countryside, I had very low expectations for what would be achievable by this kind of event. What the city was able to pull off was a perfect mix of countryside traditions and modern convenience. I find it difficult to imagine that virtually anyone who came down to the event aside from those with horrible attitudes could have had a bad time. Although it wasn't enough to convince me that Līgo/Jāņi shouldn't be celebrated in the countryside away from the loud and busy city, I would highly recommend checking it out next year if you can't make it out of Rīga on the 23rd for whatever reason.
A Few Final Thoughts:
Līgo is also Līga's name day. Daudz laimes vārda dienā, Līga!
According to the city government, there were 100,000 people who attended the event, making it the largest known collective celebration of Līgo/Jāņi ever. According to Līga and my very informal and unscientific observations, a bit less than half of the attendees seemed to be tourists or foreigners who live in the city. Despite this, virtually the entire event and all of the music was in Latvian.
This event could serve as the perfect rorschach test for one's views on globalism. On one hand you could look at this event as a corruption of Latvian tradition being watered down by all of the modern influences and showiness, while on the other hand you could say that it's a successful evolution of tradition for the 21st century. You could argue that the foreigners and tourists had no idea what they were really celebrating and were just there to generically party, or you could argue that Latvian tradition was being successfully dispersed and promoted in a way that no amount of money could buy.
There was a separate event taking place on Dzeguškalns in Dzirciems which was a far more traditional Līgo/Jaņi that Līga and I were planning on checking out at some point, but we were having so much fun on the krastmala that we had no motivation to make it over there.
It's always amazing just how bright it is all night this time of year. Līga took this picture just a few days before at MIDNIGHT from her family's home in Jelgava just 45 km southwest.
“Kaijas man atgādina tos kaut kādus lidojošos dinozaurus. Īpaši tad, kad viņas atver muti. Neatceros.. kā tos dinozaurus sauc.”
“Tiranozaurs?”
“Varbūt.”
“Gan jau, ka nē. Es zinu, ka tāds ir, bet nezinu kā sauc.”
Rakstu sēžot balkona dīvānā. Riet saule man aiz muguras. Iztēlojos banālu skatu - izeju ārā ģērbusies īsā kleitā. Apsēžos zāles placītī un sildos pēdējos šī vakara saules staros. Kāda būtu brutālā realitāte? Rokās kostu odi un dibenā - skudras.
No šīs mājas uz pretējo velkas 16 (varētu būt vairāk) vadi no kuriem lielākā daļā esot tik novecojuši, ka tie ir absolūti bezjēdzīgi. Domāju par virves staigātājiem un par to, ka kaijas ir trakas. Drausmīgi skaļi kliedz un lido perfektā aplī viena pēc otras. Tad kaut kur pazūd. Tad parādās vēl viena - atpalikusī un aiz tās vēl viena, kura gaisā viņu vajā un šķiet cenšas iekaustīt.
Aizdomājos par to kā mans mīļotais vīrietis teica, ka viņam viņa mazais dzīvoklis saistās ar dažādām skaņām. Vairs neatceros kādas tās bija viņam, taču manas:
ah, that moment when one of your all time favorite theatre actors walks pass and you don't say anything because they look sleepy and are just walking to work, and just grin like a loon. good times.
for the most part, my friends' eyes don't light up at all when they talk about their boyfriends, and maybe they are just shy, but i thought it would be different
