May 4 is Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Latvia Day. In the morning Jo researched and copied out several holiday events and times on a piece of paper and off we went. First stop was Vērmanes Garden Park, a lovely park we walk through on the way to the Music Academy and to get to Old Riga, for “family recreation day”. The first thing we saw were hundreds of children dressed in traditional folk costumes who were dancing on the stage. The children were very well coached and did pretty well in spite of the occasional slip on the wet stage (the morning was very cold and rainy). It was both endearing to see the children express their pride in their heritage and a little creepy as it brought to mind a few of the scenes from Leni Riefenstahl's best known film. | |
Walking through the park we saw several crafts booths set up for the children. We were quite taken by the creation of rough-hewn animals by wrapping and shaping handfuls of straw. One booth allowed the children to contribute to a “mural” by painting color onto two oversized canvases that had the roofline of Old Riga drawn in black paint. A little further on, children tested their lung power by trying to power a ball as far as possible with a single breath along an elevated track.
In front of the Freedom Monument, school bands competed against each other while citizens laid flowers on an oversized, grass-filled map of Latvia watched over by the military honor guard. The bands were sincere and I noticed an older woman singing along to a patriotic song, but, truth be told, we don’t care much for marching band music. But the communal ritual of creating a flower-laden map of their country seemed a vital and wonderful way to celebrate their country. | |
It was close to two so we sought out a French bakery that had been recommended to us for its sandwiches and soups. Their logo feature a cartoon frog with a chef’s hat. Paul had a salmon quiche and Jo had onion soup with croutons and cheese. We also shared a large cinnamon filled pastry with our coffees. Jo has declared the bakery her newest favorite bakery in Riga (there are several that are quite good – something we definitely will miss).
Into Old Riga we hurried into the Riga Small Guild or the Guild of St. John (Die Kleine Gilde zu Riga, Sankt-Johannis-Gilde) for a free piano and vocal music concert. The musicians were fair to middling, the hall was quite stunning but the “performance” of a young Asian mother wearing very dark sunglasses, incessantly playing with her long straight hair, taking many “selfies” with her Iphone and occasionally giving her young daughter (who was entertaining herself by playing with her own sunglasses) was worth the price of admission. | |
Then quickly off to St. Peters Cathedral for another vocal concert. This one was far better attended and all the seats were taken with several layers of standees in the back. The cathedral has a massive wooden altar piece with ascending crucifixes with the high arched brick walls. But, since we had just experienced a concert of OK musicians performing sentimental, wet songs that included the word “Latvia” several times (patriotic songs seem to be either militaristic pomp or sentimental sap, and Lativa’s history includes very few, if any, successful military adventures to celebrate so it was predominately the latter), we decided to leave after the first few songs.
We went down by the river to the 11 November Esplanade to catch the festivities on the street which had been closed to cars. The wind was quite a bit stronger there and the damp cold had definitely put a bit of a chill on the number of people who had come out. We watched a couple of tug of war competitions with teams that sported uniforms and wore weight lifting belts as they leaned back in 45 degree angles to put the most weight possible in the backwards directions. Unfortunately, tug of war is not the best spectator sport so we decided to make our way back home. | |
We walked back past the Freedom Monument to get close to the now very full flower map. Back through Vērmanes park we stopped for awhile to listen to some very skilled Lativan pop musicians. Though they were clearly skilled the songs were not rhythmically sophisticated so, while we appreciated the band, we didn’t really get all that excited about their repertory. We enjoyed watching the several chess games (some speed chess, some more traditional versions) played by older men on the benches in the rear of the arena’s “house”.