Ligo 2014 Day 1 : 20 June, Riga Dome Art Festival, Old Town Ligo 2014 - Day 2: 21 June, , Mežaparks Riga Ligo 2014 - Day 3: 23 June, 11 Novembra Krastmala, Riga (1/2) Ligo 2014 - Day 3: 23 June, 11 Novembra Krastmala, Riga (2/2) | Latvia reveals and revels in its pagan roots with the Midsummer festivals of Līgo and Jāņi. Women wear wreaths of braided flowers while men don crowns of oak leaves. Traditionally one is to go to the countryside (which is not surprising as Riga empties on all other weekends anyway), drink beer, sing and dance around a bonfire before sneaking off into forest to hunt for “fern flowers” (there are no actual fern flowers so the purpose seems to be to find a way to convince an alluring member of the opposite sex into the forest alone – births during Līgo are said to be especially auspicious). Jāņi is a man's name (John) and Līgo is a girl's name so there is a bit of a yin/yang to the holiday. Traditionally, Jāņi and Līgo are 23-24 June but, acknowledging contemporary knowledge, the festivities have been extended to include the actual summer solstice on the 21st and 22nd (especially when the Solstice falls on the weekend). And, since the 21st is on Saturday this year, Riga started a little early with warm-up events to turn this two day festival into a two week long celebration. In a continual downpour (we were told that this was normal, there is a saying about raining like Līgo), we walked to various crafts, flower and food booths set up as the “Grass Market” in the Cathedral Square in Old Riga. The quality of the art works and the good prices being offered (as well as our desire to acquire some souvenirs of our stay here) made it hard to not pick up several things. We picked up some smoked chicken at a booth that had a line – well worth the wait – somehow they have turned the entire bird into something akin to the richness of paté….extraordinary. It looks to rain everyday so we will just have to don our ponchos to enjoy the festival. There is a planned “World Beer Parade” (imaging Homer Simpson’s imagination of a beer parade – bottles with cartoon faces in different ethnic dress walking along aiming fire hoses of beer into the mouths of the spectators, throwing necklaces of beer bottles at those who pull up their shirts…..Duff beer is still sold in the stores here.) as well as a big dance performance at Mežaparks. As we have noted before, the sharing of flowers is a very prevalent expression of Latvian culture. On Friday afternoons at least 25% of the pedestrians are carrying cut flowers, held upside down in paper wrapping that they purchased from one of the many flower kiosks. With warmer weather (though it has been cool lately) temporary flower kiosks have sprung up. Flowers are consistently placed at the base of the Freedom Monument and the various statues of famous Latvians and Russians. At the graduation ceremony for the Culture College each student received a diploma and a flower as their name was called. Then the students thanked their teachers (including us) with bouquets of flowers. And, towards the end of the ceremony, the audience lined up to bring flowers to their friends and family who were graduating. So many flowers! How wonderful. |
We arrived at Mežaparks early Saturday afternoon and, as we walked up the main, tree-lined thoroughfare of the park, were a bit concerned that we may have come too early. Finally we arrived at the tangential road/walkway that was designated for the Līgo festivities. Vendors booths were on one side; we saw some that had been in the Square the day before. Not as many food booths. Some wonderful color in the felt, sauna hat booth. Some great photos can be found here.
Intermittent rain created a choreography of umbrellas and ponchos being opened and closed throughout the afternoon. The World Beer Parade was a disappointment. Not only did it not live up to Homer Simpson level fantasies, it only featured two non-Latvian brewers and very few Latvian brewers. There was nothing being offered that can’t be easily found at the local grocery stores.
A large performing area was being prepared for a large (paid admission) performance in the evening. A smaller stage in a field lined with tents offering free activities like flower/leaf wreath weaving featured various folk song and dance groups. We watched Tara Vrancei, a very skilled and well-trained folk dance and music ensemble from Romania. They presented an old agricultural custom connected with the harvest of winter wheat at the Summer Solstice. At the end members of the ensemble shared a round ring loaf of sweet bread with audience members. We had noticed a group of men in suits in ties in the center of the audience who looked like politicians and, sure enough, the two lead dancer/singers made a special trip with offerings of wheat sheaves and a ring of bread to these men who clearly fulfilling an official function and would rather be anywhere else but there.
As we walked out of the park towards the trolley back home, we enjoyed watching a cotton candy vendor making huge balls of air and sugar on paper cones that dwarfed the children who gorged on them. As we watched a young boy came upon the scene and his ecstatic, visceral reaction to the confection was a joyful thing. We decided to go back in to catch a young Latvian music ensemble at the small stage and saw members of Tara Vrancei taking the long walk with their instruments and equipment back to their vehicles which provided us with a recognition of slogging through a festival after a performance from our days with Omulu Capoeira Group.
Intermittent rain created a choreography of umbrellas and ponchos being opened and closed throughout the afternoon. The World Beer Parade was a disappointment. Not only did it not live up to Homer Simpson level fantasies, it only featured two non-Latvian brewers and very few Latvian brewers. There was nothing being offered that can’t be easily found at the local grocery stores.
A large performing area was being prepared for a large (paid admission) performance in the evening. A smaller stage in a field lined with tents offering free activities like flower/leaf wreath weaving featured various folk song and dance groups. We watched Tara Vrancei, a very skilled and well-trained folk dance and music ensemble from Romania. They presented an old agricultural custom connected with the harvest of winter wheat at the Summer Solstice. At the end members of the ensemble shared a round ring loaf of sweet bread with audience members. We had noticed a group of men in suits in ties in the center of the audience who looked like politicians and, sure enough, the two lead dancer/singers made a special trip with offerings of wheat sheaves and a ring of bread to these men who clearly fulfilling an official function and would rather be anywhere else but there.
As we walked out of the park towards the trolley back home, we enjoyed watching a cotton candy vendor making huge balls of air and sugar on paper cones that dwarfed the children who gorged on them. As we watched a young boy came upon the scene and his ecstatic, visceral reaction to the confection was a joyful thing. We decided to go back in to catch a young Latvian music ensemble at the small stage and saw members of Tara Vrancei taking the long walk with their instruments and equipment back to their vehicles which provided us with a recognition of slogging through a festival after a performance from our days with Omulu Capoeira Group.