just joshing around: Ligo!

I would first like to wish a Happy Birthday to my sister Bree today. She is 18. That is big. What is also big is getting a happy birthday wish from Latvia: Happy Birthday sister!

Aside from being Bree's birthday, today is the traditional summer solstice. I would like to also wish everyone a very warm and enlightened Midsummer!

In the US, not much attention is given to the pagan holiday of the summer solstice. I know it is celebrated in some parts of the country on a small or local scale, but I'd say our Puritan forefathers made a rather commendable effort in forgetting to pack along the pagan traditions when they got on the boats. It's a shame really; Midsummer is great time.

For clarification of the holiday, my best friend Wikipedia notes, "Midsummer refers to specific European celebrations that accompany the actual solstice, or that take place on the 24th of June and the preceding evening. European midsummer-related holidays, traditions, and celebrations are pre-Christian in origin and have been superficially Christianized as celebrations of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist as "Saint John's Eve" festivals. They are particularly important in Northern Europe - Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden."

In fact, in Latvia, Midsummer is such a big deal that both the 23rd and 24th of June are national holidays and EVERYTHING shuts down. So I've had a nice 4 day weekend (well...yesterday and today were nice. Friday night...not so much). And last night, celebrating Midsummer's Eve was pretty much the coolest thing I've experienced thus far in Latvia.

Ligo, as it is called here in Latvia, is wild. Everyone heads out to the countryside for one long hoorah-rah of eating, drinking, and folk traditions. Zane, a good friend from the branch, was kind enough to invite me along to celebrate with her family. It was great. I got to celebrate a quintessential Latvian tradition and Zane, being the only member of the Church in her family, had someone to not be drunk with. Win-win!

Like any celebration or festival, Ligo has a dress code. Everyone wears crowns made of flowers and leaves. The women wear a crown made of flowers, symbolizing beauty, while men wear crowns made of oak leaves (apparently the oak is the symbol of power).

Zane's father and aunt making the Midsummer's crowns

The family all decked out. Check out her dad. Is that awesome or what!

Zane and me. Seriously, you can not tell me that that is not the coolest thing you've ever seen.

The central element of the Ligo celebration is the bonfire. Because Ligo is the celebration of the longest day of the year, bonfires are lit all night long in order that during the 1 hour of darkness, there is still light. (seriously, seeing the sky only go dark for about an hour was quite spectacular).

Around our little fire, wearing our crowns made of floral and foliage, we ate delicious shashli (meat specially marinated for 2 weeks), janis (special cheese only eaten on this occasion), sang Latvian folk songs (well, they did, I listened), and jumped over the fire for good luck (or something... No one is really sure why this precarious tradition is followed, but like any good tradition, it just is).

Zane jumping over the fire.

I'm not sure what is more life-threatening: getting punched in the face, or tripping through a fire with a bundle of leaves on my head.

At midnight, each person ran to a tree. The tradition follows that if you hug a tree for five minutes exactly at midnight on Midsummer's Eve, and you whisper your desires to that tree, they will come true. This was great. I embraced my tree, whispering sweet nothings against its supple bark.

Midsummer is a good time and a sweet celebration. Interestingly enough, beside Christmas, Ligo is Latvia's favorite holiday.

And now that I have been officially paganized, there is no other option but to forsake my Hebrew name of Joshua. So, henceforth I shall be known by the name of Jost, the Tree-Lover.