MIDSUMMER CELEBRATION IN LATVIA

In Latvia, Midsummer is called Jāņi (Jānis being Latvian for John) or Līgo Svētki (word "svētki" stands for English word "festival", word "līgo" stands for a widespread Latvian girls/women name "Līga", which is celebrated on 23 June). In other words Latvian midsummer festival can be called St. John's Eve.

John's Eve in Latvia is held in the night from 23 June to 24 June to celebrate the summer solstice, the shortest night and longest day of the year. It is a national holiday celebrated on a large scale by almost everyone in Latvia and by people of Latvian origin abroad. Usually Latvian people celebrate John's Eve in the countryside.From the perspective of deities, Latvians regard Jānis (John) as a son of God, the fertility god of the summer solstice.

Originally John's Eve was a pagan custom but after Christianization it became associated with Saint John the Baptist's feast day, which falls on June 24. For that reason, John's Eve begins in the evening of 23 June and all through the night, where people sway into the following day, not on 21 June/22 June when the summer solstice actually takes place.

From the mythical point of view, John`s Eve is thought to be the time when the forces of nature are at their most powerful, and the boundaries between the physical and spiritual worlds are thinnest. In the past, evil witches were believed to be riding around, so people decorated their houses and lands with rowan branches and thorns in order to protect themselves from evil. In modern days other traditional decorations are more popular, including birch or sometimes oak branches and flowers as well as leaves, especially ferns.

People wear wreaths made from flowers for females, or oak leaves for males; in rural areas livestock also is decorated.John`s Eve also is thought to be the perfect time to gather herbs, because it is believed that they then have magical powers. Other practices of magic in John`s Eve vary from fortune-telling to ensuring productivity of crops, as well as livestock fertility.
Traditions of the John`s Eve celebration in Latvia.

A well-known part of this celebration is searching for the mythical fern flower, though some suggest that the fern flower is a symbol of secret knowledge; today it is almost always synonymous with having sexual relationships. Despite common belief, no remarkable increase in birthrates is observed nine months later.

Fire and bonfires throughout the land.
During a festival fire must be kept from sunset till sunrise, and various kinds of flaming light sources are used; usually these are bonfires, which traditionally people jump over to ensure prosperity and fertility. So say as a joke, that if you (man/woman) jump the fire on John's Eve, you're going to have good luck with the women/men all year long".

Traditional food during John's Eve is a special type of cheese with caraway seeds, made out of curd, and the traditional drink is beer. Many people make the cheese of Jāņi themselves; a few also make their own beer. Representatives of Latvian Emergency services often warn that Jāņi can be harmful to health because of the amounts of food and alcoholic beverages consumed, as well as maltreated fires.Wreaths/crowns made of flowers, herbs, oak leaves.

A lot of other traditions are practiced during the celebration of the John's Eve in Latvia, like singing special songs about John and Līgo, dancing whole night long, staying awake till the sunrise in the morning, washing face in the grass's morning dew, which on John's morning is said to have particularly beneficial properties. In the Latvia`s western town of Kuldīga, revellers mark the holiday by running naked through the town at three in the morning of John's Eve. The event has taken place for the past seven years and it has become a tradition.

The John's Eve is considered to be as important as Christmas in Latvia. Once You have an opportunity to celebrate it together with Latvians and to see all the traditions of the John's Eve celebration, You will never forget it.