"Greetings from Latvia"-Part #2.

By request--I am moving us over to a new Post. Some people are having difficulty loading.

We came from here---------http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/874647/

If you have not kept up with this "Travelogue"--please go to Part #1 to catch up.

Gita

HELP! Why is the link from my first Post on "Greetings from Latvia" not here as a Hyperlink????

Can anyone help me!

We came from here:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/874647/

AHHH! Thank you, Willie!!!

You saved me from embarrassment! Like--HOW long have I been on here????
You are a new name to me! Have you been following this Post all along and have never jumped in to comment?

Welcome, welcome! Gita

Actually, I just saw your plea for help in the "newest posts" ticker and jumped in to help.

Your Aunt Marija looks like she is a roit!

I love the photos, too. Showing a history so rich. Let's face it, wigwams just weren't built to stand for centuries!!

This message was edited Aug 10, 2008 2:17 PM

OKKK!!!! Now that we have all the "technicalities" straight--I am going to continue with my pictures. I think this is Part $5(??).....#6????

Some of you have said you wanted to see pictures of "The Festival".....

ALL the days--from July 5th-July 12th --WERE "The Festival". No matter where and what was going on in Riga all through these 7 wonderful days--WAS "The Festival"!

"IT" is an all-inclusive event. There were so many different things, in so many different realms going on, that one could never see everything in those 7 days!
All kinds of Exhibits....Meetings....Folklore event-type of get-togethers--Concerts in different parts of the City and of different levels--Literary evenings--etc...etc....
Then--just the shear numbers of tourists being everywhere in the City, was mind-boggling!
The WHOLE week was a HUGE Cultural "hype". A Festival of one's Culture, Existence, Togetherness, Common "Roots", Perseverance through trying times and foreign occupations, and, above all, celebrating the very fact that NOTHING has changed, or has been lost-----THE most important thing to celebrate!

Of course--the 3 or 4 most spectacular events are always the same:

1..The HUGE opening day Parade down Freedom Boulevard.
2. The HUGE Opening Concert--with 13,000 singers all in one mega choir
performing in perfect harmony, which took many rehearsals to achieve.
3. The Mega-Folk dancing performances--they were in couple of separate evenings and parts--with 12,000 dancers from all over the World's Latvian communities participating--most of them from the MANY regions of Latvia .
4. And--the beautiful Closing Concert--every bit as big as the Opening Concert--just a lot more informal, popular and "sing-along" kind of music.

It was very, very nice and memorable--ALL in the outdoor concert arena in the "Forrest Park". When the "official" part was over--they invited all 40,000 spectators to stay until the "cows come home" and sing along to all the more familiar songs that followed.
Just in case some in the audience did not know the words to all of them--there were 2 large screens on either side of the stage with the words to the songs. Almost like a SUPER MEGA Kareoki!

The closing concert ended about 12:30AM. My sisters and out cousin hung around, singing along, until about 2AM. Then we thought we better start the trek back home. Remember???? I wrote about this before......One had to walk at least 2 miles out from the Park to get back to the Trolley-car stop that would take us back to the City of Riga.

The trolley's were ALWAYS packed! Standing room only--shoulder to shoulder--like sardines in a can. And--at every stop, more people would try to get on--but no one got off!
AND--then----the singing started. Someone would start a song--and 95% of all the people in the trolley would join in. The few "regular riders" were like---"What's all this about"?????
It was SOOOO like---ONE Soul! ONE Country! ONE tradition--no matter what! And so it all went for the 20 minute ride back.

I cannot tell you what an impact this had on me! It is like--ALL the things we were "brainwashed" about growing up just came to reality. I did NOT expect, that the younger generation of Latvians, from all over the World, 50 years removed from before the "Soviet Occupation" would still know all the words and melodies to all the "Old Songs"--especially the simple Folk Songs-- that we were all "assigned" to remember and to "carry on--lest we forget"-- all through those 50 years of Soviet occupation!!!! WOW!!!! NOTHING seems to have ever been lost! It was just "tucked away"--like your Great, Great Grandparents treasurers.
All this, symbolically, took a huge weight off my shoulders. YES! ALL things Latvian still are alive! Nothing was "forgotten" and nothing was "lost"!!! I knew that all along anyway!

When our trolley stop came--and we all had to get off--we started this popular song about "We must leave you now" (Projam Jaiet) ---and as we climbed down the steps from the trolley car--ALL the people in the trolley were already singing it. Double WOW!!!!!

I just want to tell you all that these kind of things are what "Makes the Memories".....

Even to my sisters and I--as we are ALL in out VERY senior years! It will be memorable. IF we were in the 20's--this kind of an event would live in out hearts and minds FOREVER! We would be telling our Grandchildren------"I remember when............"

These Festivals are like a "shot in the arm" to all of us to rejuvenate the belief that--even when we pass on--everything will "live on"......It WILL be OK!

This was just another emotional, heart-to-heart sharing of how I perceive this kind of an event to be. I sure hope I am well enough to make it to the next one--in 2013. I plan to!

Thank you for reading about all this so far! Now I will start posting the pictures.

We walked the 2 miles to get early to the "best" location to observe the Opening Parade. It was a curve in the road that would offer the BEST view of the oncoming participants.
Of course--there were many people that had gotten there ahead of us--so we had to move a bit further up the Avenue.

Here is a view of all the people waiting to see the Parade---looking towards where it would start from....

And here is the view in the other direction--where they would pass us....

That curve in the road seemed to be the PRIME location....Well--we had to settle for second best!

As many of th groups passed us--I tried to take pictures of all of them.. What i am posting are some of the "cutest" and prettiest marchers that passed us.

Here is a group of young children accompanied by adults... SO cute that they are all dressed in their Regional dress scaled down to child-size. ALL so proud to be participants in this big event!

Here are a group of young women from the region of "Nica". I LOVE their dress! SO colorful!
This region is also one of the ones that has a "crown" as their regional head-gear.

Many of the Folk Dance groups that participated in the Parade just burst into spontaneous dance as they passed this "prime" location on the street.
There was NO "Bandstand"---it was just a prime location along the Parade's path.

Glad we were there an hour early to claim our spot!

Hmmmmmmm....Look at those young men!!!!

As we were standing there in "Our spot" on the curb.....other people, kind of, slowly muscled in and crowded towards the curb.
This beautiful, young girl--maybe 6 years old--stood by my knee for the longest time. She was trying to collect any fallen flowers from the marchers of the Parade. She would run out into the street and pick up anything----made her so happy!

I turned my camera on her and took a picture. Her name was Kate. What a beauty!!! Clutching the few fallen flowers she had picked up on the street as the marchers passed her...

As I observed the marchers----I saw this beautiful custom of the leading marchers carrying an Oak wreath rope in front of the group following them.

This was repeated over and over with many of the other Groups....
I have to tell you that the Oak has a significant meaning in the Latvian culture, It represents "strength" and "masculinity" and---is also the MOST represented tradition in celebrations of the BIG Midsummer Festivals (John's Day). If a man's name is John (Janis), during the John's Day celebration, He he will be bestowed a hand-made wreath of Oak leaves he will wear all throughout the night. It is HIS night!

This Oak leaves wreath has also come to represent many other things Latvian as you can see here. It seems to be a National symbol of "strength".......Rightly so!

Here is just one picture of pretty girls wearing their National Dress......
Loookie.......Lookie......

Here is a picture of a group of men wearing the Oak leaf wreaths on their heads.

I sure hope their names are Janis (John)......But---You get the idea!

To carry the "Wreath" theme further-----here is an approaching group of women carrying a grass rope--made from real grasses/reads......whatever.....
I am not sure what this, actually, symbolizes......

There were many brass bands represented all throughout the march.
Here is one of them.....

edited to point out that in the distance you can always see the Freedom Monument. This Parade was along the Freedom Boulevard--a wide street well suited for such events.

This message was edited Aug 11, 2008 10:30 AM

Age seems of no matter..........

Here is a group of older women marching along dressed in their finery.
Again--note that most of hem are wearing caps on their heads--instead of flowers.
Message------I am married........hands off!

Here is a group of women carrying a long rope of Oak wreath with Flowers. Even though I had never seen this befor--I thought it was beautiful.

Oooops...Douplicate Post! Sorry!

Here is a group of women carrying a long rope of Oak wreath with Flowers. Even though I had never seen this before, thought it was beautiful.

edited to say that the placard the front person is seen bearing in many of these pictures tells what Region in Latvia that particular group of participants is from .



This message was edited Aug 11, 2008 10:34 AM

Other Countries had also made the trip to Latvia to help celebrate this Festival.
Sorry--but I do not know the names of most of these--as they were marching bye so fast.....

Another.....

And--another.....

This is Lithuania--one of our "sister Baltic countries.

And--another......

And--here is a Billboard seen all over the City of Riga.....in all the Parks.....

It says: " Dance is Power!" On some other Billboards-- there was a similar message that said: "The Song is Power"......

Remember the Video I mentioned? The Revolution of Song?

NOW--I only have a couple of shots of the HUGE Opening Mega-Choir/Concert event.
As this took place in an outdoor park--in the evening/night there were not too many photos i could take that would come out visible....Like.....How far do you think a Digital camera flash would carry????
I tried some shots on the "Night Scene" setting--but it just came out blurry, as the shutter dlow down to a time frame that any movement of my hands made it all blurred.

SO! I only have a few pictures--but I hope you get the MAGNITUDE of the size of this Choir!
This was all at night--and the lighting was very poor.

Here is a shot of the WHOLE Choir on this massive stage........About 12,000 singers--all wearing their national dress and, for the women--flower wreaths on their heads.....

As night fell--during one of th songs--ALL the members of the Choir lit their battery-powered caandles. Man! That was beautiful!!!

Here is the right side of the stage. I hope you can realize how many people there are!!!

And here is the left side of the stage....
They said in the brochures, that the CHOIR consisted of 12,000 participants......
Can you imagine that many people singing in perfect harmony?????? ONE diraector handling it all??????

How many rehearsals do you think it took to achieve this?

I only have one or two pictures of one of the Mega-Folk Dancing performances.....

It was a poorly lit arena-----and our seats were at the end of the space.

Here is the only pictures I can offer to you.....

And th other one.

You really need to Google "Latvia Song Festival--2008" and click on the many side-links that will show you Videos of this whole Festival.

This is all for tonight! Will do the rest (last) of the Postings soon.

Gita

ooops...here is the picture....

The next Posting should be the last one.....

It will be pictures of some of my relatives-cook outs...their gardens...etc......

So long for Now! Gita

gita - amazing pictures. reminds me of the opening cermony at the olympics. it really was a celebration and it had to make you proud.

Thanks for taking the time to share such an interesting festival!!!

Great pics, Amazing amount of people at that concert. I love all the flowers and greenery they use in the parade.

The costumes are beautiful! Gita, what are the tall wooden symbols being carried in one of the photos, the one labeled "pretty girls wearing their national dress?"

I watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics the other night and made sure to watch for the Latvian athletes in the parade of athletes.

If anyone is interested, I found this interesting site, from the Latvian Institute or Latvijas institūtu

http://www.li.lv/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=268&Itemid=1&lang=en

As I grow older, it seems I have more and more appreciation for history, and discovering what each culture has to offer.

This message was edited Aug 11, 2008 2:00 PM