Monday, June 26, 2006
Jani
Janu Nakts (23rd - 24th June) is Latvia's most widely celebrated festival and, despite ancient attempts to Christianise it by renaming and moving it to St. John the Baptist's Eve, is still a celebration of the summer solstice. In the old Baltic Religion of Latvia and Lithuania, the shortest night of the year was the night when evil spirits and demons were abroad trying to overpower the sun goddess, Saule.
We spent a wonderful Jani with a group of friends in a house by the sea. Good friends, barbecued food and plenty of wine were the fuel for our night, along with some reflection on the traditions that gave rise to this festivity. We spent our time either watching daylight fade over the beach or keeping the fire burning and the surroundings well lit to keep evil spirits at bay.
In the Baltic tradition, fires are lit and kept burning all night to send the spirits back to their own realm, and houses, cars, animals and people are bedecked with wreaths made of the leaves of 'good' trees (oak, silver birch or rowan) for protection. A fire lit in a basket and hoisted on a pole symbolizes Saule dancing on the hilltops and everyone must stay awake all night.
However a surfeit of wine, and the knowledge that Oliver was going to get up at 6:30 whatever we did, encouraged us to go to bed before sunrise, despite Latvian folk songs threatening that those who sleep on Jani night will stay unmarried and find their fields of grain flattened. As we are already married and are growing no grain we felt we could tempt fate a little. And the evil spirits? There were plenty of more hardy people to keep the fire fed.
We spent a wonderful Jani with a group of friends in a house by the sea. Good friends, barbecued food and plenty of wine were the fuel for our night, along with some reflection on the traditions that gave rise to this festivity. We spent our time either watching daylight fade over the beach or keeping the fire burning and the surroundings well lit to keep evil spirits at bay.
In the Baltic tradition, fires are lit and kept burning all night to send the spirits back to their own realm, and houses, cars, animals and people are bedecked with wreaths made of the leaves of 'good' trees (oak, silver birch or rowan) for protection. A fire lit in a basket and hoisted on a pole symbolizes Saule dancing on the hilltops and everyone must stay awake all night.
However a surfeit of wine, and the knowledge that Oliver was going to get up at 6:30 whatever we did, encouraged us to go to bed before sunrise, despite Latvian folk songs threatening that those who sleep on Jani night will stay unmarried and find their fields of grain flattened. As we are already married and are growing no grain we felt we could tempt fate a little. And the evil spirits? There were plenty of more hardy people to keep the fire fed.
