Mid Summer Day (Jani or Ligo)

Jani or Ligo is the name of the celebration, the Mid Summer Day celebration:

23'rd of June is the longest day of the year, the sun raises very early in the morning and sets very late at night.

This day is very significant for Latvians who were originally Pagans and it's possible to see that the Pagan roots are still here due to the Jani celebration.

The celebration takes place in the country side, people go to the nature together with friends and familly, drink beer, sing and dance, and stay up all night.

There is a story that sais that people who sleep during the Jani night will sleep all the summer and this is very bad... so people don't sleep all the Jani night and celebrate.

Latvian men wear crowns made of leaves of Oak tree, and the women wear crowns of flowers.

About Latvian names:

In Latvia there is a name's day tradition, this means that each day of the year is a name's day for a specific Latvian name.

The 23'rd of June is the name's day of all "Liga"'s in Latvia and the 24'th of June is the name's day of all the "Janis"'s.

"Janis" and "Liga" are the most common names in Latvia. Janis for men, and Liga for women. both names are connected to the Jani and this shows that the Jani is actually a very significant celebration for the Latvians.

The Jani or Ligo is simply the Latvian celebration of the nature.

b.t.w the meaning of the word "Ligo" as far as I understand it is the movement of the trees in the wind, I did not find an equivalent word in English and this shows that in the Latvian Language there is more importance to nature related issues comparing to other languages.

One person once told me: "Eskimos have 100 different words to describe different types of snow". this is because there is a lot of snow in the world of the Eskimo.

and what I conclude from it is that there is a lot of nature in the world of the Latvian.

 

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