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Latvia: Summer Solstice (Jani) 2006 with Skandinieki

In Latvia, the biggest summer holiday, and arguably the most important of all yearly holidays, is the Summer Solstice or the Feast of St. John the Baptist. The territories that today form the Baltic States were the last to be Christianized in Europe, with the majority of the population “professing” the new faith not until the late medieval or early modern period. The original, pre-Christian manner of celebrating what later became Christian holidays never died out and lies very close to the surface of things—and many in Latvia to this day stick as close to the pre-Christian traditions as possible. I was able to perform for a year with the folklore group Skandinieki, one of Latvia’s most beloved folk ensembles and one that was part of the folk revival movement that began in the 1970s and that grew, by the late Soviet period, into a national movement for Latvian independence and cultural reawakening (a phenomena that took place in “captive nations” throughout the former USSR). What you see here is how the serious folklorists of Skandinieki celebrate the Summer Solstice. For my audience that is mostly interested in things Ukrainian: This is the same holiday as our Den’ Ivana Kupala, just in its Baltic-Latvian variant. “Janis” is Latvian for “Ivan” (Engl: John). The making of head-wreaths and garlands are as much an important part of the celebrations as they are in Ukraine–and “vinok” is in Latvian “vainags,” which any linguist will recognize as coming from the same root as …
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