June 23 and 24th  is Ligo [Summer Solstice] the most anticipated celebration in Latvia. Friday is a national stat holiday with a day off for all to enjoy all night drinking parties. Ligo [also known as Jani] is an ancient pagan fertility festival marking the longest day of the year. I always thought that was June 21st. Its customary to spend Ligo in the forest so the city centre empties as cars decorated with oak leaves head for the countryside laden with beer and food.  Rural hosts greet their arrivals with a song and the festivities begin when the guests sing a song in return.

     During the course of the evening much beer is consumed [many special brews made just for this occasion], carraway seed cheese is the appropriate food [not sure the reason for this]  Bonfires are lit and revellers jump over the bonfire three times for good luck, but with the amount of drinking going on it seems a dangerous custom to me. Young couples are encouraged to forage through the forest to look for the fabled fern flower that only blooms on Ligo.  As ferns dont flower its a charming euphemism for the fertility part of the festival.  The Latvian people spend the week before the festival making wreaths to wear on their heads as well as for decoration.  Women use at least 27 different plants, each plant symbolises a virtue she wants the coming year.   Men just use oak leaves for their wreaths which are believed to give strength and protect against bad energy.  /FONT>