Latvia Events and Festivals

New Year's Day
With celebrations taking place throughout the eve before this holiday, the majority of Latvians treat this as a day to relax and recover from the night before.

Meteni
Meteni is a traditional Latvian festival, part of the country's ancient calendar of events. It is an agricultural festival in origin, marking the time when spinning ends, weaving starts and young horses are broken in. Ritual activities include sledding, sleigh rides and masquerades.

Usini Festival
Visitors who can’t take the sight of blood may only want to witness the early part of this festival, in which horses are taken to swim before sunrise, since this traditional agricultural celebration's main activities involve killing roosters, draining the blood into horse troughs, then using it to paint crosses on doors. This celebrates the arrival of ploughing time and the start of the ‘summer singing’. Cooked roosters are also part of the ritual meals, which also include eggs and of course, beer.

Midsummer
Midsummer is the most important celebration in the Latvian festival calendar, which is not very surprising, considering the length of the winters here. All over Latvia, all-night parties are held in which fires are lit, people sing songs (some of them about cattle), dance, make and wear wreaths of flowers, drink specially-brewed beer and eat cheese. Men called Janis are honoured with oak wreaths and young people go into the forest to hunt for a fern that is believed to bloom on this night alone and is said to bring love and happiness to those who find it.

Liela Mara
This is another Latvian farming festival, not very suitable for vegetarians. On this date, traditionally inclined Latvians celebrate the end of the summer heat wave and the need to plant the winter crops by going for ritual healing swims, killing lambs and making other sacrifices, while eating the traditional mutton and of course, drinking beer.

Apjumibas or Rudenaji Festival
This is a traditional Latvian festival marking the beginning of the threshing season at the Autumn equinox, rather poetically described as 'the time of the souls of the dead'. Among the traditional activities are 'Jumis chasing and welcoming' (Jumis are the spirits of the dead), and on the ritual menu are bread, rooster, pork or mutton, and lots of beer.

Martini Festival
While westerners may be excused for believing this has to do with a certain alcoholic drink, in Latvia, the Martini Festival is an ancient day, marking the end of the threshing season and the start of the linen processing in the old agricultural calendar. Like many of these traditional Latvian festivals, it has its roots in the farming seasons and farmers don’t mind a bit of blood-letting. Crosses are put on doors to ward off the powers of evil, Martins are chased and roosters slaughtered. Food consumed at this time of year includes bread, chicken or goose, honey and Martini balls (made of peas, beans, potatoes and hemp).

Christmas
Christmas is celebrated all over Latvia. The majority of Latvians attend a church service on Christmas Eve rather than on Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve, families come together to celebrate the birth of Jesus. They celebrate by preparing a special Christmas meal that includes such dishes as potatoes with sauerkraut and pork, and lentils with bacon. Gingerbread is baked in almost every home. Gifts are exchanged following the meal.

New Year’s Day – 1 January
Good Friday – April
Easter Monday – April
May Day – 1 May
Ligo Day – 23 June
St John’s Day (Summer Solstice) – 24 June
National Day (Proclamation of the Republic) – 18 November
Christmas (Winter Solstice) – 25 to 26 December
New Year’s Eve – 31 December