Jāņi. It's probably the second biggest if not the most celebrated national holiday here in Latvia. Christmas is probably the longest/biggest/most celebrated/most commercial holiday and then right after that comes Jāņi or Summer solstice, which is not nearly as commercial, but is taken rather seriosly in some way or form by most people here. 
This year the week-end was a four day long holiday, but some years Jāņi week-end ends up being even up to five days long.
Traditionally Jāņi was celebrated by staying up all night on the shortest night of the summer, making wreaths, having song "wars" between neighbouring farms, lighting fires, singing and dancing around the fires even jumping over the fires... looking for the blossom of the fern.
But I'm really no encyclopedia. I'm sure that even Wikipedia will give you more on the subject of Jāņi.
2 comments:
All I can say to the beautiful pictures is WOW FANTASTIC
Grandma
My, what a flowery blog. Lovely pictures. Glad you got your laptop back. Sorry you lost pictures. Hey, flash drives are cheap these days. You know what they say, back-up, back-up, back-up...but you've probably heard that a zillion times lately. Your description of the festival reminded me so much about that movie: The Singing Revolution.
We'll have to Skype again soon. Right now we're in a house buying mood. It might pass, but it might not. We're busy looking at properties.
After all we need more space for when the Toronto groups start visiting...
Love,
Grandpa
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