“Today, the mini-murder on the Armory roof, reminded me it’s Ligo weekend or Latvian Summer Solstice celebration. Ligo translates into ‘Sway’”
“Growing up in the Latvian ex-pat community (I just realized how bizarrely offensive it would be to Latvian-American community to call them ex-patriots, it makes me chuckle) it was traditional the weekend before or after the Solstice to gather oakleaves for the men”
“and flowers, mostly daisies, for the women”
“and then the adults and the girls and sometimes the boys (although I think we were considered too clumsy for the delicate work, although I do remember the adult men following instructions for the leaves) would weave together crowns”
“It’s funny to think how much of my adult relationship to beer is based on being too young to drink and jump over the bonfire back in the day. Now, I’m old enough to drink but marginally too smart to risk jumping over the bonfire”
“How many other things are mostly submerged but still change the interaction with light at our surface?”
“I’m sure that is literally impossible unless you horribly hamper the definition of drug. And if it were to be true, can you imagine sitting down and having a conversation with someone to who it was important? Who never went into the woods looking for the magic fern, and didn’t trust anyone who did? Neither can I”
Well, y’all, I hope you have a glorious solstice weekend and although I may be getting a little too old to do much with the magic fern, I’m off to look for it anyway for old times sake. For those of you who are looking for ideas for JĀŅI (Other than watching Midsommer again, and if you haven’t seen it this is the weekend to see it. One-word review: Brilliant!) please watch the video below. And if you’re not looking for ideas, but want to know how I grew up, Midsommer and Irregular Latvian hit the high points.
