The modern latvian midsummer. 2008.

June 21, 2018

The modern latvian midsummer. 2008.

The young modern Latvians.

Born in the late 1980s - early1990s. Midsummer 2008.

That time when we celebrated midsummer with lots of food, beer, cheese and bbq. When we only knew few traditions and must do rituals, and believed a lot of beer intake means a happy year ahead. How did you celebrate midsummer 10-9 years ago?

I still remember how in these early "I'm an adult now" midsummers we discussed what our parents did as we didn't really make notes, of course. We tried to remember, then we googled and sometimes someone said loudly something between lines "how about the campfire jumping? Midnight swim? Ah, yes, right, let's go!"

During this midsummer party, some odds occurred in our eyes. Neighbours came along to sing songs and dance midsummer folk dances with us. We were not prepared, we acted cool yet wanted to burst into laughter, like "big children" do. Maybe some of us didn't understand what's going on, as such old school folk midsummers were not so popular back then yet... In comparison to nowadays (2018), but a bit of tradition visited us and we remembered some other rituals/traditions like girls throwing their flower crowns up in the tree to see when they are getting married. Most of our crowns got stuck after several trials, and now I know that many of us have got married only in the late 20s. So, maybe those future readings do work on midsummer night?

It was fun and carefree. We on the edge of starting our adult lives, still figuring out what we want to do, what education or where to travel to gain experience. Yet, still connected to our inner child and acting like big children at a playground. It was a bittersweet time. The inbetween years of trying to figure out or act we know it all, and telling parents no for a bit of advice. We were grown upish now.