Christmas
Winter Solstice

Easter
Spring Equinox

Midsummer
Summer Solstice

Fall Celebration
Autumn Equinox

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Martinmas
Beginning of Winter
November 5th

Shrovetide
Beginning of Spring
February 6th
 

The winter solstice (December 22) was celebrated when the night was longest and the day shortest, when the intensity of field work was lowest, but people gathered for evening bees to do textile and other handiwork, to spin fairytales and other stories, to guess riddles, sing, and dance. In the Christian tradition Christmas is the birth of God's son, but in traditional Latvian culture it is the rebirth of the Sun maiden.

For Christmas rooms are decorated with three-dimensional straw or reed ornaments that are vernacularly known as lukturi, puzuri, krigi, putni, and so on. Evergreen branches, junipers, colored rags, wood shavings and other natural materials are also used in the decorations.

The best known Christmas tradition is mumming. In some regions these kekatas are called budeli, kujenieki, preili, kurciemi, cigani (gypsies), or kaladnieki. The mumming period for Latvians is from Martinmas to Shrovetide, but the most intensive mumming activities occur around Christmas. The mummers are costumed and in different masks. The most common traditional masks are bear, horse, crane, wolf, goat, haystack, tall woman, small man, death, gypsy, and the living corpse. Led by a "father", the mummers travel from homestead to homestead or from village to village. The mummers bring a home blessing, encourage fertility, and frighten away the evil spirits.

Another characteristic Christmas tradition is dragging the Yule log. This is explained as the symbolic collecting and burning of last year's problems and misfortunes. The Yule log was either dragged by the people of one farmstead or several neighbors together. This was accompanied by songs, singing games, and various sounding instruments. If people from different farmsteads came together, then it was burned in the last farmstead

An integral part of Christmas was a generous banquet, whose most characteristic food included a pig's head, which was boiled together with barley mashed with a pestle. This food was called kukis, koca, or kikas. Christmas eve was sometimes called Kuki evening. Other special foods were peas, beans and barley sausage, which because of their round, curved appearance were seen as symbols of the sun or the year.

In our time Latvians bake gingerbread cookies, buy mandarin oranges, and decorate a tree in which branches candles are lit. The decoration of the Christmas tree is a tradition that was borrowed from Baltic manor lords several hundred years ago.

Word List
* ornaments:   lukturi puzuri krigi putni
* mumming:   kekatas budeli kujenieki preili kurciemi cigani kaladnieki
* banquet:   kukis koca kikas Kuki

Pronounced: 'zyemahs-svatkih
Translation: The Winter Festivities