Last year there was 500 years celebration since the first tree in Christmas was decorated in Riga in 1510, but this year Riga is full with traditional and absolutely avant-garde trees - the festival „Path of Christmas Trees” is in Riga – one of these artistic festivals in Riga turning the urban environment in the miraculous place of wonders. Of course, the best time to see these objects is dark hours of the day.
42 different objects in the urban environment – free to see, enjoy and get inspired until 15th of January. 14 of these objects are made by new artists of Latvian Academy of Art. All objects are copyrighted and unique created for this festival-competition. The first festival „Path of Christmas Trees” was the last year and there is a promise that it will be in Riga every year.
Already the next week December will be here and if you are coming to Riga on December, I’m glad you will catch our Christmas mood. Do you know from where comes the tradition of decorating Christmas tree? The tradition spread all over the world comes form Northern Europe: the 500 years old story of decorating the Christmas tree comes from Riga!
I’m pretty sure one of the first places you will want to see will be the Old Town where Medieval architecture lives side by side with Art Nouveau houses. And that’s the right choice – that’s where you will find Christmas markets filling cobbled streets with goods from Latvian ecological farms and hand made knick-knackeries (starting from 1st of December), that’s where you will be able to warm up with hot tea or wine. Do not forget to taste unique Riga Black Balsam, which you can get almostly in every cafe/bar with hot coffee, hot blackcurrant juice or in different coctails. One of options to enjoy it, is Black Magic Bar (since 1752) where you will be able to get to know almostly everything about Riga Black Balsam (except its’ well kept secrets).
Another market: an old-fashion fair at Bergs Bazaar (at the city center) will be opened on 10th and 24th of December from 10am to 3pm at The Bergs Bazaar (Elizabetes Street 83/85)
To enjoy Riga from height of birds flight, you can choose St. Peter’s church at the Old Town, you can get out of the city center to the TV Tower or enjoy lights of Riga from the 27th floor of Radisson Blu hotel „Skyline” bar (working from 4pm, free entrance from Monday to Thursday). TheTower of the Academy of Science is closed during this season.
For enjoying Christmas atmosphere with good Latvian food, Latvian music and people dressed in Latvian folk costumes you should get out of the city centre to visit ‘LIDO’. If you are here with kids, it is a really good option: you will find there a lot of activites not only for you, but also for your kids: skating rink, place where to play with other kids (with a person who will look after children) and other attractions.
For those looking for entertainment with arts, you should check what Latvian National Opera (LNO) can offer you! Opera is also one of these things Latvia is famous aborad: Latvian opera singers are highly appreciated worldwide, singing on all famous stages of the world and great foreign opera singers are performing on LNO stage in Riga, historical building with pompous interior. If you like ballet, in December 2011 LNO offers you to enjoy „Anna Karenina”, „The Sleeping Beauty” or (what can be better than this on December!!) „The Nutcracker”! Want opera? Here you are: „Don Giovanni”, „Madama Butterfly”, „Turandot”, „La Traviatta” or Latvian opera (also interesting for kids) „The Bird’s Opera”. Ticket prices from 1.50 to 18.00Ls. Check the calendar here.
More options for your December in Riga on this blog coming soon! Feel free to ask, share your questions and impressions or experiences!
For Latvians Christmas is the time when all family comes together. And December 24th is peacefull Christmas Eve when families go to the church and afterwards have Cristmas meal together.Many of the Christian traditions in Latvia are intertwined with earlier pagan traditions. Christmas Eve is a celebration of the birth of Jesus, but in many families it is also a celebration of the Winter Solstice, the time when days become longer and the nights become shorter again. We just celebrate Christmas in both ways – pagan and christian – as they both are about the light coming into life. Also on morning of the 25th of December families goes to the church. Well, usually people choose – 24th or 25th (or 26th).
What happens with Christmas gifts? In many resources on the internet I found this: „Latvians believe that Father Christmas brings presents on each of the 12 days of Christmas starting on Christmas Eve.” I don’t know where are these strange Latvians who believe in it. I don’t know any family which does it. And actually I red it for the first time today on the internet... We receive gifts just once – 24th on evening or 25th on morning. Usually in some special moment (for example, when the family goes to the church) when nobody sees it – gifts are left under the Christmas tree. But it’s not so easy to get them: in order to get a present you have to recite a short poem while standing next to the Christmas tree! So kids before Christmas are really learning by heart a lot of poems. Well, you can also sing, play some music instrument or even dance to get your gift.
Christmas meal: by christian traditions on Christmas Eve it’s not allowed to eat meat, but Latvians are real meat lovers. So there is Christmas Eve when there have to be 9 different dishes (by pagan tradition) which do not include meat (by christian tradition). These traditions perfectly live together. You definitely have to eat boiled grey peas – if you do it, you wont have to cry the next year.
Traditional food for Christmas is grey peas with bacon, gingerbread, bacon rolls, and pork – all head of a pork on the table. Of course, we drink hot wine – German „gluhwine” is all around the world.
Other pagan traditions you will probably meet in Latvia on Christmas time involves a wooden block that is rolled around the house to drive away any evil spirits from the home. You will see it even in the Riga Old Town and for example Etnographical Open-Air museum. By the way, I think that the Etnographical Open-Air museum in Riga is the best place to get to know Latvian traditions. In the countryside people often go masquerading from one home to the next while singing and playing different games – they also do it in open-air museum. In this masquerade will also definitely come The Death. Don’t be afraid – if you are a friend of Death and especially if you dance with Death during Winter Solstice – you are not going to die the next year.
Happy Christmas – Priecīgus Ziemassvētkus!
Pictures: 1) Celebration at Open-Air museum with traditional head of a pork 2-3) Taditional food: bacon rolls and grey peas with bacon 4) Winter Solstice masquerade
It’s just some doorsteps away from Christmas and my city is totally crazy with Christmas trees, so I just have to write here about what happened 500 years ago... The first Christmas tree was a combination of many different facts, legends and customs, but the legend tells that the city of Christmas tree is Riga. The first documented use of a tree in this celebration was in several locations in Northern Europe. The most popular of them are Latvia and Estonia.
All the associations and organizations (and there are a lot of them!) of Christmas trees have admitted that the first Christmas tree really comes from Riga, except our neighbours in Estonia. Well, it is possible that it happened at the same time in both countries as the two Black’s Fraternities were related. Anyway, we don’t know, but there is no closest place to the first Christmas tree as Baltics and officially the first tree in Christmas was decorated in Riga in 1510. 500 years have passed and this tradition has spread all around the world!
