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MAY OPEN-AIR SERVICES IN LATGALE AND AUGŠZEME
The May open air services by the roadside or village crosses is a new tradition, but the possibility that it may be indirectly related to the old outdoor singing traditions cannot be excluded. The age of the May services cannot be determined with any precision, but in all likelihood they started in the second half of the 19th century. According to the Roman Catholic church calendar, May is the month of Virgin Mary when services and prayers are devoted to her. The May services, celebrating the Virgin, originated in Latgale and Augšzeme as a localization of a tradition widespread in the 19th century Catholic world. They took place in the evening, usually on weekends, as people gathered by outdoor crosses – crucifixes installed by the side of the road, in the center of the village, in the nearby cemetery or church. Often they were encircled by a low fence, with benches inside. In May, the crosses were lavishly adorned with bouquets of flowers and garlands. Participants, dressed in their Sunday’s best, sat on the benches. The young and those who did not get a seat stood. The May services are called "dzīduošona pi krusta" and they are held without the presence and guidance of priests. The leader of the service comes from the midst of the participants. Usually it is an older woman who knew the structure of the ritual and the melodies and could start every one at a suitable pitch. Songs devoted to Mary are at the center of the May service. They tell the story of Mary’s life, suffering, and her sacrifice for humanity. The singers know the melodies by heart, they are inherited by oral tradition, whereas the lyrics come from the prayer books used during the service. The choice and sequence of songs are determined by the experience and local traditions of those gathered. The singing is usually conducted in two voices. The melodies and texts are usually localizations of those common in Central Europe. An obligatory part of the service is also the Virgin Mary litany (the Loretto litany from the 13th century) and the pulling of "značkas". The word značka is of Polish origin and denotes a numbered rectangular piece of paper. Its number indicates the task that the person who has pulled it, for instance, avoiding lying. Should the person transgress, they must immediately say a particular prayer. The značkas are pulled from the leader’s prayer book where they are kept throughout the service. An another essential element is reading from the Bible. Each particular day has its own designated reading. The sequence of the above elements may differ from place to place. Even though the services devoted to Virgin Mary are characteristic of the Catholic world, the open-air form both in terms of the form and content is unique. In the Soviet era, many of the roadside crosses were destroyed and the May service tradition suppressed. It was preserved in the more remote locations. At present, the tradition has been powerfully revived in Latgale and is spreading to other Catholic areas in Latvia, for instance the areas inhabited by the Suiti.
OFFICIUM FOR THE DEAD IN LATGALE AND AUGŠZEME
Since the end of the 18th century, a peculiar musical ritual has been widespread a peculiar musical ritual in Latgale and the Catholic parishes of Augšzeme called "Psalms" (saļmes, salmys, saļmas, depending on the dialect) in folk parlance but the Officium for the Dead (from the Latin officium defunctorum) in the Catholic Church practice and scientific literature. Officium of the Dead is historically a kind of prayer of hours (one of the two main service genres, the other being the Holy Mass). It originated around 800 A.D. and was performed as a part of the funeral liturgy as well as at the wake and on All Saints Day, November 2. Over the centuries, the Officiums of the Dead has become known as a prayer said by priests in Latin. In Latvia, however, this Officium has been localized as a folklorized phenomenon occurring mostly at home, without the presence of the priest, and in the native tongue of the participants. A full performance of the Officium takes one-and-a-half to two hours and, in the view of the rural inhabitants of Latgale and Augšzeme, is an integral part of the home life. In Latgale, especially in the countryside, people still tend to die at home instead of the hospital or old people’s home. The dead person remains in the house until the funeral, the body being kept in some clean, cool place like the veranda or the granary. The funeral often being a few days off, the living are preparing for the mourning ceremony, including performing the Officium in the evenings. In the old days the performance took place every night, but these days it is mostly reserved for the last evening or last two evenings before the funeral. The members of the household, relatives and friends of the deceased come together and conduct the Officium prayer. The table, usually an ordinary rectangular table in the living room, aroung which the singers sit, is covered by a white linen table cloth. In some parishes of Latgale, a pinch of salt and a piece of dark rye bread is placed next to the crucifix and candles: these are the symbols of the spirit of the house. The performance takes place at the house also a year after the person’s death or if it is an annual memorial service for all the dead members of the family. Marking a year after the person’s demise is still widespread in Latgale, whereas the annual tradition of performing the Officium for all the dead in a particular family is disappearing. The latter flourished in the 1920s and 1930s when in the dark time around All Saints Day an Officium was held in almost every household. Where the tradition is still alive, it also serves as a time when all the members of a family gather in one place. Since, in common prayer, the images of the dead are recalled in the consciousness of the living, it also serves as a meeting between the living and the dead. The church Officium is usually held once a year on All Saints Day: the churchgoers gather about two hours before mass and perform the prayer. The cemetery ritual is similar. In its essence, the Officium is one of the most powerful prayers for the dead in the pyres of Purgatory. The people of Latgale are well aware of the dogmatic context of the Officium and consider its performance a valuable opportunity to express their love and support for their loved ones even after their death. This awareness of participating in the destiny of a loved one even after their death provides powerful motivation to perform Officiums even under very trying material circumstances. In many places, the performance of the Officium starts with the recital of the rosary. The psalms, however, are the principal structural element. In the first part, psalms are interspersed among solo readings of the Bible and responsoriums performed in a choir. A string of religious songs is usually added to the Officium. In Soviet times, the practice of the Officium for the Dead was not particularly suppressed. However, the fate of the tradition was affected because the cycle of inheritance was interrupted: children and young people no longer participated. Nowadays, the performers are usually old people, which means that the existence of the tradition is on the brink of extinction.
LATGALIAN POTTERY[2]
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In what is today’s territory of Latvia, traditional pottery established itself for substantial periods of time in two districts, Latgale and Kurzeme, but only in Latgale it has survived to our time representing the brightest pages of traditional culture. The stylistic range of Latgalian pottery is very broad, encompassing both the newer, baroque cartouche furnace technique (especially clay candelabra, whistles, mugs, plates), and the older style minimalism and colors (blackened ceramics), which are based on archaeological material. Latgalian pottery is characterized by two lines of development – one practical, the other decorative; the latter is newer and has truly evolved only since 1930. Practical pottery developed in Latgale over several thousand years and is most strikingly represented by vāraunieks (pot for cooking and, more recently, storing food), milk pot (for storing milk), pārinieks (two pots fastened together, which in the past were used to carry two different dishes to workers in the field), pārosis (similar to vāraunieks, but with a clay handle over the top), medaunieks (pot for storing honey, milk products, jam), bowl, and jug (storage containers for liquids). The most outstanding examples of decorative pottery are the candelabra, svilpaunieks (clay whistle in the form of an animal or a bird, or a mythical creature); wall or table plate or dish ensemble; vazaunieks or flower pot. The craft of pottery was passed through the generations, hence the potter clans in Ludza, Rēzekne, Krāslava, Preiļi, Daugavpils, Balvi, and the surrounding areas. The greatest prominence in the 20th century was earned by the so-called Silajāņi ceramics (families Paulāns, Ušpelis, Čerņavskis, Vilcāns, Babris, Riučis, Dubovskis, Backāns, Zagorskis, Dūbe-Dubovskis). Latgale pottery traditions are passed from family to family as well as learned from old masters of pottery and in various specialized schools or camps. The most visible among those is the so-called "Pūdnīku skūla" (founded in 1990), based on studying and practical use of the Latgalian clay processing techniques (L. Zeiļa, A. Bernāne, L. Čible, Vasilevsky E. St. Viļums, I. Vecelis, A. Ušpelis, P. Gailums, L. and A. Pakne, A. Dātava, V. Petjko, V. Bīriņa et al.) and concentrating on the so-called black or blackened ceramics produced in the so-called pit-type kilns fired with wood and without using any industrial methods and techniques. In addition, there are a number of other associations of Latgalian potters - "Rēzeknes apriņķa pūdnīki" (est. 1989), A. Paulāns’s "Tautas lietišķās mākslas studija" (est. 1975).
RYE BREAD[3]
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The rye field blooms for two weeks, for two weeks the grains mature and for another two they dry and then it’s time for Jēkabs’s Day! Jēkabs’s Day, July 25th, is the ancient new rye day when a loaf of bread made from the new harvest must appear on the table, everyone tasting a piece in respectful silence. The newly baked bread was first presented for tasting to the head of the household, then it had to be tasted by everyone else. In the old days, bread was baked in every Latvian country house. The mainstay bread, the daily bread was dark rye. The bread was baked in a special oven and special tools were used for the various stages of preparing and baking it. The dark rye "rupjmaize" was baked of rye flour, the sweet-and-sour from fine rye flour, on Saturdays karaša, a type of bread made of barley and roughly ground wheat flour, but finely ground wheat flour was reserved for white bread. Rupjmaize, literally "rough bread" is also called the "black bread". For making the dough a trough made of light wood was used. Usually, boiling water was poured over the flour; mixed with lukewarm water, yeast was supplemented by a starter from the previous baking. The rather runny dough was left in the trough overnight to ferment. In the morning the kneading started. Kneading was hard but holy labor, so women who did it would put on a white shirt and put a white scarf around their hair. The kneading took a long time, adding more flour and caraway seeds. When the dough would no longer stick to one’s hands the kneading stopped. A loaf was formed, drawing a cross on its top, and then it was covered and left to ferment further. Once the oven was hot, three pinches of flour were thrown in. If they burned, the oven was swept with a damp broom made of leafy branches to steam it up a little. The trough with the dough was put next to the oven and little loaves were shaped on the baker’s peel that was covered with a dusting of flour or maple leaves and quickly put in the oven. The sign drawn on the top of the loaf was usually a Christian cross, but sometimes older signs were pressed into the dough, pronouncing special spells. A special tool was used to scrape the dough sticking to the sides of the trough and a small loaf was made of the dough. That was ready first and could be eaten by children and the bakers. A small ball of dough was left as a starter for the next batch. Sometimes a loaf was baked with a filling: sauerkraut with meat or pilchards, or salted meat with chopped onions. The whole loaf was never given away for fear of giving away the good luck of the household. The first piece of the freshly baked bread was given to the head of the household who had tended to the crops, whereas the children and the young girls waited for the heels. The cutting was started at the wider end of the loaf so that the older daughter would be married first and for the ears of rye to get bigger. The loaf was never left upside down, because there was the belief that the devil then can feed himself and send famine to the house.
LATVIAN TRADITIONAL COSTUME[4]
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The Latvian national costume is basically the traditional festive outfit of peasants, craftsmen, fishermen, and other ordinary folk as worn in the 19th century, approximately up to the 1870s. There were, of course, also work clothes, just like today, the outfit matched the season and weather. The national costume, however, is not just a certain type of festive garb: it is an expression of a nation’s sense of beauty, ability to form an ornament and put together colors, as well as knowledge of the craft. It embodies centuries-old traditions of making, adorning, and wearing the costume. The Latvian national costume is a composite of a variety of festive outfits. There are many local varieties that are combined based on the five cultural-historical or ethnographic areas of Latvia: Vidzeme, Latgale, Augšzeme, Zemgale, and Kurzeme. It is possible that at the basis of the older, barely determinable distinguishing marks of the traditional costume are the outfits of Baltic tribes and Livs living in what is now the territory of Latvia. Yet in every historic period the various costumes have shared many features in common. The costume has changed over time, retaining something of the old and supplementing the new. The peculiarities of the costumes of a certain area became more pronounced over the long centuries of serfdom when the peasants were not allowed to move around freely. The 19th century, particularly the 1860s also left their mark on the variety of the traditional outfits.The basic element of the traditional costume is the shirt, which is an undergarment and an over-garment. Women’s shirts were long, coming down to under the knee and serving both as a blouse and a petticoat. Over the shirt, the women put skirts, bodices, jackets; whereas men wore a vest and a short jacket or a longer or shorter overcoat. The full outfit was not thinkable without a headdress: a crown for girls from their teenage years to the day of their marriage and a hat or a headscarf for married women; the men’s hat wearing was not so strictly regulated. A part of the costume was also knit woolen or cotton lace socks and black flat heel shoes (in places – leather pastalas), for men sometimes boots. The shirt was closed by one small brooch or several ones, the big brooches were used to keep the cape in place. Another element was the woven belts. The traditional costume or rather a stylized variation of it became a symbol of Latvian culture in the 1880s, as part of the national song festival. To this day, the traditional costume is an essential element of the song festival.
SONG RECITING IN VOCAL DRONE POLYPHONY[5]
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Teikšana "song-reciting" is a distinct and traditional Latvian form of singing, which is mainly used at annual, traditional family occasions. Song-reciting, or -calling, is different from cantilena, or melodic singing, due to the fact that it is closer to speaking in sing-song: the inherent short-scale - often tertiary or quarter-toned – melodic, syllabic text and the musical form of presentation, where each syllable of text corresponds to a musical sound, but without bends and grace notes. The song’s excellence arises from its text, its content, and less so from the beauty of the melody. Unlike chant-songs, which are usually text-based with a plot, and hence longer, each song forms a separate, four-line canto. A spoken-song involves a number of singers, or singers (traditional singing usually involves a greater number of female voices), but with different functions: a soloist or main voice recite-sings one half of the quatrain and the other singers repeat it, either verbatim or modified. A specific vocal music phenomenon is associated with this style of singing, the so-called vocal drone polyphony, where, along with quatrain repetition, one, long, continuous sound is sung – drone bass (from the French word bourdon meaning 'bumblebee', 'big bell', 'bass organ'). Often, such true bourdon is replaced by a syllabic bass drone: instead of one long, continuous sound the text is sung, repeated almost completely without changing pitch, creating the impression of true bourdon. The vocal bourdon is usually sung by several people, thus almost all those participating in the event may become involved. Various vocal drone polyphony types – the true or bagpipe bass, syllabic drone bass - are known or documented in all parts of Latvia, but mostly in the south, and almost never around the Gulf of Riga and the northern part of Kurzeme and Vidzeme. The bagpipe drone, sung to "ā" or "ē", is known from the southwest and middle parts of Kurzeme and from the south and north of Latgale, where in some cases it is also sung to the last vowel produced by the soloist; the variable drone bass, sung to "ē-o" is popular from the areas inhabited by the suiti. The earliest records of bagpipe drone bass, also known from Southern Zemgale and Sēlija; here one should note especially "rotāšana", the spring songs, about which the collector of Latvian dainas, Krišjānis Barons wrote: "Rotāšana was without a doubt the most beautiful kind of singing, for it sounded like it was done in a number of voices." In the seasonal songs the bourdon may be associated with certain refrains: "rotā" (spring solstice), "līgo" (summer solstice), etc. The syllabic bourdon occurs almost everywhere where the bagpipe bourdon is the tradition, but mostly in southern Vidzeme, Sēlija, and southern and northern Latgale. Sometimes both syllabic and bagpipe bourdons are used interchangeably. The polyphonic drone is a unique, if archaic musical phenomenon that is still part of the continuous tradition in certain parts of Kurzeme and Latgale – among the suiti, in Nīca and Bārta parishes, and in northern Latgale. Counterparts exist elsewhere only in a few places in Europe - the Balkans, the North Caucasus, and Belarus. Today, the living tradition carries this forward with renewed, creative work that absorbs modified versions of polyphonic drone in folk ensembles, choirs, and other musical performance groups.
KOKLE AND KOKLE PLAYING[6]
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Kokle is the most admired Latvian musical instrument today. Kokles are associated with the oldest, most studied tradition playing styles, but also with great innovation and creativity. There are grounds for believing that kokle playing was ritualistic by nature, and the instrument has some symbolic elements that associate it with mourning the dead and perceptions about the journeys of souls. Mythologically, the kokle is associated with the singing, "soul-inhabited" tree (the kokle was traditionally carved of wood). Mythologically, kokle, or "the golden kokle" is associated with the heavenly spheres and occupies the highest point in the hierarchy of instruments. People's memory holds a perception that "the kokle is from God". Modern kokle is a widely used and noted part of folk music heritage, a symbol of the spirit of folk singing. Although similar tools are known throughout Eastern Europe, from Prussian lands to Central Finland and Karelia, it has not discouraged the perception that the kokle expresses the unique Latvian identity. Kokle tradition is believed to be more than two thousand years old. The oldest Latvian archaeological discovery related to the kokle comes from the 13th. century, the first written testimony from the early 17th century, but the oldest physical instrument - the so-called Cours lute, held at the Latvian National History Museum, goes back to the year 1710 (that year is carved on the bottom), when it became the property of Bokums family from Kurzeme. Testimonies about kokle music are more recent: the first known tune was notated in 1891, but the first recordings and motion picture soundtracks are from the 1930s. The currently popular Kurzeme kokle repertoire consists of instrumental pieces, called "Dances", and song accompaniment. In Latgale the kokle repertoire includes songs and dance tunes along with an accompaniment of holy (spiritual) songs. At the turn of the century, Latvian traditions of kokle playing were mostly lost and ancient instruments could be heard only in certain places in Kurzeme and Latgale. The revival is associated with the folklore movement of the 1970s and 1980s turned the spotlight onto the most ancient instruments untouched by modernization, including the kokle. Its known repertoire, as well as the living kokle playing tradition, as saved, for instance, by the Suiti kokle player John Poriķis, provided the basis for the renewal of this tradition. No less important to its revival were the musical possibilities the instrument presented. Above all, the kokle is an instrument that allows for great freedom. It can produce a gentle, sweet sound, but may also be disturbing and vehement. The number of kokle strings is just right, about the count of fingers of both hands. The basic number of tones is just as large, but they can be colored in many ways. Also kokle strings are considered free, because, unlike other stringed instruments - violins, guitars - the sound is not dampened by a bridge, which would directly connect them to the resonator. The kokle is a soulful instrument. It opens up best in silence, when the only listener is the player. The kokle responds to a variety of moods, it can express both excitement and melancholy. Kokle harmonics, consisting of less than a dozen tones limits and directs the range of feelings, excluding excess and helping to focus on one particular emotion.
THE SONG AND DANCE CELEBRATION[7]
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The Song and Dance Celebration has been the most powerful, enduring, and all-encompassing Latvian cultural phenomenon since the 19th century. The preservation of national identity in a shifting context, bringing fresh creativity to time-tested tradition, is at the heart of a festival based upon choral singing, especially a capella, with contemporary professional musicians working upon a foundation in folklore. Choirs from every corner of Latvia converge in what may be the largest choir on the planet. The traditions of the festival, passed on from generation to generation, are concentrated in a week’s worth of intensity where art and celebration are inseparable. Preserving these traditions and mounting the festival is a far longer, complex process with amateurs, professionals and masters working together. Weaving together these traditions is a unique work of folk art, the positive, healing energies of singing passed down with a work ethic and a sense of national collective effort. The repertoire of the Song and Dance Celebration accentuates what’s seen as vital to the nation’s spiritual growth – nature, love for the land, and the ethics of human relations. The creation of the national costumes unique to each region, applied art, and clusters of concerts of all kinds, from sacred music to brass bands, expand the context. The endurance of the tradition depends on new art in choreography and the introduction of new compositions. Historic classics happily co-exist with innovations. The Song and Dance Celebration is the story of the national experience. The symbolism and repertoire of the event has reflected the dramatic turns of history since the festival’s inception. The foundation, however, is what is unique to the nation. The celebration is not only one of song but also of togetherness. Shortly before the first festival took place, a local bishop observed that the Latvians were a small tribe with an unclear future. Whether they would become a nation was unknown. This small tribe gathered in Riga on 26 June 1873, arriving in boats, by train, and by horse-drawn carriages to begin a tradition that would carry Latvia to independence and through the occupation to the restoration of its nationhood. The Song and Dance Celebration was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2003.
JĀŅI[8]
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When the day is longest and the night is shortest, at the summer solstice, Latvians celebrate Jāņi, St. John’s Eve, staying awake around bonfires or burning barrels raised high on poles so that singing, wandering neighbors can find the celebrations. Of the seasonal ancient Latvian celebrations, the summer solstice has most fully retained traditional activities that include preparations awaiting the great day and not only the festival itself. There are local variations, myriad nuances, and different traditions handed down within families. In one period the celebration was banned, in others organized; collective farms would organize collective Jāņi just as civil parishes and towns still do today. People pick their venue, celebrating with their extended family, among friends, or at a public celebration – or trying to take in more than one as the long twilight turns into brief night. In the Latvian farmer’s calendar, Jāņi marks the first haymaking and follows the beginning of astronomical summer. Traditions in awaiting the holiday include the conclusion of spring labors, weeding, tending flowerbeds, learning folk songs, cleaning and tidying the home, making the special cheese in the shape of the solar disk, brewing beer, baking pīrāgi, and on the day preceding the festivities – decorating the farmstead with birch boughs, bouquets of flowers, garlands, oak branches and wreaths. Scholars of religion connect Jāņi to solar cults and fertility rites, debating the extent of pre-Christian and Christian influences on the festival as we now know it. Austris Grasis, a researcher in Baltic folklore and the Latvian language, notes that the idea that Jānis as a divine son takes on some of the functions of the sun is insufficient in explaining the traditions; a solar cult alone cannot account for the figure of Jānis. Those rites connected to fire, awaiting the sunrise, dancing around the flames and some other aspects of the celebration can be connected to a solar cult, but an ancient, phallic fertility cult is another root of the Jāņi traditions. The birch boughs, the gathering of specific, magical plants, the dancing around the fields and use of the boughs at their perimeter to encourage fertility combined with the sexual symbolism in folk songs and the root of the incessantly repeated word līgo, which refers to swaying and swinging, make the erotic content of the festival clear. Singing has a central place in the celebration. Many of the songs with the līgo refrain (leigū or rūto in the eastern region of Latgola) were originally sung by nubile girls, herders and ploughmen as they decorated the farmstead. The sounds of nature, especially lovely in the long, mystical twilights of the northern summer, blend with the traditional songs, giving the celebration the unique atmosphere that makes it the most loved Latvian holiday. St. John’s Eve is also known as the Day of Grasses. The brief summer is at the peak of bloom, different plants having their traditional uses in folk medicine, divination, as decoration and in the weaving of wreaths. All guests are considered "children of Jānis," the host and hostess the father and mother of the "children." Beer – especially home-brewed, smoky beer – and the special golden cheese are essential to the celebration.
GRAVE TENDING AND CEMETERY FESTIVALS[9]
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Cemeteries are one of the visible expressions of Latvian cultural heritage. Over time, they have changed, but the graves received regular visitors and the tradition of their care has been sustained over several centuries. Looking at this tradition of gravesite care, a study by archaeologists shows that both the Cours’ fire graves and Selonian burial mounds show respect for the deceased. In the 16th and 17th centuries, in the Duchy of Courland (Kurzeme) and Swedish Vidzeme, the landlords, clergymen and other outstanding individuals were buried in cathedral arches and courtyards. Farmers were still buried into burial mounds into the 18th century, when the Great Plague felled many residents of Kurzeme (1710) and Vidzeme withstood the Russian pillaging during the Northern War, turning the land on both sides of the Daugava River into a huge cemetery field. It took two to three generations for people to recover somewhat. Only in 1773, when Vidzeme was under Russian rule, the Governor ordered the cemeteries to be marked off by a fence or surrounding rampart. Burials in the churches or churchyards was prohibited, which explains why Vidzeme developed vast cemeteries. In Courland, after the abolishment of serfdom in 1864, many acquired economic independence and could purchase land for their family and relatives and homeowners arranged small cemeteries on their newly-acquired land. Over time, these evolved into parish cemeteries. Covering the grave with flowers was apparently first practiced by Herrnhutters - members of the so-called Brethren congregations around Valmiera and Cēsis at the end of the 18th century. In Courland fishermen’s villages the tradition was to carve ornaments into the cross or adorn it with ribbons and cords. Tombstones with words cast in them, coats of arms and commemorative plates, had already started to spread in 15th century in Riga. When the law was adopted that provided for establishing burial places only outside the city limits, in 1773, the citizens of Riga obtained the so-called Great Cemetery. In 1910, the Riga City Council granted a nearly 100 hectares to install a suburban cemetery in the forest. The Forest Cemetery, which is over a hundred years old, has now become a very large "city of the dead", whose territory was originally divided into religious congregations. The cemetery developed around the gravesite of Latvia’s greatest national poet, Rainis, was the first to be independent of denominational influence. The two world wars covered the territory of Latvia with the graves of soldiers. During the summer, from late June to early September, cemetery festivals takes place attended by the relatives, friends and neighbors of the deceased: they congregate to commemorate the dead even if they live far away and even outside Latvia. This cemetery festival tradition has not existed for more than a hundred years, but it is strongly rooted and maintained by people belonging to the local community. In preparation for celebrations, the cemetery is decorated with vases of flowers on the graves, candles are lit and fresh sand strewn around the graves; flowers are planted and decorative shrubs trimmed. Latvians care for the cemetery as if it were a garden, and landscape architects recognize that the Latvian cemeteries may be considered parks of sorts. Cemetery festivals include a pastor-led church service or lay ceremony with music poetry, speeches and celebrations that take place either in the family circle by the cemetery if there are no relatives living nearby, at the nearby family home, or in the wider local community -- village or town celebrations tailored to the cemetery festival period.
Iidentified focus groups/target group carrying the relevant knowledge and investigate their needs for training and support
[1] www.kulturaskanons.lv
[2] www.kulturaskanons.lv
[3] www.kulturaskanons.lv
[4] www.kulturaskanons.lv
[5] www.kulturaskanons.lv
[6] www.kulturaskanons.lv
[7] www.kulturaskanons.lv
[8] www.kulturaskanons.lv
[9] www.kulturaskanons.lv