Priecigas Lieldienas

Leildienas is the Easter Celebration in Latvia which is all of Holy Week ending with Easter Monday which is a national holiday. On Palm Sunday the tradition is to wake up children in the house by tickling them with pussy willows. In church pussy willows not palms are presented. One friend says this is an Orthodox tradition. Pussy willows are found in all the flower markets. On Easter we went to St. Saviors the Anglican Church which has services in English. We have been attending quite regularly. There is wonderful music with a gospel choir of young Latvians singing once each month and an accomplished organist who often brings in other musicians to play...flutiest, violinists, and a saxophone player. On Easter, after church in Livu Laukum, one of the city squares, we saw these folk dancers, egg rollers and swing riders enjoying Easter festivities. The tradition with the egg rolling is to see which egg goes the farthest. There were children coloring eggs. The eggs were tied to a string and the children were holding them dangling from their in a pot of steaming onion skins. Blueberries and beets are also used for natural dye coloring. For food there were stands with sausages and hot drinks. Daffodils and other spring flowers are showing up at the flower market where there are always roses. The days are now longer with the sun rising about 6:17 and setting about 18:45 (6:45) with daylight savings time going into effect on the 30 of Marts.