Easter in Brooklyn

 “How will the Easter bunny know we’re in New York?”

“Where will the bunny hide the eggs?”

When Easter morning rolled around, the bunny had done its job; plastic eggs had been hidden all around the apartment, and hunting them all down took a good part of the morning. The rabbit also did some research, as the boys’ Easter baskets had a couple of NYC-themed cars and trucks, New York City chocolates, and LEGO keychains…

Next we ‘unwrapped’ our onion skin-dyed eggs, colored the traditional Latvian way. The ones dyed in cabbage also came out beautifully.

While sisters worked at setting the Easter table, the boys all ventured out into Brooklyn to do who-knows-what.

They made it back in time to get dressed up and take some serious photos.

The Lieldienu mielasts. Not a laughing matter.

The eggs were brought out again. I call this the photographer – photographed series.

For dessert out came the paska.

Hearts and stomachs full, we had one final adventure waiting for us in New York City before we would have to head home...

The whole gang

The ten days of Jāņi // līgo, līgo

I’ve been told that these days in Latvia, Jāņi is a five day-long celebration: one day of preparations, Līgo vakars, Jāņi, a day of work and a day to recooperate… Here in the Upstate I’m tempted to call it a 10-day-long fest, as we included the strawberry-full moon summer solstice and two weekends into our celebration!

The Jāņu mielasts includes plenty of pīrāgi!

It started last weekend, when the festivities started in multiple cities and areas, including one of the larger svinības in Gaŗezers (which we attended two years ago). We līgo līgo-d right along, admiring the beautiful flower crowns, giant bonfires and tall pūdeles (the midsummer night fire on a raised pole) of friends across the world.

Then came the summer solstice, the shortest night of the year and the first day of summer. June’s full moon fell on the eve of the solstice for the first time since 1948. The so-called “strawberry moon" may have gotten its name from Native American tribes because strawberry season is at its peak in June, but when the moon is close to the horizon it does take on a reddish tint (in Europe the June full moon is sometimes known as the rose moon). We wandered to the end of the block to see the moon rise, and were rewarded with a glimpse of an owl on the hunt in the solstice twilight.

Līgo evening and Jāņi are celebrated on June 23^rd and 24^th respectively, the names days for Līga and Jānis. Since the solstice falls on different days on different years, Latvians will celebrate midsummer’s night on Jāņi. But on those years that Jāņi fall on a weekday, we often celebrate the weekend before or after, as was the case this year. This can be confusing – another reason to extend the celebration all week…

Jāņu siers and rasols

Līgo vakars was unbearably hot, and we used the excuse of making Jāņu siers to stay indoors that morning. The traditional Latvian cheese needs a day to compress, and so it’s smart to make it a few days in advance of the fête.

Jāņi day was a loooong day… One of the educational groups we participate in here in the Upstate travels to a different country every month, and it just so happened Friday was Tanzania at our house. The boys had an excuse to wear their dashikis, my mom got in her art-education fix, and the kids all went home with hand-stamped khanga cloth and Serengeti sunsets. Not your average Jāņi, that’s for sure! The highlight of the day was the return of Roberts from his month-long work trip – it’s good to have dad back, and just in time for the big Jāņi celebration!

This year our lovely Jāņu māte and Jāņu tēvs were Inta and Leonard in Charlotte, NC. We spent the morning in hurried preparations for the feast: vecmamma Inga baking pīrāgi while we harvested oak branches and Jāņu zāles, ironed our tautas tērpi and finally crafted our flower and oak leaf vainagi (crowns). Finally it was time to head north to celebrate.

The evening passed in a flash of delicious food, good company, folk songs and bonfire. We burned our vainagi  from last Jāņi on a fire started with a birch bluķis from Estonia. We drank beer from Latvian ceramic mugs. We ate too many pīrāgi and pieces of Jāņu siers to count. The kids ran free, sugar fueling their energy and glow sticks marking their location. And although there was less dancing than in previous years due to the heat, the songs kept coming until the chorus of projām jāiet, projām jāiet, es nevaru šeit palikt (it’s time to leave, I can’t stay here) rang out sometime after midnight.

As we put away our tautas tērpi and accompanying brooches and accessories, washed the dishes from the previous day’s preparations, stored away our Jāņu vainagi for burning in next year’s bonfire and finally sorted through the dozens of pictures, I drifted off in memories of dozens of Jāņi past… Our celebration of this most popular of Latvian holidays has brought us to  dozens of places in the last couple of decades, introducing us to new people and places but also bringing us back to the family, friends and places that define us; this annual tradition has contributed in shaping our family traditions just as surely as our Latvian roots. As children, the short nights seemed endless – and I saw this reflected in the eyes of my boys last night as they ran free long after their usual bedtime. But although the fatigue catches up with me faster now that we are adults, Jāņu nakts is still the one night that sleep is elusive…

Līgojam, līgojam,
Neguļam, neguļam,
Redzēsam, redzēsam,
Kur saulīte rotājās!

Burtiski burvīgs burziņš - the Latvian craft fair of the year

On our previous visit to Latvia during the National Song and Dance Festival we dared to attend the grand dance performance and the final concert with Lauris and Mikus. Both were extraordinary experiences that I will forever associate with the land of my forefathers, my heritage, my identity. However, the boys were not old enough to remember the historic events, other than a few vague impressions and what they remember from pictures and video. I am not brave enough to repeat the experience this summer with three boys, and so we have been content to explore the various peripheral fêtes occurring around the city, including the Burtiski burvīgs burziņš Vērmanes dārzā, a giant crafts and design fair.

Not your run of the mill craft fair, the burziņš is a showcase of the rich cultural legacy of Latvian artisans. The Latvians book publishers and music companies were represented, however the majority of vendors featured handmade goods: carved wooden spoons, woven clothes, linen tablecloths, amber jewelry, traditional (and more modern) pottery, leather billfolds, glassware and more. Mixed in with the expensive, one-of-a-kind quality items are more affordable souvenirs, such as the Upe music box that plays Rīga dimd, or the linen bags from Alūksne that the boys picked out for themselves. We also chose an amazing wooden calendar to help the children learn the seasons, months and days; the bonus is the prominent display of the Latvian traditional seasons such as Ūsiņi, Jumji and Mārtiņi. Coasters seemingly made of woven tautiskas jostas, ceramic magnets and leather keychains featuring the traditional symbols, paper dolls with the national costumes and even pastalas, the customary footwear – it could all be found in Vērmanes dārzs.

Also to be found within the winding pathways – friends, old and new. One day we met up with our soon-to-be-relatives that we hadn’t seen since Costa Rica, another day we bumped into (almost literally) our friend Maksīts from France who we last saw in Chicago at Christmastime more than two years ago! Some days we had company in the form of vecmamma Aija, other days dad joined us for our excursions.

It wasn’t only shopping, as there were various stations set up throughout the park that provided free entertainment for the kids. The earth science/environmental booth offered a variety of interesting hands-on activities, including the chance to “hold fire” (Lauris chose not to participate, even after mom did) and explore various household chemical reactions.

On several stages were an intriguing mix of performances, from traditional folk songs to new medleys, improve comedy and theatre productions. My favorite was the instrumental rendition of “Popcorn.” Of course the playground and bounce house/slide proved to be appealing attractions, giving some valuable down time for goofing off.

We spent a little time in the activity tent where kids could try their hand at one of the many traditional art forms: ceramics, weaving and rotkalšana (jewelry making) among them. Lauris and Mikus were deemed too young for the pottery wheel but made a couple of pinch pots that hopefully will be fired in the kiln next Saturday. They also helped make a few of the tiny metal baubles that would get affixed to one of the versions of folk costume crowns. I regret not sitting down at the loom, and dream of the day when I’ll have time to take up weaving, a talent my great-grandfather excelled at.

The song and dance festival has ended, but the spirit lives on here in Rīga. As the 37,400 participants return to their summer routines and the thousands of spectators slowly empty from the city, the festival feeling continues to resonate – ŠODIENA ATSKANĒS RĪT!

Jāņi in Greenville, the Latvian summer solstice

It’s a good thing Jāņi occurs on one of the longest days of the year, otherwise there wouldn’t be time to get everything done!

First, the gathering of Jāņu zāles, the raw materials for the traditional flower and oak leaf crowns.

The making of the wreaths can be rather tedious, especially when the pinēja has a house full of boys! (Men's wreaths are usually fashioned of oak leaves, and I find them more time consuming to create.) Next, the rain must pass. There is a reason why Latvians have a saying līst kā par Jāņiem (raining as on Jāņi)!

Then, a family portrait (or two), before everyone scatters! (And before those clean linen pants get dirty…)

  

Once all the guests have arrived it’s time for the Jāņu feast! Among the offerings you might find sklandrausis, the traditional dish made of rye dough and filled with potato and carrot puree and seasoned with caraway seed, or smalkmaizītes, the little sandwiches with a variety of toppings. But you definitely will find Jāņu siers, the cheese all the most dedicated saimnieces will tie for the occasion!

Once darkness falls and the bonfire is lit, we burn the vaiņagi from the previous year, along with all of our worries and fears.

We jump over the bonfire, for reasons ranging from health and happiness to protection against mosquitos. The fire illuminates the night until the sun rises the following morning.

The children join us in rotaļas, but as the adults keep singing on into the night they drift in and out between adventures. 

The little legs finally tire, their little stomachs drowsy with food and sweets, and guests reluctantly bid farewell. It is with the approach of dawn that we finally get tucked into our beds, dreaming of Jāņu adventures past and present. Upon waking the next morning we might think it was all a midsummer night’s fairytale, if not for the woodsmoke lingering in our hair and the oak leaf vaiņagi wilting in the sun of another SC summer morning…

Mountain Homes at WolfOak's spring bonfire

There are those instances when a series of events unfold that make it seem as if it were destined for everything to work out. Last year we attended our Dutch friend’s spring bonfire down in Piedmont, but this year we were slated to be traveling that weekend; I was super disappointed that we were going to miss what had been a fantastic evening with friends, food and great music. The event was rescheduled, but the new date didn’t work much better, as Roberts was traveling and we had a large group of people over to bid farewell to friends of ours moving out of state. So it was fate that the entire week prior to the new proposed date it rained, and the spring bonfire was once more rescheduled – to a date when we could make it!

The wolf oak

In the Netherlands it is an important Easter tradition to light a bonfire on Easter Sunday that has often been weeks or sometimes even months in the making. The paasvuur are lit as darkness falls, with entire villages coming out for the event. This past weekend as evening approached, friends bearing homemade dishes descended on WolfOak, the idyllic spot for this spring gathering.

As the horses watched from their pasture, Mountain Homes set up their equipment and launched into their first set. My friends had first heard them at Bohemian (a restaurant in our neck of the woods), immediately fell in love with their unique sound and invited them to play the night of the bonfire. Their folksy Americana was perfect in the country setting of Monique’s estate, the audience gathered at picnic tables under the majestic wolf oak that gives the property its name.

Mountain Homes seamlessly blends guitar, banjo, mandolin, cello, bass, drums and viola to present a sound verging on bluegrass. The sun slowly set to the stories contained in their melodic ballads, and to the children’s delight the bonfire was finally lit. The band kept jamming, shadows growing long and light from the fire reflected on their faces.

We filled plates with delicious food, going back for seconds and thirds and topping everything off with s’mores. The kids were drunk with the freedom only afforded at WolfOak, freedom to do as they pleased all night long. They danced, then disappeared for what seemed like hours at a time only to reappear with instruments with which to join in and jam with the band. They fed the fire, with sticks and with pine needles, the bonfire flaring at moments seemingly in arrangement with the music. The animals hovered, hoping for a stray fork full of food to land at their feet but settling in at our feet hypnotized by the fire and tunes.

  

If only the evening didn’t have to end. It was long after the band had played their final notes and packed up that we found ourselves around the fire with three very tired children. I can’t wait to see what Monique has in store for us next year!

If you would like to catch Mountain Homes live, they are playing events at Quest Brewing Company tomorrow at 7pm, and at Chief’s next Monday. I urge you to check these guys out – how great is it to have awesome talent like this right here in the Upstate! And more on the guesthouse and urban farm WolfOak here; you can also follow them on facebook or book them on airbnb.com.

Easter events in the Upstate

There are dozens of egg hunts and spring happenings in the Greenville area this time of year, and including a couple of those in our schedule the past two weeks in addition to continuing our annual traditions has made for a busy month. We kicked off the Easter season with the company Easter egg hunt (and the giant bunny) and then followed that with dying eggs the traditional Latvian way – with onion skins. This year I varied my usual method in that after ‘gluing’ leaves and flowers to the eggs with water and wrapping in onion skins, I tied them off with thread without the cheesecloth or old nylons to hold everything together. A few came undone in the dye bath, but they came out even darker than usual after spending the night in the pot outdoors, to keep everything cool. A splash of vinegar probably also played a role.

We headed north to Travelers Rest for the Flashlight Easter Egg Hunt. Held in conjunction by Greenville County Rec and Three Rivers Baptist Association, the event was advertised as “You haven’t lived until you’ve hunted glowing eggs after dark.” Well then, we still haven’t lived. The ‘egg hunt’ was two areas enclosed with construction fencing littered with plastic eggs and eggshells which the kids were herded into and then timed to see how many they could pick up. There was something about trying to get one of every color, but in the end all the empty eggs were dumped into giant bins and the kids were handed 8 or 9 pieces of candy each after standing in line for about 15 minutes in exchange for their effort. We crossed the street to enjoy a free hot dog and play games, and Lauris did get his face painted (not sure what the church volunteers thought of his request for fire to be painted on his cheek), but the lines were growing longer, Vilis was growing heavier, and the boys were growing tired. When I inquired as to when the glow-in-the-dark/flashlight portion of the event would start I was told last year a bunch of little kids were trampled in the dark, and so “we’re not doing that any more.” The bit of false advertising had me disappointed, and the fact that it’s not so fun hunting eggs when there is no reward – I think both boys would have preferred to take home the empty eggs over the few pieces of candy that were tossed their way.

We headed to Swamp Rabbit Grocery and Cafe for their first annual egg dye party earlier this week. Using only natural dyes, the event was geared towards kids under 7 and quickly sold out. With our experience using natural dyes we were ahead of the game in knowing that these things take time, but the resulting hues ended up being in perfect contrast to the darker onion skin eggs from our home dyes.

A stop at the Greenville Zoo for their Get Out and Play Day proved to be slightly disappointing as well. There were booths set up throughout the zoo by organizations to educate and encourage families to get outdoors, and most of the tables were set up around some sort of passport that could get stamped and stickered – but they ran out of these kits early on and so my boys were completely confused by the education aspect of it. They had fun shooting a hockey puck with the Greenville Road Warriors and trying their hand at some archery and other games, but the high point of the visit was definitely running into their soccer coach and meeting the brand-new gibbon. The baby siamang was born March 14, and is the 1st endangered species born at the zoo in 21 years.

As we’ll be spending Easter with family there is more egg hunting yet to come, along with great food and good company. I’m looking forward to seeing how our red cabbage eggs turn out (they are currently in the dye bath and should be ready soon), and overconsumption of chocolate eggs and jelly beans has yet to reach its peak, but I’ll take this opportunity to wish you all Priecīgas Lieldienas and a Happy Easter – onion skins, bunnies, gibbons and all!

An Easter Five on Friday

Easter is a little more than a week away, but we’ve just barely started our preparations! Here are the five things I’m thinking about as the holiday approaches;

1. Traditionally dyed Easter eggs. Latvians use onion skins and red cabbage to color their eggs, using natural ingredients before it was en vogue. If you would like to give au natural a try this year, my post Œufs blancs covers the onion skin method and Natural Easter eggs instructs on the red cabbage method. Either we’ve eaten fewer onions this previous year or I’ve been slacking on saving the skins, as my bag was far too empty for the deep brown color I strive to get. Yesterday was the day I rummaged through all the onions in the produce department earning strange looks from other customers and the cashier, but after I buy white eggs we’ll be all set to color our eggs next week.

2. Last year I couldn’t procure the necessary farmer’s cheese to make my grandmother’s paska (we were in Ohio and we must have called thirty stores in our search!), and so this year I’ll be driving to Spartanburg’s European Market to pick up the stuff; harder to find than morels in these here parts.

3. Our local Bi-Lo supermarket had pussy willow branches for sale on my last shopping trip, saving me from a mad last-minute search across the Upstate to be prepared this Sunday. I fully intend to be the first one up, earning the privilege to give all the boys a good apaļš kā pūpols, vesels kā rutks wake-up call! (Read my post Pūpolsvētdiena or Palm Sunday here if you're wondering what I'm talking about.)

4. The giant Easter bunny at the company Easter party doesn’t get any more normal-looking as the years go by; every year I think how different this human-size rabbit is from the more rabbit-sized one I imagined hiding all the eggs of my childhood. Eventually won over with the promise of securing bubble wands, the boys still had their doubts; good thing they were too busy admiring one another’s haul from the morning’s egg hunt to give it too much thought.

5. Easter egg baskets. Three favorite things to find in yours on Easter morning?