Jani, or mid-summer's eve... the shortest night of the year

It's the shortest night of the year, and in Latvia, that means really short! It was only truly dark from about 2am until 3:30 or 4. We celebrated this year out at Marianna and Jeremy's, or Marianna's parents country house out in Saldus, Latvia. You'll notice a theme of fire throughout the night... we do this to symbolize the sun. This is the night to worship the sun, as she is with us the longest on this day. But, for me, it is a day of mourning, as it means that from here on out, the days get shorter. :( Either way, it was a great time... here's a few shots of the night...

Singing and dancing round the big oak tree. Latvians sing and dance incessentaly this night (if not all nights).

As tradition requires, the Janu Mate (Jani Mother) offers Janu cheese to all her guests.

And the Janu Tevs (Janu Father) offers beer.

The ladies spent hours weighing down this table. Believe it or not, in 24 hours, we'd pretty much consumed all of this food.

Dig in!

As the night wore on (it's about 10pm in this picture) the kids started getting a wee bit tired. Here is a victory shot... Mikus, Joel's youngest nephew, seems to finally have accepted me, as he was willing to be in my arms as he barely hung on to consciousness. And yes, you can quit making fun, I am OBVIOUSLY delighted at the fact of having the kid in my arms!

Joel and Jeremy, and others, built this Jani torch and lit it with the help of the other men folk.

The campfire. The boys also built this, and were delighted to light it with a big "whoosh" as fire caught to gasoline and dry wood.


Around midnight or 1, maybe, we continue singing and dancing round the campfire. The picture looks dark, but I swear it wasn't pitch black out yet.

Around 2 we headed down to the lake to light a mini-fire on a raft. Joel leads the way bearing a torch. I told you, it was dark by then. The raft-fire wouldn't light and wouldn't go the right way, so, even though I was shivering dressed, Joel got in the water to save the day/night and re-lit the raft and pushed it out into deeper water.

Morning breaks. Due to a headache, I had gone to bed, but Joel stayed up to greet the sun.