Latvian Independence Day

This evening my wife & I joined some of our Latvian friends downtown Talsi at the lake to watch some celebratory fireworks. It was Latvia’s independence day today, Nov. 18th. The air was cold & damp. Tiny flecks of white floated down from the misty, moonlit sky. Hundreds of people filled the streets with coats, hats, gloves, scarves & boots adorned.

We passed by the town hall where along the steps in the snow were lit dozens of small rememberance candles; people waiting for friends to join them for the show.

8pm, zero hour for shoot-off was marked by the tolling of the bell at the Lutheran church on the hill. Then the street lights went out all over town. As the fireworks display began, I realized that this wasn’t the most spectacular show I have or will ever see, but I could feel that it was special. For this little town of maybe 12,000, this was a big show. The hillside around the lake ooh-ed as the largest rockets began to explode with force overhead.

The whole thing felt oddly familiar. I knew that it was an independence day to be celebrated, but for me, that has always been equated with America. However, the cold & the snow were constant markers for me that I was definitely not in America & this definitely was not July. No, I was in Latvia, a former Soviet state, in November just a couple of days after the first snow of the winter… which will prove to certainly not be the last.

I’m glad that we went. We reflected on this as we walked back to our car through the dark park. It wasn’t a long experience, but it was an important one.

~t