Riga - On the night of June 23-24, Latvians around the world are set to celebrate the midsummer feast, two days after the sun climbs to its highest point above the Northern Hemisphere. Naturally, they are expecting rain.
"We are going to the country, but it will probably rain. It always rains at Ligo (the festival's Latvian name)," one Latvian friend of this correspondent grumbled last weekend.
"Does it ever not rain (at Ligo)?" asked the website of the Latvian Environmental, Geological and Meteorological Institute rhetorically, before pointing out the historical oddity that Ligo night was dry in 2005, though it rained on the morning of the feast.
For many Latvians, the midsummer festival is the most important feast of the year. Based on pre-Christian traditions of sun worship, it is currently dedicated to John the Baptist (whence its alternative name of "Jani"), but its rituals are purely pagan.
In the afternoon of June 23, Latvians crowned with wreaths of oak leaves flock to the countryside. In pre-Christian times the oak was regarded as a holy tree, and it still features widely in Latvian folk songs and on the five-lat (9.52 dollars) bank note.
As the evening draws in, Ligo celebrants light bonfires and sing folk songs or jump through the flames. They also grill shashliks and consume copious quantities of alcohol, although these are not generally interpreted as being specifically pagan traditions.
Latvians' dedication to the Ligo feast has followed them around the world. Between 1945 and 1991, when Latvia was occupied by the Soviet Union, exile communities as far apart as the UK and Australia celebrated Ligo in their new homes.
Since Latvia joined the EU in 2004, a new wave of migrants has carried the festival to countries such as Ireland, where they have revived local interest in domestic solstice traditions, Irish President Mary McAleese said on a recent visit to Riga.
But the dedication with which Latvians celebrate the sun's brightest day has its dark side. Every year, the Ligo tradition of heavy drinking leads to a surge in road deaths during the feast.
In 2000, 26 people died in Ligo car crashes. Since then, the number of fatalities has fallen dramatically, but an average of four people per year still die on the roads during the festival.
"Nowadays, one of the main news stories at Jani is the accidents and tragedies on Latvia's roads," Latvia's Road Traffic Safety Directorate (CSDD) said in a press release.
This year, the CSDD and the state police have launched a new anti-drink-driving campaign which promises harsh punishments, including temporary imprisonment in a specially converted bus, to offenders.
"We have to fight for every person's life! Simple speeches won't work any more," Transport Minister Ainars Slesers said in a speech given at the campaign's opening ceremony.
As this year's Ligo approaches, road-safety workers may well be hoping that the rain will dampen revellers' spirits. If it does not, the wreaths they wear could end up as mourning ones.
