Spring in my country - Diaspora Latvian language and culture school

Find a Spring in our countries

Tue, 10 May 2022 15:36:00 +0000

Ireland-Latvia

Spring in a frame

Mon, 09 May 2022 11:37:00 +0000

Mother's Day in Latvia

Fri, 06 May 2022 20:42:00 +0000

Mother's Day in our online school /May 8/

Mother's Day in our online school /May 7/

Mother's Day gifts.

Mother's Day in Latvia is May 8/second Sunday of May/ but we will have not school day and now we are making gifts for our mums.

Latvian traditions in Spring - Jurģis' Day.

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 22:16:00 +0000

Spring traveling

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 21:37:00 +0000

Today /21.04./ we /me and my son, he is Latvian school student too/ visited one of very beautiful and famous place in Ireland, near our home, we are here every year in Spring now, in Autumn, sometimes in Summer - Duckett's Grove.

Of course - w hav lot of Spring blossom photos, outdoor activities and history building photos.

But more about Duckett's Grove - https://www.facebook.com/DuckettsGrove

Latvian Easter traditions

Wed, 20 Apr 2022 19:50:00 +0000

Latvian Easter traditions in Latvian school in Ireland,

April 17, 2022

“Lieldienas”- Latvian Easter

Lieldienas was traditionally the celebration of the spring equinox (March 22nd); however, once Christianity took hold, this festival became associated with Easter and now is celebrated on the date on which Easter Sunday falls.
In Latvian Lieldienas is a compound word which literally means “big days”: liel-(as) “big” + dienas “days”. Some people assume this refers to the fact that the amount of sunlight is increasing, and the “day” is now “bigger” (i.e. longer) than it was in the wintertime.
In any case, Lieldienas was a “big” celebration of dancing, singing and gaiety, and was celebrated for three full days (and, in some areas, for four). On the first day, the Latvians arose early and rinsed their faces in running water. Symbolically scattering evil, adults scared birds away from the homes and surroundings, because birds symbolized bad luck and illness and with shooing the birds away you also got rid of all the bad luck and illness.
One of the older traditions associated with Lieldienas is building a swing (preferably on a tall hill), and swinging on it as high as possible. This appears to be a magical tradition; some say that by swinging high in the air, it encourages the sun to keep rising higher and higher in the sky as spring progresses. It was also common to keep swinging one week after Easter and then the swing had to be burned so that witches couldn’t swing on it.
Latvians have a treasury of folk songs called ”Dainas” and one can find many different folk songs about Easter. It’s not surprising that in days gone by there is no mention of colouring eggs because most Latvians colour eggs by boiling them in onion skins and tying different materials around the eggs before boiling which will make patterns on them. However, there are folk songs which mention eggs of gold, silver and white. If Latvians stick to known traditions what they do is they take a piece of cloth and say in one cloth they put some birch tree leaves then tie this to the egg and it will leave a pattern in the dark brown color which they get from the onion skins and you could use a fir branch which will give some green, some flower petals or even tie up the egg with colorful wool string. There is a belief that in ancient times magicians would color Easter eggs and then put them under a horse’s or other animal’s trough to do harm to the animals or put a spell on them. It was a well known fact that people believed this in the old days and were very afraid of that kind of magic eggs. It was also thought that there was something mystic about the water in which the eggs were boiled and it was thought that this water could do things like keep hawks away from baby chicks which had been born in the spring. Another thing that concerned country folks was that if they saw that the egg shell peeled well and easy then there would be a good linen harvest and if the eggs peeled badly the linen would not grow well.
Some other beliefs were:
If someone stole someone else’s Easter eggs they would have nothing but be just as plain as an egg.
If someone ate an Easter egg without salt they would tell lies all summer long.
At Easter you had to exchange your Easter eggs with someone else’s Easter eggs or your hens wouldn’t lay anymore eggs and chicks wouldn’t hatch.
If a young girl gave a boy two eggs it meant she didn’t like him, if three eggs it meant there was a chance she liked, four eggs meant she didn’t like him but since he was rich she would belong to him and five eggs meant she loved him.
A tried and true tradition in any Latvian household even these days is fighting or banging with the Easter eggs. Each person takes an Easter egg in their hand and thinks of a wish. Then they hit the tops of the eggs against each other. The person whose egg doesn’t crack will get his or her wish first. There were also egg rolling contests. Decorated eggs are rolled down slopes in grassland or forest – the contestant whose egg rolls furthest is the winner – and eggs are eaten after the game (if not broken).

Happy Easter! – Priecīgas Lieldienas!

One of very interesting game for our kids in Easter activities was - as in other countries' Easter traditions, egg-cracking is a typical Latvian Easter game. Two people face off with their boiled eggs. They crack the eggs together. The person whose egg comes out without a scratch is ensured a long life.

Spring in our pictures

Wed, 13 Apr 2022 22:26:00 +0000

Green Classroom

Wed, 23 Mar 2022 11:42:00 +0000

Learning about vegetables, etc.

We are reading and ilustrated Spring poem.

The willow trees on the hillsides.

The willow-catkins of the willow trees

So little, so lovely and soft,

The sun shines with a smile,

And so do we all.

Please mummy allow me

To go to the hillside.

There golden sun is shining

And pussy willow so lovely.

/Vilis Plūdonis, Latvian poet/

We started Green time in school before our project idea about Green Classroom and we have not eggshell, cotton, but - we have so much enthusiasm to see how is growing our seeds..

Learning activities

Sun, 20 Mar 2022 23:32:00 +0000

5-6y.old.

Diaspora Latvian online students /5-6years old., England, North Ireland, Ireland, Cyprus/ yesterday and today learned about Spring, Easter.

Learning about Spring.

We are learning about animals and birds in Spring.

We are learning language with Lego.

Spring crafts

Sun, 20 Mar 2022 23:19:00 +0000

Spring bracelets

5-6years old kids from England, North Ireland in our online school work creative about Spring.

Easter crafts