See the Pole, how it’s rooted in soil… See how it stretches high
See the Wheel rotating upon it… See how it turns the sky
See the Eagle with wings outspread… See the Earth sheltering beneath it
See the Court of divinities… See the star-gods dancing around it
See! Saule… how high she is on her midsummer feast-day.
58 words, written for What Pegman Saw: Riga, Latvia
For Ligo, Saule’s midsummer festival, a bonfire was lit atop a pole, on a hilltop. The pole represents the World Tree, the axis around which the Earth and the Heavens rotate. Wreaths of flowers decorated the site, the day celebrated with dances, hymns and a meal of cheese and mead. I’d like to think it continues through to this day.
Latvia and Lithuania were the last European countries to relinquish their traditional beliefs and accept Christianity.
crispina kemp 
Dear Crispina,
A rather poetic take on the beautiful photo you chose. Makes me feel like dancing.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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I thank you, Rochelle.
I guessed most of the entries on this one would be of a solemn serious nature. And while it’s important to remember those days, those days weren’t the only ones. And that pole still touches the sky, and the sky and the stars still revolve, and the sun still rides high. So let’s dance, and clap and celebrate
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So interesting. I work with two girls that live in Lithuania, one is Lithuanian and one Moldvian. if that would be what people from Moldova are called. I’ll have to ask them about Ligo and find out if its tradition carried over into modern times.
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I would be interested to know.
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I asked the girl from Lithuania and they don’t celebrate it. I’m fact I think you know more about it than she does…. I’m not surprised I think you know everything 😁
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No, I don’t know everything. Only quite in depth on a few related subjects. It’s just other people don’t see the connections the way I do, and so they think me encyclopaedic. Nah, not a bit of it.
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I’m the least spiritual person you’re ever likely to meet (though I still knock on wood, just for a historical love of continuing ancient tree worship!) but it makes more sense to me worshipping the seasons, the sun, the moon, stars and nature in general than a god from a monotheistic tradition. You found a gorgeous image there, Crispina
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I thank you, Lynn. Though I can’t say I *worship* the sun etc, I do most certainly respect and revere what the world and the universe has given us.
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I understand why people worshipped nature. It’s damn hot here today, but the honey bees are abundant, the crickets chirping in the long grass. I can see why people would value these things so highly
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Also, if you consider that until the last century all but the fewest paupers grew almost all their own food, even if they were otherwise employed. And so many food were taken from the waysides: sorrel, dock, fat hen, to mention just 3 green high in vitamins, and the berries in season, and the nuts to see you through the lean months, not to mention what was gathered to be used for medicines.
We’ve lost contact, we’ve lost knowledge, and as consequence, we’ve lost respect.
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Very good point. there must have been so much ‘gathering’ going on and now we’ve not only lost the knowledge, we’ve lost those plants and environments too
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We Brits might have, but Norwich has a high population of Eastern Europeans, and while out walking I have seen them alongside the rivers gathering watercress, and the berries on bushes are stripped in a way I’ve not seen since I was a wee kid. We had a scare in the 1960s-70s about the safety of eating a wild harvest that could be sprayed with lethal chemicals. Those sprays have been banned, but our knowledge lost and not passed on. Perhaps we might learn from these newcomers.
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Very sensible, those Eastern Europeans. In Bristol, people look at you a bit odd if you collect blackberries in the park, and we had a neighbour with an apple tree who never picked the apples – unbelievable! Just shows what an over abundance of cheap food does to a nation. We may have to relearn these skills quickly if we get a no deal Brexit!
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Indeed we might. Then aren’t we lucky to have our teachers already amongst us.
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I confess, though, I’ve been stocking my store cupboards and will continue to do so gradually until this hideous farce is over.
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For whatever the reason, it’s no bad thing to restore some of the old ways. To harvest Nature’s free store makes good economic sense.
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Very true. We’re lucky in that we have rhubarb, an apple and a cherry tree as well as raspberry canes and I grew tomatoes this year (all this makes our garden sound huge – it’s just a normal sized garden in an ex council, 1930s terraced house). I always count myself lucky 🙂
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Those 1930s council houses had enormous gardens, intended so the working man might grow his own veg, they only now beginning to relinguish the country in preference of the towns
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They are great for that. Ours is smaller than it might be as the previous owner built a conservatory on the back of the house (where I write if the weather isn’t too hot or cold!) but we still have space for two fruit trees, a rhubarb patch, a reasonable size raised bed, a washing line and a patio with large picnic table. 🙂
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Sounds sufficiently spacious. My garden days are done. I have a shared courtyard. And after the first five years of battling French snails and weeds, I’ve given up. I have loads of houseplants.
BTW, I discovered snails like to eat chilli peppers. But they end up dead.
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I like that chilli pepper tip – quite a way to go! I get round the snails by growing things they don’t touch much – penstemons, verbena, certain salvias, even cosmos survives once it’s mature (mainly).
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I did find petunias survive quite well.
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What a beautiful take on yes, what has been a rather dismal week…
I am still pondering if I shall partake.
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Please do. I always enjoy your takes. Unusually so personal.
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Aww. Dang… Gonna try harder now, then.
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I hand you the baton. 🙂
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Darn it….I’ll try not to drop it!
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Go on, you’s good at this
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Jeez!
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such a fresh entry
and the use of “see the” made this seem like it would be a nice oral piece
the kind that would be told and handed down to generations – which fits the historical content of the piece too
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I thank you. It was my intent, so I’m pleased you saw it as that 🙂
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🙂
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Lovely & lyrical, pagan & mythic. Feel like I should find a may pole to dance around!
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I do believe it is the origin of the maypole. I have been researching, over the past year, evidence of ancient knowledge of the Pole Star … which has only Polaris these past two millennia. About 12,000 ya it was a star in the Eagle constellation. And before that, one in the Swan. The swan figures as a psychopomp amongst Northern People (e.g. the valkyries) and through Indo-European mythologies an eagle sits atop the pole. It is a very old image.
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Fascinating stuff! Love reading about that kind of thing.
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Me too. As you might have noticed from the subject of several of my Pegman posts.
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That’s definitely Riga — I recognize those five dirigible hangers.
The midsummer holiday is celebrated with a two-day public holiday in the three Baltic states (toss in Estonia) under various names. We were in Tartu, Estonia for one such celebration, a celebration of singing, dancing, eating, and drinking in an open-air amphitheater on the city edge. Think of it: several thousand people passing through during the course of a long evening, sometimes getting up on the stage to join the dancing, standing around a bonfire, almost everyone (save EJ) drinking beer, and yet not one fight!
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But no World Tree Pole?
And I can’t imagine anything so peaceful in UK. Not if there is alcohol involved, Although maybe if the event attracts only the pagan earth and sky worshippers….? Perhaps.
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We left at about 12:30 AM, still light enough to read a newspaper that far north at midsummer. So maybe that’s part of it, too.
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Yet Northern Scotland has the same day&night hours. Peaceful isn’t a word used to describe Scottish towns.
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True. I recall the old joke that liquor stores are closed in the Wee Free parts of Scotland on Sunday so people will get drunk at home.
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Fairly or otherwise, it does have a reputation
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