Two Latvian girls decked out for Jāņi this year. Photo by Tuomo Tammenpää.
RIGA — It was a long weekend in the Baltics for midsummer’s, called Jaaniõhtu in Estonia, Jāņi in Latvia and Joninės in Lithuania.
While Lithuania’s holiday was more subdued this year due to unyielding rain that made even lighting a bonfire difficult, in Latvia and Estonia the weather behaved better as people headed out to the countryside as tradition dictates.
Regardless of what the sky was dropping, there was plenty of grilling, folk dancing and drinking into the night in all three countries and abroad as well as people with Baltic ancestry around the world marked the occasion.
Baltic Reports has assembled the following video gallery of people celebrating the event.
ESTONIA
People celebrating Jaaniõhtu at a special festival facility near Jõgeva in southeast Estonia. Starts with a survey of the facility grounds but then gets more interesting.
The same day in the village of Lehtmetsa near Tallinn, people gathered for this series of musical performances.
LATVIA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjpW2qjfPXc
The women of a Latvian family improvise a song and dance around a Jāņi campfire…
…while these young men do the same…
….and these guys as well.
LITHUANIA
The rain didn’t deter this group from celebrating traditionally…
…nor this group.
Meanwhile, those who stayed in Vilnius got to enjoy a number of club events arranged in anticipation of the bad weather.
ABROAD
Latvian-Americans in New Jersey celebrate Jāņi.
Australians of Latvian descent also celebrate Jāņi.
Baltic Reports hopes everyone enjoyed their midsummer’s eve!
