Inner Mind Landscapes.com

 
<< Previous    1...   4  5  6  [7]  8    Next >>

Beer, oh beer, oh father of Janis, ligo, ligo
Hops grow well upon your fields, oh, ligo ligo
Cheese, oh cheese, oh mother of Janis, ligo ligo
You have cows that fill your barn full, ligo ligo

When the singing is over, Olga feels very peaceful and she is ready to eat when the saiminieces, who are the hosting women, start passing around platters of piragi, cheeses and platsmaizes. When she is old enough to carry a platter around, she enjoys doing that, offering the baked treats to the gathered people. Olga likes it that everyone knows who she is: the daughter of Janis. She acknowledges gracefully all the compliments about herself, her father and the singing.

After a while, Olga's father gathers the singers together again, this time to lead the people down the hill to the field where the men's group has taken the pig down from the spit and cut the meat up for eating. Olga walks along with her group, singing with them. Singing they arrive at the fire.

The audience children of Janis form a circle around the fire and the men with the tables of meat. Many of them join in singing the greeting songs which the men respond to with answering songs. These are followed by the traditional requests for food and drink.

This time Olga's father does not stay for the eating and drinking, but asks around who would like to come with him for the walk up to the cottage of the Minister. The cottage is a kilometer or so up the road and dusk is settling in. Some of the original group excuse themselves while others join in for this walk.

The new group starts out walking and singing as they go. Olga becomes aware of the muscles in her legs and feet that are starting to protest all this standing and walking, but she would not miss this walkabout part of the evening for anything. This is when the more obscure and interesting songs of Jani get sung. Olga's father starts a more melancholy tune and sings those verses that speak of fields and flowers, that express other moods in life such as the sad emotions of the people. Olga loves these songs as a relief from all the joy and excitement of the earlier part of the program. They let her feel more solid and real, more like her usual self, after the heightened state of being a performer.

This group is very informal and other people besides her father introduce tunes and verses. Olga listens when she doesn't know the words and joins in the repeated parts and the ligo chorus. Now the ligo is not so much a shout of joy anymore. It is an affirmation of empathy towards all the sentiments expressed. Olga imagines these same people as teenagers in Latvia before the war, tromping across fields and stepping over creeks as they go from house to house singing.

The walk along the road to the Minister's cottage is a steady uphill climb and even Olga, who is an active healthy young girl, is winded by the time the lights of the cottage come into view. Olga's father stops to give everyone a chance to catch their breath, before they approach the cottage, singing as they go.

The Minister and his wife are ready for the children of Janis and welcome them graciously with an animated round of songs. They serve the traditional cheese and beer along with sweet pastries and drinks for the young people. The children of Janis are very glad to be able to sit down on the grass under the light of the first stars and possibly a moon, to rest their legs and their voices and replenish their energies. Olga is grateful for her long warm skirt, that she tucks around her crossed legs, to keep them warm.

The walk home is fortunately downhill. The adults continue singing, but Olga is starting to feel sleepy. She holds onto her mother's hand and closes her eyes, dozing as her feet continue walking

<< Previous    1...   4  5  6  [7]  8    Next >>

 Rita