Jaņi 2010:

Summer Solstice is right around the corner! Whoever is merry on the shortest night of the year is merry all summer long!

Let’s have a merry Summer Solstice at Dievseta June 19-20.

You and your family can experience a very traditional “Jāņi” celebration here. During the day Saturday, as people arrive, we will be making flower and oak leaf crowns and garlands, preparing bonfires, and singing. Around 5pm the "action" will start - greeting the "Jāņi" hosts, singing around the buildings and oak trees, dancing, and eventually ending up at the bonfires for more singing and dancing, eating Midsummer cheese, drinking beer, etc. Those who wish at 7pm can drive to our Latvian "neighbors" at the Tupešu hill (approx. 1/2 hr drive), where there will be another group of Latvians celebrating. There we will go up to the hilltop together to light the bonfires and sing/dance. Those who wish to stay at Dievseta, can do so - we will be celebrating all night long!

There are a limited number of rooms with beds at Dievseta (bring your own sheets and blankets), so reserve your spot! Or you can bring your tent and sleep outside. In any case, please RSVP to Zinta – 612-751-1679; zintapone@yahoo.com.

Cost:  $25 per adult for two meals (dinner snacks and beer, late morning breakfast) and staying the night. Children are free.

Tidbits and News: Dievturi Camp at Dievseta: July 2-4, 2010. All ages: 18 and up! Crafts and folk arts, celebrations, games, stories, Latvian culture. Click to download a flyer here.

Ūsiņi:

This year Usins brings flowers, grass and leaves on the trees. Summer is right around the corner! We will celebrate USINI on MAY 15-16 at Dievseta.

During the day we will work inside and outside, cleaning up the garden and the woods. Bring along work gloves, a rake or other tools.

On Saturday night we will have supper around the bonfire outside. We will sing, solve riddles, talk about the spring and summer.

Pieteikties varšeit.

Tidbits and News:

FOR YOUR NATION. FOR GOD. FOR YOUR COUNTRY. That is what Ernests Brastins, the founder of Dievturi, stated as the Dievturi goals. These goals should remain the same today because only in a lively Latvian nation will the Latvian God be sustained.

Let’s celebrate Liela Diena/Spring Equinox at Dievseta on March 20-21!

Spring Equinox, when day and night are of equal length, is fast approaching. Let’s celebrate this special time at Dievseta on March 20-21. On Sunday morning we get up before dawn and wash up in a stream before greeting the sun on the hilltop. There will be swinging, singing and egg battles.

Questions? Click here.

Tidbits and News: HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010! That means – for each one of us what our heart desires, but for all of us – a renewed Latvia!

Let’s celebrate Metenis at Dievseta on February 13!

Sledding, competitions, games, singing, eating. . .

Write here for more info or to attend.

Ziemassvētki

This year Winter Solstice will be celebrated at Dievseta on December 26-27 (but some people will arrive already on Friday, Dec 25).

We will tell fortunes for the new year, drag the Yule log, watch bonfire sparks fly up into the sky, dance, play with masked mummers, solve winter riddles, recite poems.

Let’s greet the Winter Solstice with many delicious seasonal foods – grey peas, beans, pig’s snout.

For more information and to attend please write here.

Video of Winter Solstice at Dievseta in 2005:

Dievaines

Let’s spend some time remembering our friends, relatives and others who have passed on. We can visit with the souls, share in memories, sing.

October 10

For more information and to attend please write here.

Bonfires for Baltic Unity!

On Tuesday, September 22 at 8 pm people in Latvia and Lithuania will make bonfires on old sacred hills (castle hills) and other important places to commemorate the ancient unity of the Baltic peoples.

(Please see Latvian text in this website for more information)

Tidbits and News (June-July 2009): This summer at the Latvian Song Festival in Hamilton (Canada) a “Dievturi” gathering will be held on July 2 at 11:00 am in the Albion Room of the Convention Center.

Celebrate Summer Solstice at Dievseta

June 20-21, 2009

Let’s gather at Dievseta on Saturday during the day. Together we will pick flowers, make wreaths, decorate Dievseta, and sing. In the evening (around 7 pm) we will start the Jani celebration with song, dances, midsummer cheese, beer, and a bonfire.

For more information and to attend please write zintapone@yahoo.com.

Cost of staying the night at Dievseta:

Adults = $15 (tent camping = $10), Children 6-13 =$5.

Food: Adults = $5, Children 6-13 = $2.

Children 0-5 = Everything is free

Celebrate Usini at Dievseta
May 9-10, 2009

It has become tradition to make the Usini weekend at Dievseta a community spring cleaning event. Please come and help clean and fix up Dievseta inside and out. Everyone welcome to arrive Friday night or Saturday during the day.

After working during the day, Saturday evening we will relax around the Usini bonfire, eat traditional scrambled eggs and hot dogs, and chat and sing.

Write here for more info or to attend.

Meteni celebration in February 2009

This year we celebrated Meteni with great joy, as Meteni is a very joyous festival. It includes singing, dancing, games, competitions, bragging, jokes, and eating.

We all drove quite a ways to get to Dievseta from our homes. It is believed that on Meteni one must travel or sled far so that your linen and other crops will grow well. Sledding didn’t go as well this year as there was a big thaw the week before Meteni. We did give sledding a try, though!

This year there was a hockey shoot-out, guessing games, singing and dances.

On Meteni evening we had pork-and-barley porridge, Meteni bacon-and-cheese pie, pig’s ears, bacon rolls, beer, and sweet rolls.

The feast was followed by great laughter!

The next morning brought pancakes fried in butter, as we had found in an article about Meteni traditional foods.

Let’s meet again at Lieldienas (Spring Equinox)!

Ē, Metenīti! Ē, Metenīti!

Let’s celebrate Metenis at Dievseta on February 14.

The main activity on this holiday is sledding, so bring along sleds and winter clothes. There will also be indoor games. This is the time for competition – who is wittiest, who has the longest beard, the biggest car, whose sled goes the farthest.

Write here for more info or to attend.

Tidbits and News (December 2008): This year LDS donated a Dievseta People “Songs of the Seasons” CD to every Latvian school in the US

Mārtiņi 2008

Who was knocking on the windows and doors? A Bear, Bear Tamer, and Cat.

Who danced with the hostess? The Tall Lady, Bumble Bee, and Horse.

Who couldn’t be recognized behind their masks? A Dog, Devil, and Owl

Who was out in the cold, itching to get inside to celebrate? The Shepherd Girl, Hedgehog, and Gypsy Girl.

Click here to see photos from this year's Mārtiņi celebration at the Stumbri house.

Click here to read about Mārtiņi traditions and how the people of Dievseta celebrate them.

Tidbits and News (October 2008): Dievseta’s "Saimes" building needs a new roof. Please make a donation to help us keep Dievseta in good repair! Write here to make your contribution!

Prepare your costumes and come to the Stumbri residence (near Stevens Point, WI) on November 8 to celebrate Martini!

It is tradition for the people of Dievseta to celebrate Martini at the warm and welcome Stumbri home near Steven’s Point, WI. All day the hosts prepare and bake aromatic dishes. People dressed in costumes arrive after dusk from their respective homes. First we rattle the windows and pound on the doors, insisting that the Stumbri let us in; once inside we happily dance around the house, singing and playing music. The evening continues with more singing, and sometimes with games and ghost stories inside, other times with a bonfire and ghoulish night walk outside.

Write here to attend or for more information.

We are always in seach of your photos, video, thoughts, poetry and art inspired by events at Dievsēta. Please help us make the Dievsēta website a living project by sending us such items! Contact us here to share with us!

Tidbits and News: Richard Spuris was inaugurated president of the organization of diaspora-based Dievturi congregations on Sept. 2, 2007. Photos of the inaugurartion here; video, here. Read about Dievturība here.

Tidbits and News: In October of 2006 a new monument to Ernests Brastiņš (founder of the Dievturi movement) was dedicated in Kronvald Park in Rīgā. Read more about Brasiņš and Dievturība here.