Celebrating summer solstice in the 1950s. Solstice, or Jani, is still celebrated each year in Sidrabene. Cheerleaders at a camp event, 1950s.
Today, while the land is well tended, the old structures have seen countless layers of paint; the signs have rusted, the track field and tennis court are overgrown and unrecognisable, the café has burned down and the streetcars have long been scrapped. Nationalist urgency has faded: Latvia was freed in 1991 and joined the European Union in 2004. The immigrants of the 1940s told themselves that they would return to Latvia when it regained independence, but the wait proved long. By then new lives with grown children and Canadian grandchildren were set.
With the passing of generations the need for cultural preservation has weakened, and although Sidrabene’s structures reflect this, a bit of that original energy and devotion has been conserved there like an artifact. It’s just gotten a bit rusty. A new generation is fleeing Latvia due to the recent economic downturn. Some have found a place in these remains of our grandparents’ community – working as counsellors or in the cafe. Some find it charming, others – very strange and surreal. /
On Site review 24
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