Lāčplēša diena

On 11th of november, a special event takes place in Latvia: The Lāčplēša diena (pronouciation: Latshplesha diena, for the Germans: Lahtschpläscha diäna). The translation of this is Bearslayer-day (Bärentöter-Tag). The day is called like this, because in Latvian mythology, there is a very brave guy, who's called Lāčplēsis (Bearslayer).
On this day, the Latvians remember all the people, who died on 11th of november 1919. There was a battle in Riga between the Latvians, and the Bermontians / West Russian Volunteer Army (Bermondt-Armee / Westrussische Befreiungsarmee).
Hier weitere geschichtliche Informationen auf Deutsch.
The Latvians won that battle. To think of the fallen soldiers, every year on november 11th, the Latvians light a lot of candles along the walls of Riga Castle, at the Freedom monument and on the cemetary where the fallen soldiers are buried.
With my class, I went to this cemetary, and in the evening with two friends, I went to the freedom monument and to Riga Castle. All these candles looked simply amazing.
On this day, I started to understand, why so many Latvians are very patriotic. This little country was suppressed by other countries again and again. Latvians are very proud and happy to be an independant country finally.
One of my friends, Franka, took awesome pictures, which I will show you here. She also has a blog, you will find it, if you click here.

I hope you have a wonderful day!