Martiņa Diena

Today was also Martiņa Diena which according to the Baltic Times is a "conglomeration of ancient pagan traditions surrounding the end of the harvest period and more modern Christian traditions brought by the Germans in the 16th and 17th centuries. Many of the customs of the holiday are similar to easily recognizable Halloween traditions. People dress in masks styled after animals and go door to door singing, dancing and begging for small gifts (St. Martin is considered the patron saint of beggars)." I went out to the Ethnographic Open Air Museum to see what kinds of festivities I could find and found that I was probably the oldest person there without children!

Some Latvian folk Dancing.
More folk dancing.
A guy in a wolf mask.
The ladies playing the music.