May 9th

I have been looking forward to seeing this day since I arrived in Latvia. Today is the day when all the hard core communists come out to celebrate the end of World War II, because it was on this day that the Nazis surrendered on the Eastern front. For many Latvians this day is a just a reminder of their continued forced occupation under the Soviets and they do not celebrate it. In fact when I was asking almost everyone I knew about if they knew what types of activities went on today most had no idea. So my friends and I decided to head over to the other side of the river to the Victory Monument (built by the Soviets) to see what was happening. When we got there instead of hard core communists we found probably half the population of Riga. There were more people and more flowers at this event than there were last week for Latvian Independence. All of the speeches and most of the conversations I heard were Russian so I really cannot attest to what was said (made me wish I would have paid more attention in Russian class) but the event had a very upbeat and celebratory vibe to it. There was lots of singing, dancing, eating (the event was catered) and even a huge stage. People were handing out red flags and black and orange ribbons in remembrance of the day. All in all it was more of a day of celebration for many people than just a day for hard core communists.





People kept giving flowers and thanking medal wearing Veterans (or wives wearing what we assumed were their husbands medals). One such even displayed below.
Here are pictures of some of the people who died in the struggle against fascism (as the Soviets called it).