A Reflection of Herself

Memories

The next weekend, Silvija dressed in her hot pink dress to go to Marianna's Sweet 16. The party was held at a restaurant and Marianna's family had booked a room. Many of their classmates were there, there was a DJ, fancy lighting, and the party was off to a great start. There were all kinds of interesting Greek food, covered under silver domes, on chafing dishes. There were tall round tables for people to stand and chat, decorated with flowers. At one point, Marianna's dad organized a special Greek dance, where everyone joined in. It reminded Silvija of some of the dances at Latvian school.

That night, after the party, Silvija lay in bed and thought about all the Greek traditions in Marianna's family. Mar speaks the language, eats the food, knows the dances; she is very Greek. This made Silvija think about how Latvian she was. Mar seems way more Greek than I am Latvian. Am I really Latvian when I don't speak the language and don't do as many of the traditions? What do I do that's Latvian?...I go to Latvian school once a week, I know what some of the songs and dances mean. I guess there is Christmas, we do a lot of Latvian stuff then...Silvija started thinking back to one memorable Christmas in Winnipeg...

~ ~ ~

Silvija and her family were on their way to visit their relatives and they had an hour to kill in the airport so they were browsing the souvenir shop.

"Hey Silvija, look at how many Canadian souvenirs there are! It's kinda silly they have these here, we're just going to another province," said Mark.

"Yeah," Silvija laughed.

"Oh, I can bring some maple syrup candies for the cousins," their mom said picking up a pack.

Mark walked up to her, holding a small bear in a Mounty hat, wearing a shirt, "Can I get this teddy bear, mom? Look it has my name on it!"

"You don't need that, you have so many stuffies already," their mom replied.

Silvija looked through the rack of bears with names on them, knowing she would not find one for her name, spelled correctly, but she looked anyway. Of course, there's one for Sylvia, but not my Latvian spelling. Silvija thought. Even though the bear is kinda tacky, it still would have been nice to find one with my name. She thought sadly.

~ ~ ~

Later that night at Silvija's grandparents' house in Winnipeg, the doorbell rang signifying another group of cousins had arrived. Silvija walked into the living room which was filled with family and friends and over to a table which had pīragi [p-RAH-gih] on it and took one.

Every year, a few weeks before Christmas Silvija's immediate family would get together to make pīragi. Pīragi are essentially a bun, stuffed with bacon, onion and seasonings. Making them was a labour-intensive process. First, they would make bread dough, cook the filling and then wrap the dough around a teaspoon of filling and then bake them. It's worth it though, pīragi are the best! Silvija thought.

Pīragi

Another big part of Christmas Eve celebration was performing the pantiņš [pun-TI-n-CH] before they were allowed to open their first present. This could be a variety of things such as singing a song, playing an instrument, reading a poem, reading a short story, performing a comedy sketch, telling a joke, doing a dance, et cetera. After someone does their pantiņš they are brought a present. Then the next person does their pantiņš and it continues until everyone has performed one.

Silvija was brought back from her memoires. Is that enough, that I have just one holiday where I do Latvian things – does that make me Latvian enough? Silvija thought. Wait, we do also make Latvian eggs on Easter...

At Easter, Silvija's family did the usual Canadian/American coloured Easter Eggs, but they would also make traditional Latvian Easter Eggs. Silvija loved this part; she thought it was amazing how just onion skins could give the eggs such a beautiful red-orange colour. But still...just two holidays? Silvija was not sure if she was really Latvian.

Latvian style Easter Eggs