Eternity Sunday

For "Eternity Sunday," a Latvian holiday remembering those who have died, including fallen soldiers in war, we visited the "Riga Brethren Cemetery," or Bralu Kapi.  It's the largest memorial to soldiers in Latvia.  Simona, a Latvian woman that works with Briant, invited our family to join her at the cemetery as she visited her family members who have passed away.  We considered it a great honor to go with Simona because she didn't invite anyone else, and she gave us a wonderful tour with stories of the days from the Soviet Occupation that her grandmother shared with her.  We were grateful that she let us tag along, and she let us participate in the lighting of candles for her family.

Walking to the cemetery, there were flower and wreath vendors that were also selling candles. It was so cold!

The sun was going down quickly, so I tried to get a few pics as we were walking to the entrance.  We loved seeing the thousands of little candle flames sprinkled throughout the enormous cemetery.
This area of candles just inside the entrance, were lit for all aborted and lost babies.
As we walked through the bare canopy of trees lining the walkways, Simona told us about the layout of the cemetery and how it was built for fallen soldiers in WWI and also those soldiers that died fighting in the Latvian War of Independence.  When the Soviet Union came in and occupied Latvia from 1940-1991, Russian leaders and KGB were also buried there.  Now, anyone can be buried there, and she pointed to areas where people can be buried according to their religion.
Rhea has a lit candle ready to place at the memorial for the first Latvian President, Janis Cakste, who is Latvia's George Washington figure and was elected November 18, 1922, almost 100 years ago.
This year especially as Latvia celebrates their 100th year of independence, I imagine the strong feelings that Latvians must have for their first president.

We walked a short distance from there to another memorial for those the died at the hands of the Russians during the Soviet Occupation, whether in fighting, as innocent victims, or those that died from the mass deportations of Latvians to Siberia.  There was a large white cross with smaller crosses that enclosed an area for this memorial.

Simona gave Thomas a candle to light and leave here.

Simona also let us join her in visiting the graves of her mother and grandmother.  Simona said that she wished everyone could have a grandmother like hers.  I remember Simona sharing with me a few months ago, that during the Soviet occupation, her grandmother would take her as a baby, out in the winter cold, to get their allowed food rations.  By taking Simona with her, her grandmother was able to obtain two food rations of bread, butter, etc. instead of one.  And this night as we were walking around the cemetery, she shared stories of her grandmother marrying a German Officer that was stationed here in Latvia during WWII.  Ironically, the Latvians believed at first that having the Germans in Latvia was going to be a good thing for them because they could help fight the Russians (who had occupied or controlled Latvia for centuries).  But Latvians quickly figured out that the Germans were to be feared as well.  Simona also shared how her grandmother and mom had to be clever, creative, and of course sneaky, in many aspects of their lives during the Soviet occupation.  One example of this was how they celebrated Christmas.  She said that her grandmother named one of her daughters Eve, because here in Latvia, they celebrate "name days," and the day for celebrating Eve's name, was on Christmas Eve.  So if the Soviets found them celebrating Christmas, they could actually say that they were celebrating Eve's name day!  And of course they had to be very sneaky with how they obtained a tree.  They were able to cut one from the forests, but it couldn't be very big or it would be too noticeable in getting it back home.  It was a time of much fear and not knowing who they could trust, even neighbors and friends, so they had to keep the tree inconspicuous to avoid being arrested.  She did say though that there were times when their tree or the tree of a neighbor was exposed, and after a moment of fear, they were all relieved to find out that they were believers as well and on the same side. :)  Hearing these stories from Simona really brought home for us the reality of what life was like behind the Iron Curtain during the Soviet Occupation.
We were fascinated by her stories, and wished we could sit around a warm fire listening to her all night!  The evening came to an end though as we took candles to a viewpoint looking out at the image of Mother Latvia and her Dead Sons.  Symbols representing the four regions of Latvia were also carved into the memorial.

It was very cold, and with the fog and probably all of our breath, the picture turned out a little more foggy than I would have liked.  ;)

And here is our wonderful friend Simona.