Want to get your hands on a 2013 calendar from the “Latvians Abroad – Museum and Research Centre”? You can win one here!
I am giving away four calendars from this great institution, one that I’ve been working with for the past year. To enter, all you need to do is leave a comment on this post describing something passed down to you by your Latvian ancestors – be it a physical object, a song, a recipe, a photograph – that makes you feel connected to your Latvian heritage, and why. If you’re not Latvian, but still interested in participating, then describe the same for one of your ancestors from whatever country they may have come from.
I will be accepting submissions until Sunday January 13, Extended to January 27th! 11:59pm EST (GMT-5). On Monday January 1428, after I read the entries, I will select the four winners and post the submissions with the winning descriptions as a post on this blog. The first name that you provide will be posted along with your description, but no last names or email addresses will be published.
The calendars are in Latvian, but if you require an English translation as a supplement, mention that in your comment and I will provide one to any winners who need one.
While they are probably not the oldest things passed down to me, I recall two carved wooden plates that have been in our family since before I was born. I don’t know exactly where they came from, they may have been carved in Australia for all I know but there is something about them that makes me think they are Latvian in style at the very least… Now that I think about it the amber in the centre is a bit of a give away…
Carved wooden plates are fairly common but I have never seen anything like them in terms of quality or style. I tried to find out a replacement cost on the net for insurance purposes but everything I found seemed tacky in comparison… I don’t seem to be able to add photos here so I’ll add them to my page… Here http://www.cirksis.com/2013/01/win-latvians-abroad-calendar.html
I rarely enter contests but my Mother-in-law was born in Riga and she would love this.
I think what she has given me is a sense of the childhood she had swimming in the ocean, eating wonderful foods, visiting with family and even dating a count. She opened my eyes to a place I had never heard of many years ago. She has never gone back to Latvia. I know she would love this.
My name. My middle name is Carly and I rarely used it until it registered that I had been named after my great grandmothers. Although it is not directly Latvian, it is only in tracing my family that I have realised the significance and how many people we have called Karlina in our tree.
I met a young cousin for the first time last summer, in Latvia, and as soon as I heard he was called Karlis I felt a connection – looking at him he is the image of my grandfather at that age.
The Latvian heritage has passed to me my mom! Although I don’t know much about Latvia, I am very fascinated about the history of my grandparents, who have come here in the early 1900s, with their parents to make a better life for themselves. I’m not sure why they came here exactly, except that they were getting away from the czars, and do they did. I’m told, after the war, they never heard from their relatives again I’m very grateful for the courage and the risk they took over 100 years ago, to come to the United States. And I understand once they got here, they were incredibly grateful. So grateful, they kissed the ground beneath them.
My grandparents were Latvian. My grandma used to make the yummiest rolls made of bread dough with a bacon and onion filling.
I am fascinated by Latvian knitting, although I haven’t done any of it. They created true works of wearable art.
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