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Summer Solstice Festival in Daugavpils in Daugavpils
The Summer Solstice Festival in Daugavpils marks Jani, the pre-Christian celebration of the year's shortest night, observed around June 23 along the banks of the Daugava River. Bonfires are lit at dusk and tended until dawn while residents sing traditional ligo refrains, play folk games, and honor solstice customs passed down across generations. Families and visitors from across southeastern Latvia join the vigil, treating the date as a genuine turning point in the year rather than an ordinary summer evening.
Every year, as the sun reaches its highest arc and the night shrinks to its briefest span, Latvia turns to its oldest surviving holiday: Jani, anchored to the eve known as Ligo.