Posted
on November 11, 2014
A
lot of nations celebrate patriotic holidays today, because on this
date in 1918, a long war ended.
And
it was a “world war” (WWI, to be exact), so a lot of nations were
involved.
That's
why today is celebrated as Armistice Day, Remembrance Day, or
Veterans Day in at least 20 nations.
But
Latvia isn't celebrating the end of World War I today. Instead, this
nation is commemorating a victory over the Bermontians in 1919.
Don't
you hate it when the promise of “no more wars, ever” is broken
just a few months later? During the Russian Civil War of 1918-1920,
the West Russian Volunteer Army (the Bermontians) attacked the newly
independent Baltic nations of Latvia and Lithuania. The Latvians were
able to push back. (Of course, it wasn't very many years before the
start of World War II, when Latvia was forcibly incorporated into the
Soviet Union, then invaded by Nazi Germany, and then freed from the
Nazis by Soviet troops—only to be forced again into the USSR!)
Here are a few of my favorite Latvian things:
This
Freedom Monument in Latvia's capital, Riga, somehow survived WWI and
the Soviet era.
The
widest waterfall in Europe, Ventas Rumba, is in Latvia. It is 249 m
(817 ft) wide, and only about 2 m (6 ft) wide.
 |
| Latvia's flag |
The
Latvian flag is remarkably similar to Austria's flag – and they
even have similar origin stories about a leader wrapped in a white
sheet in battle—but the sheet being almost entirely reddened by his
blood.
 |
| Austria's flag |
Actually,
the Latvian flag is one of the oldest in the world, having been in
use waaaaayyy back in the 1200s.
A
famous Latvian food is bacon turnovers. Yumm...
Also
on this date:
Plan
ahead:
Check
out my Pinterest boards for:
And
here are my Pinterest boards for:
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