Midsummer Day and Līgo Festival Greeting Verses

What could serve better as a greeting at the summer solstice celebrations than the old good Latvian folk song. Here are gathered folk songs expressing wishes of abundance, prosperity, good fortune and harmony.

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Joy and cheer at Līgo celebrations -
And luck in fern-flower adventures too,
Then there's kebabs, flames of fire,
Merry songs of the company of friends!

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Give, little God, to the father of Jānis,
A long life to live,
Give him gold, give him silver,
Give him wise counsel!

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Who comes there across fields and ditches,
With such a coat - white and wide?
That is Father Jānis, well under the influence,
Who has decided that it's New Year.

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May the Midsummer homestead be fair,
A full household, a rich table,
A Russian is a Russian, but a Latvian - a Latvian,
Vodka is sharp, beer is sweet!

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While herding I wove
A beautiful wreath of heaven's flowers.
Now bees hummed around me,
Now a young suitor circled around me.

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Little Jānis came over the hill
With a golden jug in his hand,
I let loose my dog -
Now Jānis sits up in a tree!

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Beautiful was Midsummer Day
Above all other days:
The sun sways, the bee sways,
All of creation sways.

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May the cheese wheel roll,
May the sweet beer froth,
May the fern flower bloom,
And Midsummer morning dawn white!