The year of light, which began at Christmas, has already grown up and Meteņi arrives like a small, round child, and laughs cheerfully when pies, sweets, and lucky buttons fall from the ceiling. The long winter will soon be over! Meteņi brings barley flour pancakes, barley soup, traditional pastries, delicious pig's ears and other tasty treats. Meteņi drives away darkness, cold, frost and ice, plans the spring work, thinks big thoughts and makes big plans - for the whole year. Metenis marks the beginning of a new farming year, so: as you sow, so shall you reap! The earth, animals and people awaken, feeling the strength and desire to create - to raise their heads high, help the sun climb into the sky, participate in the cycles of nature, and be truly alive!
During Meteņi, visitors to the Latvian Ethnographic Open-Air Museum will be greeted by more than 15 light installations using video, light, special effects and laser technology. The light trail will feature high-powered lighting equipment, whose beams will shoot up into the sky, while the trilogy will conclude with a multimedia laser show.
The light trail will feature music by the bagpipe and percussion collectives Auļi and the MM Orķestris, as well as performances by members of the folk dance ensemble Līgo. Visitors will be able to taste traditional Latvian dishes prepared by Ilze Briede, the hostess of Brantu Manor and the Priedes Krogs restaurant at the Ethnographic Museum. During Meteņi, barley and hemp pancakes, or slokātņi, will be baked, and everyone will be able to taste zīdeni (barley porridge cooked with dried meat), grūdeni (potato and barley porridge with fried onions), studeni (cold meat), and rye flour porridge - both salty and sweet.