About spending evenings together and parties
Categories: Mode of life, Andrey Rancan
Story-teller: “Winter, that was the fasting time, somehow or what, we went to spend evenings together, that was called vakarēšana [spending evenings together]. The whole lot, maybe they couldn’t make noise at that time. Then sacred songs were sung more, I didn’t sing those songs, but we, young people too, thus, in the eve.., in the evening.., evenings, in the evenings of working days we went, were, everybody was sitting in the room, several people… It usually happened in one particular house, where the youth came together, and, and, no objections were raised to those our gatherings. And whose turn it was, so, it was the one’s who got the match. But the other.. The first guessed. When he had read a riddle, the other went to guess. Then he sat down; such games were played, of that kind. If there were no such gatherings, what else could we do in the evenings? And I sometimes took my balalaika with me. But, but, what to laugh about, nothing, once. And, I was born in the year twenty-nine, but that happened about the year forty-three, I was already fourteen years old. Once we went to such a gathering, but there was one young man married into the neighbours’ family. He had already worked for a year in Germany, he had volunteered for that job. During the war, a German could apply for work in Germany. He had returned with a small accordion, twelve basses, what’s that. Err, I, I think, I already had a small violin, too. He had attended Kārsava Secondary school, not far from Kārsava, beyond the woods, beyond that forest – the village of Kabalova. The father’s sister had been married, married into, married off.”
Interviewer: “Jezups Laganovskis from that village, from Kabalova, from there beyond Kārsava..”
Story-teller: “Yes, yes!”
Interviewer: “Kabalova. Jezups Laganovskis from that village, it’s his native place.”
Story-teller: “Yes, yes! There he lived beyond the forest, in Kabalova. Jezups was my cousin, he was also such a humpback, he died young. And there was also the younger brother, he also passed away too early. He had a small violin, but nobody did even touch it. I got there on Saturdays, after school I went to Kabolova, it’s not far from here, I got lost and went through the forest – and got there in Kabalova. That small violin was given to me. So, the first … I guess, I had had the balalaika before. And then I got the violin.”
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Researcher: Dr. philol. Gatis Ozoliņš, Daugavpils Universitāte
