Cosy, soft, comfortable, luxurious and refined, warming or cooling to the feet, worn-out or carefully stored only for special guests - everyone has their own beloved house slippers. At home I currently wear a pair crocheted by my mother. Yet I have always been fascinated by Victorian ladies' slippers on an elegant little heel with a vintage rose pattern. In different eras they have served both as practical footwear and as a symbol and part of rituals. So what is the history of house slippers?
Following the famous New Year's address by then-Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis, in which he called on the Latvian people to huddle together like penguins to overcome hardship, this allegory caught on remarkably well among the public. We sent an email to Riga Zoo asking them to shed light on the matter of penguins in Latvia, and received a reply...
Prompted by an advertisement, I attended one of the Ayurvedic sessions, which promised to cover meditation and small tips on nutrition in the Ayurvedic tradition. Unfortunately I realised that this is not a lifestyle I would wish to adopt, as I noticed several contradictions and oddities in what was said. However, I noted down a few insights for reflection. Below is a brief summary of the session.
Nowadays, specially aged or genuinely old items that are now as if gaining a second life are increasingly coming into fashion. In various shops and jewellery stalls one can purchase handmade items - splendid little brooches, lace jabots, aged little boxes with symbols and motifs of past eras, scarves, retro handbags, kerchiefs, slippers and goodness knows what else, reminiscent of things seen in the depths of mothers' or even grandmothers' wardrobes. Beloved, well-worn items that it seemed a pity to throw away are now becoming relevant and stylish. But what exactly is vintage?
Chocolate is made from cocoa powder and cocoa butter, with sugar added, and all this supplemented with cream or milk powder, nuts, raisins or other ingredients. Chocolate contains a substance called theobromine, which gives a person pleasure, a sense of happiness and improves mood. Psychologists, for their part, claim that having a bar of chocolate to hand is an excellent means of improving communication.
Various theories exist as to why blonde hair appeared and spread during evolution, and why the majority of women since time immemorial have strived to bleach or dye their hair blonde. One of them explains that fair skin and fair hair help people accumulate more vitamin D in those northern regions where there is less sun. Canadian anthropologist Peter Frost simplifies it: the spread of blonde hair occurred because men preferred fair-haired women - that was natural selection.
Greetings to all on Latvia's 91st birthday! Red-and-white flags are flying on all buildings in Latvia, on the November embankment in Riga and on the castle tower. I decided to look into the history of the national flag's creation, as well as where these colours came from and who were their first bearers. The flag design was created based on historical evidence from the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle.
As befits a year of great upheaval, this year we have no fewer than three Fridays falling on the 13th - in February, March and now November. Many people associate this day with superstitious notions of various misfortunes, mishaps and dark forces. And like any superstition, this one too has a certain basis, grounded mainly in observations, historical experience or fears.
For many peoples, the arrival of the dark season has seemed and still seems significant - it is associated with the moment when the worlds of the living and the dead touch. The ancient Balts called it the time of ancestral spirits and laid a table for the spirits of the dead when they came to visit the homes of their kin and those who remained in this world. Other peoples believed that it was precisely at this time that witches held one of the four great sabbaths of the year. Nowadays hundreds of pumpkins are carved in the USA and other countries and candles lit inside them. It turns out the roots of Halloween lie in ancient Celtic culture.
Walking through Sarkandaugava, one can pass through at least three centuries and admire architecture from different eras. Here dive bars operate 25 hours a day, pairs of sneakers hang from power lines, here stands the former summer residence of Kārlis Ulmanis, Latvia's largest brewery and the Punishment Ditch where the city's witches were once drowned. More about factory history, the mental asylum regulations, 19th-century treatment methods and what Sarkandaugava looked like 300 years ago.
.jpg?w=690&mode=16x9|crop)
.jpg?w=690&mode=16x9|crop)
