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Graudiņa and Kravcenoka, at www.fivb.org

The Russians were surely apoplectic when the Latvian duo of Tina Graudina and Anastasija Kravcenoka, rallied after dropping the first set to defeat the Ŗussian Olympic Committee (ROC) and advance to the women's beach volleyball quarterfinals at the "2020" (2021) Tokyo Olympics. Latvians are passionate about ice hockey. Beach volleyball is rapidly becoming its summertime alter ego.

Pork-filled pīrāgs, at mygermantable.com

Latvia food is similar to other eastern European and Russian foods. Smoked meats, a wide variety of breads and cheeses. Bacon and onion filled rolls, pīrāgi, are a specialty. (See our Latvian recipes here.)

Black opening, Latvian gambit, at Caissa's online chess site, view for animation

The Latvian gambit (or Greco Countergambit) is one of the oldest chess openings, analyzed by Gioachino Greco in the 17th century. It is an aggressive choice for Black, requiring superier acumen to play it with any degree of success.

But why is it called the Latvian gambit? It's named in tribute to the Latvian players, notably Kārlis Bētiņš, who analysed it in the early part of the 20th century. Some have called it the worst opening in chess — then, again, Latvians love a challenge.

Latvian first names run the gamut: instantly identifiable as Latvian (Imants, Guntis, Gunārs, Baiba), Biblical (John, Jānis; Peter, Pēteris; Andrew, Andris), Germanic (Otto, Atis), Balto-Slavic (George, Juris). Or they can be of things significant to Latvians: Dzintars (male) and Dzintra (female) for amber, dzintars.

As in Latin, masculine names tend to end in "is", while feminine names end in "a".

Surnames are another matter, often tending to be objects either man-made or in nature, from clock, Pulkstens, to small bush (diminutive), Krūmiņš, to swan, Gulbis. Thus, many Latvian surnames are immediately obvious.

About half a dozen Latvians have played in the NBA. Kristaps Porziņģis is probably the best known, currently playing for the Dallas Mavericks after coming to the NBA playing for the New York Knicks.

Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral, Rīgas Svētās Trijādības pareizticīgo baznīca (our photo)

The Christian Orthodox in Latvia are known as the pareizticīgie, a compound word meaning "correctly-believing".

Germans arriving at the turn of the 12th to 13th centuries are generally credited with establishing Christianity in Latvia during the Northern Crusades. However, Christianity had already arrived in Latvia as early as 870 with the Swedes, while missionaries associated with the diocese of Polotsk established Orthodox Christianity in central and eastern Latvia during the 11th century.

Similar to the situation in some other countries, the Orthodox church is divided into two separate allegiances. One, the Latvian Orthodox Church, is part of the Russian Orthodox Church under the Patriarchate of Moscow, while the Latvian Orthodox Autonomous Church is under the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Related, as the Eastern Orthodox churches still follow the Julian calendar (others have adopted a revised Julian calendar), the territories of today's Latvia under the Russian empire were among the last to switch from the Julian calendar to the modern Gregorian calendar, in the south and west (Courland Governorate) when May 11, 1915 became May 25, and north and east (Livonian Governate) when August 22 became September 5, 1915. Greece was the last to convert, in 1923 — the year that non-Eastern Orthodox churches adopted the revised Julian calendar. (Saudi Arabia adopted the Gregorian calendar in 2016, however, that was converting from the Islamic calendar.)

Well-earned refreshment after arduous toil.

At right: "In prehistoric days their ancestors were a warlike people, but, as time passed, the soothing influences of the land tamed their belligerent natures and made of the Letts [Latvians] a peace-loving, agricultural race. Bronzed and weather-stained, true children of the soil, no field labour is too irksome for them, and they share in the common task with the same healthy vigour that they share in the common meal." — from Latvia—Lettish Life in Legendary & Modern Times.

The Baltic tribes once spanned a far larger area than today's Lithuania and Latvia. To the west, the ancient Prussians died out a century or more ago. See the Lord's Prayer in ancient Prussian. To the east, the name of the river Volga is Baltic — volgans meaning "moist", from the Proto-Balto-Slavic, not later proto-Slavic as purported in Wikipedia. (The Baltic and Slavic languages share a common ancestor.)

Lithuanian is the oldest contemporary Indo-European language, followed closely by Latvian. Culturally, the ugunskrusts, "firecross" or swastika, exists in more varied and ancient forms in the Latvian culture than any other; it is as integral to Latvian identity as it is to Hinduism. (Read about the Latvian swastika.)

In our experience, Latvians enjoy a good argument — but not merely for the sake of argument. "Put two Latvians in a room and you'll get three opinions." One might believe Latvians enjoy being contrarian. (See also Latvian gambit, below.) It's not uncommon to find Latvian scholarship written in a polemical style.

As for the "character" of a people, fifty years of Soviet occupation have left their mark on the Latvian people. The pre-war sing-song lilting Latvian is gone, replaced by a heavier Russian cadence. Where the Latvians were once described as industrious and honest, don't expect to not be cheated. When Peters' mother went to the local produce store to buy cabbage, she pointed out the head she wanted; when she got home, she found a rotten one in her bag. Nor is the pre-war Rīga of sidewalks scrubbed clean daily anywhere to be found.

But if you make a friend of a Latvian, they will always be there for you.

Yes, the swastika was Latvian (and Ukrainian and Hindu and...) long before Hitler nefariously absconded one of the most ancient and revered of cultural symbols. Read more at our pages about pagan symbols and the special relationship Latvians have with the swastika.

Latvian is a language in which verbs are conjugated and nouns declined, thus word order is often immaterial, confusing machine translators particularly when encountering long sentences. The longer a sentence is — usually for rhetorical emphasis, the less likely it is to follow subject-verb-object word order. And Latvians are positively Proustian in their love of long sentences.

See also Latvian names, above.

Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga at Davos, 2007

Latvian and their sister Lithuanian women are among the tallest in the world, just behind the Dutch and the Danes. As for beauty, it's in the eyes of the beholder. But if a tall, striking blue- or green-eyed woman crosses your path, she just might be Latvian.

Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga (born December 1, 1937) served as the sixth, and first female, President of Latvia, elected in 1999.