Daina (Latvia) - Themes

Themes

Lyrically, dainas concern themselves with native mythology and traditional festivals but, in contrast to most similar forms, do not have any legendary heroes. Stories often revolve around pre-Christian deities like the sun goddess Saulė, the moon god Meness. There are dainas that do not have mythical theme as well - many simply describe the daily life of agrarian society and nature. However these still often include personifications of natural phenomena. Another major theme is human life cycle, especially three major events events - birth, wedding and death (including burial). The dainas concerning birth are deeply emotional, they usually feature mother figure, not only as the person who gives birth, but also as determining the fate of the child. These also often feature the fate deity Laima and were historically sung directly after birth, which traditionally took place in bathhouse. Wedding Many dainas are set apart from others by erotic and sexual themes and mockery. These are commonly known as nerātnās (naugty) dainas. The dainas devoted to death describe individual preperaing for the death and often relate funeral customs. These often feature female deity related to world of dead, variously known as kapu māte, veļu māte, zemes māte or smilšu māte (mother of graves, mother of dead, mother earth, mother of sand). The first collection of dainas was published between 1894 and 1915 as Latvju Dainas by Krišjānis Barons. There are well over two hundred thousand collected dainas in written form.