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In one of the previous blogs I mentioned that the place Dikļi, which became the cradle of the Latvian Song Festival, has played a big role in my own destiny. For me it is important to pin-point my belonging to Latvia through concrete geographical and historical coordinates, this is why today I would like to remember this location on the map of Vidzeme.

Every country has a flag, and every flag has a story. The maroon-white-maroon national flag of Latvia has several stories. Some are very old and legendary, some are fairly recent, and all carry a deep meaning for Latvians.

Ninety years ago Latvia's birth took place like in a folk song - in the darkness, in the night. The darkness of the night of the spirits at home, the world's first night of war. But Latvia, a maiden, despite everything, moved towards the light. Her people lit up for her - created their nation out of nothing.

The Latvian Society of the Museum of Occupation is holding a conference on July 18th, the theme of which is "The role of artistic intellectuals in the Atmoda". The main speakers at the conference will be representatives of these intellectuals who 20 years ago stood at the podium of the Latvian Creative Alliances Plenum with revolutionary speeches that launched the Atmoda (The Awakening). To be more precise, this time those of us who are still alive will gather. Among other invitees I was also invited to deliver a speech based on the old (twenty years old!) theses.

Latvia, like the 200 or so other countries in the world today, is seeking to develop a competitive identity that will help it promote tourism, investment, international cooperation and general good will. Recent research has suggested that for Latvia, there are three aspects of our national identity that are distinctive: our achievements in science, our well preserved environment and our rich and multi-faceted culture.

Everything in this world has a beginning and an end. In the days when the current Latvian Nationwide Song and Dance Celebration in Rīga is coming to a close, it is the right time this year to tell how the festival started at the cradle of this tradition - in the center of the Dikļi district in the Valmiera region. As strange as it may sound, I was almost the only journalist at this celebration! So more reason to write...

We tend to divide time up into the past, present and future, but sometimes they all come together. That's what makes living traditions so special. They take the best of the past, make it relevant to the present and make you want to do them again in the future.

My first memories of the Song Celebration go far back into childhood, when mother, a teacher of music at the homes of affluent Riga families, took her pupils to the festival and brought me along. During the years to come visiting this fascinating happenning became an inner need for me - I've sat on the viewers bench (never sang in the choir myself) probably at every Song Celebration that took place in Riga during the Soviet times.

Like a lot of Latvians, I live in the city but spend my free days in the country. My wife and I have a house in the forest near the northern Baltic Sea coast. On a clear day you can see the coast of Estonia's Saarema Island, just 30 kilometres away. The locals tell us that in the old days when the channel between Mazirbe and Saarema Island froze up, young Estonians would walk across the ice to find work in the Latvian fishing villages that line the coast.

I met artist-ornamentalist Uldis Bekeris a few years ago, when he tracked me down at the Latvian Radio to present me with a triptych created especially for Marina Kosteneckaya: "Hang this ornament in a place where you spend a lot of time. This is your guarding sign," - said the unknown visitor waiting for me in a hall at the radio headquarters. Honestly speaking I did not realise at first that I am dealing not with computer graphics, but with an amaizingly fine work of an artist, created with brushes and paints. And when I did understand this I wanted to get to know this person more closely.