Metei

Metei, also known as Metenis, is an ancient Latvian festival marking the transition from winter to spring. Celebrated seven weeks before Lieldienas (Easter), it concludes on Ash Wednesday and directly precedes the Christian period of Lent. Traditionally held in February or early March, the festival reflects pre-Christian seasonal customs, communal rituals, and agricultural expectations tied to the turning of the year.
The celebration retains deep links with ancestral Indo-European practices. Early communities regarded mid-February as the true turning point of the year, an idea preserved in both language and ritual. Metei thus functions as a cultural bridge between pagan concepts of time and later Christian observances that reshaped Baltic festive calendars.

Origins and Historical Development

The roots of Metei extend to ancient Indo-European understandings of cyclical time. The early Latvian word meti, meaning “turn of time” or “gauge”, signified an important temporal boundary. The original meaning survives in the modern Latvian term laikmets (“era”), while its cognate in Lithuanian, metai, still means “year”. These linguistic traces highlight how the festival once marked the beginning of a new annual cycle.
Before Christianisation, communities in the Baltic region celebrated their New Year around mid-February, aligning with natural rather than ecclesiastical rhythms. As Christianity spread through Latvia, Metei was gradually incorporated into the liturgical framework surrounding Ash Wednesday and Lent. Despite this transformation, many traditional customs—especially those concerned with fertility, agricultural success, and banishing winter—remained central to the celebration.

Names and Regional Variations

Metei is known by several names across the Baltic region and neighbouring cultures, reflecting linguistic diversity and the overlapping influences of Christian, Germanic, and Slavic traditions.

• In areas once populated by Livonians and in Riga, the celebration is known as Fastelavn, a term possibly linked to the German Fastnacht, meaning “hunger night”.
• Other Latvian regional names include Lastavāgs, Aizgavēnis, Miesmetis, Budui Eve, and Pie Day.
• Lithuanians refer to the festival as Užgavėnės, while Estonians call it Vastlapäev.
• In Eastern Orthodox Christian regions such as Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, the equivalent celebration is Maslenitsa, a week-long festival featuring feasting, masquerades, and symbolic burning rituals.

Across Europe and the Americas, Metei coincides with carnival traditions. In France it corresponds to Mardi Gras, in Germany Fastnachtsdienstag, in Italy Martedì grasso, and in Britain it aligns with Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day. In many Latin countries, carnival emphasises exuberant celebration before the onset of Lent. Some of these customs draw from Roman-era practices, linking the festival season with early forms of April Fools’ Day.
The common patterns of masks, public performances, and the symbolic expulsion of winter show how regional variations represent shared cultural motifs adapted to local traditions.

Festive Customs and Ritual Practices

Metei is characterised by generosity, feasting, and social gatherings. The festival celebrates abundance at the threshold of a new agricultural cycle, with customs that blend domestic preparation with communal spectacle.
One of the most important traditions involves feasting on meat. Historically, domestic pigs were slaughtered during this period, producing dishes such as pig’s head and various fried pastries. The emphasis on hearty foods reflects both the need to consume winter stores and the desire to strengthen the community before the fasting period of Lent.
A notable domestic ritual involved parents throwing small gifts to children from above, symbolising the blessings of Laima, the Latvian goddess of fate, who was believed to dispense good fortune from the heavens. This practice reinforced themes of renewal and divine favour.
Mask-wearing was another integral element. Groups known in Zemgale and Kurzeme as Budi, Budui, or Būduri travelled from house to house, entertaining inhabitants, performing songs, and wishing prosperity for the coming season. These masked visitors resemble figures common in winter festivals across northern Europe, reflecting an older tradition of honoured guests who embody spirits of fertility and protection.
Bonfires formed a central part of the night-time celebrations. The burning of straw, logs, or effigies symbolised the driving away of winter. In some regions, straw was shaped into figures or characters and placed on hillsides before being ceremonially burned. Communities also burned wreaths from the previous year’s Jāņi solstice festival, ritually closing the old cycle and preparing for the new.
In certain areas, rituals involved “tying a witch’s tongue”, a symbolic protection against misfortune and malevolent forces. Offerings were made into the bonfire, expressing hopes for a fruitful harvest. A traditional belief held that the longer the festivities lasted, the better the summer’s harvest would be.

Cultural Significance and Seasonal Meaning

At its core, Metei expresses the ancient Baltic belief in seasonal regeneration. The festival marks the gradual retreat of winter and the anticipated renewal of the land. Many customs—burning the straw figures, communal feasting, masked processions—encode agricultural hopes and social cohesion.
The celebration also acts as a hinge between old and new ritual calendars. Although now tied to Ash Wednesday and Christian Lenten traditions, Metei preserves distinctly pre-Christian themes, demonstrating how Latvian culture adapted and integrated older customs into later religious observances.