Winter is Coming! Mārtiņi- Martins Day

Part 3 -This is the 3rd short video (okay- there's one more that kinda ties in!) for this year's Time of Spirits (the end of it, actually) - the Latvian season between Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice. Like All Hallows Eve or Samhain, this is a time when the separation between the world of the living and the dead or spirits weakens. It is not just a day or two, though, it is a whole season (one of eight through the year). This season Veļu laiks (Time of the Dead) ends with the Cross-quarter Day (actually November 5-7, often in modern Latvian marked on Nov 10; this is the same astronomical date simplified to October 31, or Nov 1 in traditions like Halloween, Samhain, Day of the Dead etc). In Latvia this date is called Mārtiņi or Mārtiņdiena -Martin's Day- which has both Christian and pagan implications- my focus of course is on the more ancient roots of the occasion, related to the changing of the season. We now enter Ledus Laiks (Time of Ice). Our weather has still mostly been above