Much More than a Mitten: Latvian Symbology

If you walk through Old Town, you’ll quickly realize one of the biggest tourist items to buy is knitted clothes, mainly mittens decorated in elaborate designs. While hats and scarves are also popular, you can always find a full rack of these hand warmers, with their distinctive tipped ends and dense wool. As a big knitter myself (yes, I’m a dude, and I knit. It comes in handy more than you would think(: ) I passed by the souvenir carts in the opening plaza, at first not really convinced these mittens were that special or unique. I mean, you see that kind of stuff coming out of a bunch of different Eastern European and Scandanavian countries…

TURNS OUT, they’re actually a HUGE deal in classic Latvian culture. (my bad…) While you won’t find usual teenagers on the street wearing them that often, different colors and shades of yarn were used anciently to denote the specific area of Latvia the mitten was made in. In general, pairs for men are usually more dramatic and reserved colors, while women’s are more bright and cheerful. And ornamentation elements are often not region-exclusive, making color schemes the main indicator of mitten origin.

Ancient Latvian Holy Symbols, often used in traditional clothing (or the mittens in this case)

Even more interesting (to me at least) is the even more anciently rooted mythology inherent to the patterns most commonly used. You will often see these same patterns (represented in the small image below) on small bracelets, jewelry, or traditional Latvian clothing. Each pattern though, sometimes separately and sometimes mixed with others, can be distinctly seen in these gloves even today. Granted, some modern pictures and styles have also become standard in mitten making, but underneath those you can often still see these styles permeate.

Interesting note: when researching this topic, I found an article about how at the NATO Summit in 2006, held in Riga, over 4,500 pairs of mittens (so 9,000 in total mind you) were made for guests coming to Latvia. The mittens were hand-knitted in the different ethnographic ornamentations and colors of the Vidzeme, Zemgale, Kurzeme and Latgale regions, and were presented as gifts to each delegate arriving. The 268 knitters were all Latvian, of which only 3 were men (Men knitters unite!), and they ranged in age from 30 to 86. Just kind of interesting to see how culturally significant these “hand heaters” really are…

If by chance you’re a knitter like me, and looking for a new project or a quality souvenir, I would suggest stopping by the knitting store near the Three Brothers, called “Hobbywool” (at address: Mazā Pils iela 6, Centra rajons, Rīga). Specific “Latvian glove kits” are for sale in a wide variety of colors and styles, and the staff is more than willing to help explain them to you. And for anyone looking for really nice hand-knitted products, their selection of pre-made knitted products is both extensive and high quality. I definitely would suggest stopping by.

So when you walk past a store selling some fancy looking gloves, just remember that there’s a lot of history there…

Mark Kennedy, currently studying Russian at Liden & Denz Riga.