Latvians kick off spring season with traditional grass burning — even Liepāja port doesn't get this much smoke

The first grass fire this year was recorded on March 6th in Talsi municipality, and now we're already at 21 fires. That's faster than Liepāja fishermen tell stories about their "freshly caught" fish — while they're still thinking whether to say the perch was caught yesterday or this morning, grass is already burning all across Latvia.

Latgale, as usual, has the most fires — 277 cases and 415 hectares of burned land. "Well, what's the big deal," says Daugavpils resident Pēteris. "Our land was brown anyway, now it's just a little blacker." Rīga and Pierīga have registered 215 grass fires, but at least there's something to put them out with — the city has enough cars to create artificial rain.

VUGD chief general Mārtiņš Baltmanis explains that the number of grass fires is influenced by weather conditions, not changes in people's behavior. In other words, Latvians will burn last year's grass regardless of whether there's drought or floods. "It's our tradition," comments a Jelgava farmer. "In spring we burn grass, in summer — ourselves in the sun, in autumn — firewood, in winter — money for heating."

The most interesting part is that the service points out — burning last year's grass doesn't make the soil more fertile and doesn't help fight ticks. But how else would Latvians know that spring has started? Look out the window? No, we must burn! Because without smoke and fire, we don't have real spring, just some kind of European one.