Handmade Latvian flag from 1940 Latgale Song Festival returns to Latvia
A unique handmade Latvian flag that flew at the culmination of the 1940 Latgale Song Festival in Daugavpils has been preserved after the Soviet occupation, spent exile in the USA, and was returned to Latvia in 2017; it also participated in the 2023 All-Latvian Song Festival.
On June 16, 1940, the climax of the Latgale Song Festival took place at the Stropi stage in Daugavpils, with approximately 11,000 singers and a total audience of about 98,500. The chief conductor was Teodors Reiters. The festival is referred to as either the third or fifth such event, as a consistent chronology for Latgale song festivals is difficult to establish.
A handmade Latvian flag was used during the festival. It was crafted from homespun linen and wool by Antonina Mazurs-Dabars, mother of Jānis Dabars. The flag flew at the stage during the festival's conclusion, just one day before the Red Army entered Latvia.
Upon news of the Soviet invasion, festival participants sang the Latvian national anthem three times, and festival committee head Andrejs Švirksts requested that flags be lowered to prevent them from falling into enemy hands. Ignats Dabars, Antonina's husband, lowered this particular flag and took it to the family farm Jaundabari near Leivuona.
When the family fled to the United States in exile to escape the communist regime, they brought the flag with them. It was stored in an old suitcase until 2007, when it was again flown at a Latvian song festival in Indianapolis. In 2017, Jānis Dabars – born in 1937 in Leivuona – mailed the flag to the Leivuona Glass and Art Center, along with a letter detailing its history. The flag was also carried in the procession of the 2023 XXVII All-Latvian Song and Dance Festival as a special representation of Leivuona county.
