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Juško-Štekele, Angelika
Preferred name
Juško-Štekele, Angelika
Alternative Name
Jusko-Stekele, Angelika
Main Affiliation
Email
angelika.jusko-stekele@rta.lv
Scopus Author ID
57204942994
Researcher ID
FZT-7742-2022
Research Output
Now showing 1 - 10 of 10
- PublicationTHE CONCEPT OF PILGRIMAGE IN THE CULTURE OF LATGALE(2014)The aim of the paper is to characterize pilgrimage as a significant concept in Latgalian culture by emphasizing pilgrimage’s dialectic comprehension and most essential manifestations in culture. The study use a linguistically culturological approach and reviews pilgrimage as a global and multilevel structure, that consists of conceptual, emotively evaluated, historical and etymological layers (Степанов 2001: 84). For this purpose there were used mainly such written sources as vocabularies, periodicals and fiction, that refer to pilgrimage. While gathering various interpretations of sacredness and journeys, paper deals with four main comprehensions of pilgrimage in Latgale: firstly, pilgrimage as a religious activity, that means walking to a sacred place along with the prayers, secondly, pilgrimage as a social campaign for the affirmation of ideological efforts, thirdly, pilgrimage as an individual and sensitive search for the eternal values and, lastly, pilgrimage as a type of a religious tourism in contemporary post-modern society.
The beginning of Catholic pilgrimage tradition in Latgale usually tends to be associated with Aglona, when Dominicans or the so called White Fathers Order began their activities in the region in 1699. Today, within the Rēzekne–Aglona diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, there are several sites, which have been officially acknowledged as sacred on the basis of the corresponding features they possess. Primarily, it’s the altarpiece of the Virgin miracle-worker and other relics, that are special for the Christianity and where pilgrims may pray for health or any other mercy. Secondly, in the territory of the sacred place there may be located objects of nature, that bring health and blessing, for example, sacred spring. The appreciation of religious pilgrimage in Latgalian culture has been also affected by the historical context. From 1918 to 1940 pilgrimage activity experienced especially strong prosperity, but it changed during the Soviet-era, when pilgrimage subject in mass media was forbidden and lost its official support, but it still continued to proceed. Organized pilgrimages to Aglona recurred only in 1989 along with the so called Third Latvian National Awakening.
Pilgrimage in Latgalian culture appears also as a social campaign for the affirmation of ideological efforts, where comprehension of sacredness from the scope of the Christian Religion transfers into secular every-day lifestyle and subjects to ideological dogmas of era. Such interpretation of pilgrimage especially activates during 1920s–1930s, as well as in 1940s and 1990s. The aspiration for such pilgrimage usually is a place, person or monument, but all pilgrimages that are distinctive to the affirmation of ideological efforts possess fragmentation feature. With the alterations within the ideological emphasis the idea of the ideological pilgrimage either disappears either transforms into ceremonial procession or simple memorial tribute. Comprehension of the pilgrimage as an individual and sensitive search for the eternal values is more related to the individualized pilgrim’s motive, that is connected to emotional experience, namely, search for the deprecated and irreversible values. This motive is especially noticeable within the exiled Latgalians’ literature, where such personages as motherland, home, mother and mother’s tomb are united and related to the Virgin’s archetype. The pilgrimage process, that Latgalian exiled writers live through in their imagination, shows, that it is one of the most essential values, that is evaluated during the immense influence of foreign countries, that helps to preserve Latgalian identity at times while far away from home. One of the most popular type of tourism today is religious tourism. In Latgale it began in the 20th century through periodicals of 1920s–1930s. Now it is an integral part of the global tourism industry, including both national and international projects. Meaning diversification in the contextual semantics of the pilgrimage shows its deep roots in the Latgalian culture and how it merges universal, national, ethnic and denominational characteristic marks in cultural traditions.
- PublicationMūsdienu mītu dziļsaknes.(2021)Recenzija par grāmatu: Ingus Barovskis. Mythopoeia: mūsdienu mītrade. Rīga 2021. 277 lpp. ISBN 978-9934-18-678-3
- PublicationMARKET PHENOMENON IN THE CULTURE OF LATGALE(2012-12-31)The article aims to characterize the market as cultural phenomenon in Latgale, particular type of social communication with sustainable, traditionally consolidated functions and branched semantics. For characteristics of the market basically the phenomenological approach is used by updating specifics of the market as a phenomenon of cognition in Latgale. For this purpose a wide range of diverse sources is used, providing reflection of both individual and collective cognition – folklore, periodicals, fiction, cultural and historical essays. Apart from that also the semantically cognitive approach is used, with an emphasis on nominative density, etymology and contextual semantics of lexemes belonging to the semantic field of market. Market phenomenon in this article is reviewed as three thematic blocks – attitude towards market, selling and traders, market mega-system and, finally, functional load of the market. Attitude towards the market, traders and trading as a type of economic activity has not been uniform in Latgale. With livestock breeding and farming becoming stronger, trade invariably serves as a tool for exchange of the surplus of goods produced in natural economy for the missing goods. Negative attitude towards trade and trader’s profession develops, when Jews are starting to trade in Latgale, by performance of intermediary and dealer functions. From the beginning of 19th century under influence of periodicals, the trade as a type of economic activity is rehabilitated among Latgalians, which is confirmed by folkloric materials and statistical data. Market in the terms of place for selling in Latgale is becoming topical as regards its location, calendar, the market square layout, traders, ritual elements of marketing and a general atmosphere inherent to the market. Traditionally a market developed in more densely populated and well accessible places. In their establishing local estate managers were playing their roles, however as far as 40-ties of the 20th century location, attendance and calendar of the market in Latgale, was mainly determined by a tradition to arrange a market together with the church festivities. Like in former times, also today, coexistence of the church and the market promotes thinking about the balance of spiritual and material values, which is analyzed mainly by periodicals. The market has always been distinguished with surprising regularity. In Latgale usually there were annual, monthly, and weekly markets. The names were formed according to the church holiday, dominant goods, market participants. Phenomenal nature of the market is acknowledged by their spontaneous organisation, even disregarding the government regulations. In this respect already during 30-ies of the 20th century Viļāni and Kārsava were distinguishable also these days maintaining the tradition of widely attended monthly market. Marketplace as the most important part of the market mega-system has been established in the cognition not only as a marketing, but also as a venue of different cultural and social processes. Substantial factors for understanding of the marketing is improvement of the market area, the offer of goods, diversity of traders. Designations and arrangement of market place presents both a bright national colour and impact of foreign cultures (notably Polish, Russian). Varied supply of goods and bargaining possibility to the present day is specifying the market when compared with other trading venues. All these elements constitute market as the place of convergence of various historical, political and socio-economic developments to signal of all the topical events both in the social life and in the life or particular individuals. In the public mind the market has been established also as an essential factor strengthening and even forming the family ties, since up to the middle of the 20th century, the market was the place and reason for meeting of closer and more distant relatives. The market was the place brides were selected, wedding jewellery was purchased. Market lexicon (for example, bride’s purchase, ‘bariši’) has entered also the wedding rituals. Since the market is increasingly connected to a large number of people, it has been and still is used also for socio-political purposes: marketplaces have been areas of demonstrations, moots. Political parties address their electorates in the market both at the beginning of the 20th century and today. During the Second World War years, the marketplace was also used as a public place for punishment. Perception of the market as a phenomenon has not decreased, it has become a singular identity factor and represents traditions and culture of Latgale both in other areas of Latvia and abroad.
- PublicationTRADITION AND IDELOGY: DISCOURSE OF THE PILGRIMAGE TO AGLONA(2015-12-22)The purpose of this article is to characterize the tradition of pilgrimages to Aglona and the collision of religious and anti-religious ideology during the Soviet period in the latter half of the 20th century. In respect to research sources (magazine and journal articles), the research uses social constructionist theory, which provides a critical view of information taken for granted, the historical and cultural conditionality of facts, and links between knowledge, social processes, and their development. The attention of the article is not strongly focused upon the pilgrimage as a cultural phenomenon, but upon the meaning assigned to it in specific historical and cultural situations during the period of Soviet ideology. Elite discursive characterizations of 19 pilgrimages were published from 1952 to 1976 in Latvian Soviet mouthpiece publications such as the newspapers „Cīņa” (‘Struggle’), „Padomju Jaunatne” (‘Soviet Youth’), the magazine „Zvaigzne” (‘Star’), etc. From these materials a body of text has been compiled that consists of 12,893 words, which were statistically analyzed with the computer program Mono Conc pro for Windows. Content analysis of the research material utilizes the method of ideological analysis of media text developed by the professor of media pedagogy Alexandr Fedorov, looking for influencing techniques adopted by mass media such as instrumentation, projection, selection, exaggeration or embellishment of facts, insult, attribution of offensive properties, evidence presentation and stylistic simplification. The understanding of ideological structure in the article was supported by the work of the American political scientist John Zaller, who updated knowledge of informative tools used in so-called elite discourse or top-down political ideology to influence public opinion.
- PublicationIN SEARCH OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE OF LATGALIANS: CONCEPT “HEART” IN LATGALIAN FOLK-TALES(2018)Emotional intelligence, according to the theory of emotional intelligence developed by American researchers Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer, is a form of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and action. When attributed to different social groups (age, profession, gender, ethnicity, etc.), emotional intelligence theory helps to identify specific mental peculiarities that are characteristic to a group, assess the group's communicative competence and predict reactions. The aim of the paper is to identify the dominant emotional intelligence patterns of Latgalians reflected in Latgalian folk-tales through the usage of a lexeme “heart”. As the source of the research the author has chosen 949 Latgalian folk-tales included in P. Schmit's (P. Šmits) collection “Latviešu tautas pasakas un teikas” (Latvian folk-tales and legends). From the selected folk-tales, a Latgalian folk-tale corpus was created, which for the purpose of acquiring of statistical data was processed in MonoConc Pro software. From the Latgalian folk-tale corpus 124 folk-tales were retrieved, where the usage of the word “heart” was identified 211 times. The research is based on the theory of cognitive linguistics regarding research methods of national concepts, based on the semantic cognitive approach, where the concept of analysis is divided into three main stages: the definition of the nominal field of the concept, the semantic-cognitive interpretation of the linguistic means and verification of the acquired cognitive characteristics. According to the theory of Z. Popova and J. Sternin, cognitive interpretation is a process of modelling of a concept as a unit of cognitive mental consciousness that is based on the acquired linguistic data. The classification of emotions in the paper is based on the theory of American psychologist R. Plutchik regarding eight main emotions: anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise, anticipation, trust and joy, all of which perform the function of adaptation. The summary of nominal field units on the concept “heart” gives ground to conclude that the most commonly mentioned emotion in Latgalian folk-tales is anger, which indicates mechanisms of defence while shaping the image of the enemy. Another most extensively represented emotion in Latgalian folk-tales is joy, which includes 33 heart-related positive emotions: sincerity, mercy, goodness, happiness, simplicity, etc. This emotion refers to individuals who have gained sympathy of the nation and are identified as those who belong to the community. According to the theory of R. Plutchik, joy is a psychological defence mechanism that turns a self-unacceptable behaviour, thought or feeling into a complete opposite. Emotion of joy is an affirmation of altruism, puritanism, conscientiousness, morality and acknowledgment of showing good behaviour. The third largest group among major emotions refers to the expression of sadness and sorrow (11 cases), which represents such psychological characteristics as shyness, passivity, apathy, conformity, obedience, and wish to go over painful past events. From the point of view of emotional intelligence, the concept of “heart” in Latgalian folk-tales is revealed as a repository of emotions, which, according to the theory of P. Salovey and J. Mayer, allows to interpret the degree of assessment and manifestation of one’s group emotions, the ability to assess and recognize other groups’ emotions, regulation of one’s own emotions and, finally, their application to improve one’s performance. Folk-tales show that in the context of the concept “heart” assessment of emotions of other groups is prevalent, basically emphasizing the negative qualities of social opponents, which result in variously described extensive emotions of anger. In the characterization of emotions of one’s own group, a more varied, but at the same time less described gamut of emotions dominates, where an ambivalent range of feelings predominantly of joy and sorrow are reflected. If there is no compromise in the revelation of the emotions of anger (angry characters, as anticipated by the righteous standards of a folk-tale, get the punishment they deserve), then the emotion of joy sometimes undergoes some fluctuations or even doubts about the true motivation and understanding of this emotion of joy. The story-line of a folk-tale does not reveal any significant activity regarding the regulation of the emotions of one's group. A folk-tale, mainly based on the polarities of one’s own and foreign, good and evil, shows how one-of-their-own (usually a low-stratum hero) is earning a satisfaction he has deserved.
- PublicationFOLKLORE COMPETENCE IN THE REPRESENTATION OF CULTURAL IDENTITY IN SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ESSAYS(2021)The article, using the theory of conceptual analysis and the principles of SOLO (Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes) taxonomy, analyses the manifestations of folklore competence in the essays of secondary school students, available in the corpus of essays www.korpuss.lv. The levels of folklore competence were determined by analysing the use of lexemes belonging to the semantic field of folklore in secondary school students’ essays. Out of 157 (or 34%) essays containing lexemes belonging to the semantic field of folklore, the majority (i.e. 43%) show the lowest level of folklore competence with domination of the naming function without further elaboration, or is limited to a broader elaboration of just one element without any perceived correlation with a broader folklore context. At the second level of folklore competence that can be observed in 45 essays (29%), secondary school students show the ability not only to name but also to classify into simpler systems 2- 3 realia belonging to the semantic field of folklore. At the third level of competence represented in 9 essays (or 6%), secondary school students show the ability to reason, analyse, explain causes, integrate, infer and identify problems using 4-6 lexemes belonging to the semantic field of folklore. The overview of the essays written in 2018 shows that most of the secondary school pupils’ folklore interests are related to the events dedicated to Latvia’s centenary, in particular Latvian Song and Dance Festival, which is typologically connected with the folk songs and Cabinet of Dainas (‘dainu skapis’) collected by Krisjanis Barons. In terms of genres, secondary school pupils have mostly stayed in the genre of fairy tale, which dominates at the first level of folklore competence (43 out of 100 essays), but it often merges with the understanding of the literary fairy tale and is subject to a formal application of genres. The study shows that folklore competence at its highest possible levels is more convincingly demonstrated by pupils from minority schools, which may be explained by the socio-cultural competence building content included in the minority school curricula.
- PublicationDEVIANCE IN LATGALIAN FOLK-TALES: GENDER ASPECT(2017)The aim of the paper is to identify deviant patterns of behavior between wife and husband in Latgalian household folk-tales by rising those characteristic and action strategies, which in accordance with the public assessment are recognized as non-compliant for traditional gender roles. The empirical source of the research is Latgalian household folk-tails, which thematically cover a variety of relationship models peculiar for a family (husband and wife). For the analysis of a deviant feature developed in a story the author applied theory of social action established by the sociologist Talcott Parsons. In the context of a fairy-tale, the actors (a husband and a wife) should not be regarded as individuals in a sense of a separate person, but instead as representatives of the given gender. Therefore, the nature of their actions is not individual as well, but instead more culturally-historically determined, which in accordance with the folk theory proposed by Richard Dorson is “real situation and local environment”. Deviant behavior scenarios in fairy-tales allow to evaluate developmental tendencies of a family as an institute for a period starting with 20th century, when folk-tales chosen for the empirical source were written, up to nowadays, when in the form of strategic documents are raised such problems of family institutes as significant decline in the amount of registered marriages and increase of divorced marriages.
- PublicationMūsdienu latgaliešu valodas runas korpusa izveide mazāk lietoto valodu dokumentēšanas kontekstā(2022)
; According to data of UNESCO, in 2013, Latgalian language with 150,000 users was recognised as one of the world’s endangered and vulnerable languages, as all generations still use the oral form, but the sustainability of the language is seriously jeopardised, since the number of young language users decreases. Pursuant to the EU directives and recommendations for preservation, research and development of regional and endangered languages, as well as the Guidelines for the State Language Policy 2021–2027 regarding development, disclosure on the web and accessibility of varied text corpus, in 2020, a group of researchers of the Rēzekne Academy of Technologies in the Project of State Research Programme Digital Resources of Humanities: Integration and Development (No. VPP-IZM-DH-2020/1-0001) started its work on the development of the Contemporary Latgalian Speech Corpus (MuLaR) aimed at the documentation, research, studies and acquisition of Latgalian. The aim of the article is to identify and analyse the issues that are important in the process of creating MuLaR, applying the referential analysis of the scientific literature and comparative methodology. In turn, applying the analytical-synthetic method and based on the experience accumulated by the corpus creators, there was developed an initial model for the corpus architectonics and technological solutions, covering such issues as ensuring a representative Latgalian speech corpus, bearing in mind the territorial distribution of Latgalian language communities and diversity of Latgalian patois; the most appropriate methods to document natural, spontaneous language: collection of new data, opportunities to use the existing recordings (interviews, TV, radio broadcasts, field research data collections), other databases (reiti.rta.lv); understanding metadata; ethical aspects of the speech corpus; transcribing (software, conventions to reveal the features of spoken text as accurately as possible); creation of an accessible, easy-to-use open-access platform, using the experience of creating oral speech corpuses for lesser-used languages / dialects in other countries. The article declares the main challenges for the corpus development after the initial validation of the corpus data, including in relation to the morphological tagging possibilities of the corpus. - PublicationPRESENTATIONS OF AGLONA’S PILGRIM GROUPS: AUDIO-VISUAL CODES(2016)The article „Pilgrimage to Aglona: Audio-Visual Codes” is dedicated to Aglona pilgrimage, which is considered a significant element of intangible cultural heritage of Latvia. The importance of this tradition has been acknowledged by its vitality: in spite of the historical complexities, the tradition of Aglona ritual pilgrimage has survived for more than a century and in due course has strengthened its value in practice and social memory of the community. At the same time it is not a rigid value based in the past; instead it exists on its own and develops according to the dialectical patterns of ritual. The aim of the article is to investigate the most significant audio-visual codes featured in Aglona pilgrimage, by revealing the most distinctive expressions of identity among pilgrims and by highlighting the diachronic development of audio-visually perceptible attributes relevant to the pilgrimage. The subject of the research is a specific part of the pilgrimage ritual – presentations of pilgrim groups on Assumption Day of the Virgin Mary into Heaven on August 14, which are staged during the holy mass dedicated to pilgrims and youth. Typologically presentations staged by pilgrim groups are being viewed as a closure phase (postliminal rite) of a transition ritual (liminal rite). The article examines 93 presentations prepared by pilgrim groups in 2014, 2015 and 2016. For data acquisition an on-site observation was applied, which falls under the definition of the sensory anthropological meaning (Howes 2003:54). Analysis of presentations staged by pilgrims was conducted by means of structurally semiotic approach that allows defining the specific symbolic language of the pilgrimage while displaying sensory perceptible ritual codes of the pilgrimage – visual and audial codes, i.e. the visual attributes of pilgrim groups and verbally musical representations with their characteristic performative and reproduction elements. The visual code of pilgrimage refers to various aspects of social identity. The affiliation to religious identity has been presented by such religious symbols as cross, flags belonging to various congregations, religious movements or separate Christian communities, tablets with images of pilgrimage patrons and visualisations of the intent of participation in pilgrimage; locally patriotic identity has been attested by the flag of the country, region, municipality or city. The research confirms that religious symbols (especially cross) and the related ceremonies are becoming more modest, whereas locally patriotic representations are expanding, thus marking the geographical circumference of the pilgrimage and confirming Aglona as a sanctuary of international significance. The clothing of participants reflects either their professional identity (National Armed Forces, clergymen, nuns) or affiliation to a specific interest group (European Guides). The audial codes are explored within the repertoires of pilgrim presentations, appearing in the form of performance and reproduction. Metonymically, the audial codes in pilgrim presentations contain the most essential functions related to the ritual in general and demonstrate such inherent features of the postmodern culture as interplay of the traditional and the innovative. The traditional values have been represented by sacred symbols and topics, but the innovative by artistic performance techniques: method of exact dating, typological generalizations directed towards community identity generation, stylization of texts drawn from other cultural areas (folklore, pop culture). The verbal codes of pilgrim groups in turn manifest ambivalence that is inherent to the pilgrimage ritual in general and marks not only the text, but also a the dialogue among generations and values. The audio-visual codes being organically embedded in the symbolic system of pilgrimage ritual language reveal multi-layered dialogue on cultural values, which is present within the ritual at subject, text and action level.
- PublicationTHE NOTION OF HAPPINESS IN LATGALIAN FAIRY TALES(2008)Happiness as an ethical category and as one of the most universal dimensions of human world views has been recognized as one of the most important concepts in the specification of ethnic culture within the paradigm of humanitities. The objective of this paper is therefore to reveal the notion of happiness in Latgalian fairy tales. For this purpose, one hundred Latgalian fairy tales were selected in which the word ‘happiness’ was used in different forms and combinations. Taking into consideration the specifics of a folklore text, a linguoculturological approach was used to determine the notion of happiness in Latgalian folklore, and to observe the concept of happiness in folklore texts in the discourses of language and culture and of language and ethnic mentality (Маслова 2001: 28). This concept is interpreted in this paper as a body of collective knowledge, which expresses itself through language and which shows the specifics of an ethnic culture (Воркачев 2002: 22). Three components are distinguished in the structure of the concept – a notional, a figurative, and an axiological component. Of these, the notional component is considered to be the most important one by the majority of researchers (Карасик 1999: 39). It is disclosed in the semantics of the language of folklore when studying the lexemes that happiness is connected with, in the analysis of semantic and pragmatic aspects of the word ‘happiness’, regarding word combinations where happiness is described specifically along the most typical components, and from a contrastive view which allows to identify happiness in comparison to unhappiness. Contextual semantics of the notion of happiness reveals one of the most common theories of the notion of happiness – happiness as luck or as a coincidence of favorable circumstances. A lucky situation can in Latgalian fairy tales also be defined according to the importance of the task which has to be accomplished by a hero and when it is particularly difficult or even impossible to fulfil. In such cases, happiness is denoted with the use of adjectives and as an accomplishment, thereby changing the emphasis from chance to the lucky hero. In the end of the fairy tales, the adverb ‘laimeigi’ (‘happily’) or the adjective ‘laimeigs/-a’ (‘happy’) appears most often in combination with the word ‘dzeivuoja’ (‘lived’), thereby suggesting that there is a special awareness of the word combination „happy life” in Latgalian consciousness. Final formulas of fairy tales relating to the basic elements of happiness distinguish social well-being from the well-being of a family. In addition, fragments of other values contribute to elements of happiness in the final formulas, for example, life/health, harmony, and even loneliness. Under the influence of Christianity, wealth looses importance as a subject of happiness, and its place is taken by the combination of poverty and happiness. A perspective of action of the characters regarding happiness in fairy tales is also created by verbs, which allow to divide characters into three groups: those who look for happiness for themselves, those who give happiness to others, and those who try to deprive others of happiness. Traditionally, protagonists of fairy tales fall into the first group. Their actions are described by using the verbs ‘to look for’, ‘to get’, ‘to meet’, ‘to catch’, or ‘to inquire’, which all imply an active behaviour. In the second group there are so called magic helpers, whose actions are characterized by the verbs ‘to wish’, ‘to make’, ‘to give’, ‘to promise’, or ‘to enchant’. In the third group there are the antagonists of a hero who are best described with the word ‘to envy’. Verbs as a characterization of an attitude towards happiness attest an active position of the characters in the Latgalian fairy tales. Even when happiness is predetermined, the characters do not remain static but actively participate in securing happiness. According to the logic of mythological thinking, happiness is made understandable and organized in recognizable artistic images and positioned in the local environment in equivalence to humans. Two of the most popular artistic techniques of substantiating happiness are anthropomorphization and objectification, which evolve along demythologization. There are two ways of interpreting happiness as an anthropomorphic image. First, the characterization of happiness emphasizes elements symbolizing prosperity and wealth: happiness is dressed in gold and silver (12.A.735.), it appears as a corpulent woman (11.A.735.) or a beautiful girl whose wreath shines like the sun (7.), etc. The second technique is to describe the appearance of happiness in correspondence to the hero’s psychological notion of happiness – when a hero is unhappy, happiness is a black old maid (7.), pale or exhausted (15.A.735.567.). Typical of a hero’s attitude towards happiness are persistence and even superiority. Additional features in the anthropomorphic image of happiness are revealed in those fairy tales where happiness tries its strength against the personifications of other moral values, such as wisdom (8.A.736.). In the end of these fairy tales, wisdom has to admit that wisdom without happiness is not possible. Equally great significance of both moral values (also in reversed priority) is revealed in the paroemiac folk foundation: Laima bez gudreibas ir caurojs maiss. (LSD, 1940 2971) (Happiness without wisdom is like a sack full of holes). An objectification of happiness appears in fairy tales where the idea of happiness is immanently part of the idea of money as a source and a content of happiness. In these fairy tales money can appear to people in the form of a wolf, a bird, a midge, etc. Such an interpretation of happiness was probably determined by the human belief in happiness and the possibility of finding it. Happiness can appear in different unexpected ways, and humans shall only be prepared to recognize it and grasp it. The analyzed material of fairy tales shows how the Latgalians see, understand and evaluate happiness. To sum up the conclusions made in the paper, it shall be noted that happiness is one of the highest moral values of the Latgalians. It is interpreted as both luck and destiny. The Latgalians are active regarding happiness – they look for happiness and they find it. If necessary, they remind happiness of their existence and are not afraid of changing their lives. Regarding the content of values of happiness, the most important parts are well-being (different ways of wealth/prosperity) and family happiness (with a spouse or parents). However, under the influence of Christianity, fairy tales introduced also philosophical contemplation about the problem – whether happiness really is about wealth, whether a poor person can be happy, and whether happiness is possible in this world at all. Folklore does not give the one and only correct answer to what happiness is. Folklore shows where happiness could possibly be and how one can obtain it. Specific aspects of the interpretation of happiness in Latgalian folklore can also be found in other genres of folklore, for instance in folk songs and brahilogisms. It is very well possible that other ethnic groups emphasize different aspects in the interpretation of happiness which should be studied separately. However, as studies of the concept of happiness point out, due to the influence of globalization ethnic differences in the interpretation of happiness could be evened out (Veenhoven 1995: 5).