| | Latvian National Costumes - Background (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21) |
 | | National costumes worn on festive occasions in Latvia have survived because they have been handed down from generation to generation as colourful adornments and treasured heirlooms. |
 | | While preserving and continuing the traditions of a region, each woman created a distinctive costume for herself or her man. Apparently Latvia falls into five ethnographic regions: Kurzeme, Vidzeme, Zemgale, Latgale, Augszeme, their distinctions reaching as far back as the XVII and XIX centuries. |
 | | Regional borders were not strictly marked and a certain cultural interchange did exist as well as the effect of wars, invasions and foreign occupations. |
| www.pesudovs.com /costumes/background.html (507 words) |