Though Latvia celebrates Christmas on December 25, this holiday is closely linked with pagan winter solstice celebrations. Latvians mark the 12 days up until Christmas with gifts. If you're in Riga during the month of December, you can purchase traditional decorations and sample Latvian Christmastime foods at the Riga Christmas Market.
Riga lies on both banks of the river Daugava in the form of a circle and can roughly bedivided into two parts, the right and left side of the river. The right side of the city is where Old Riga, New Riga and other districts are located. The left part of the city is also called “Pārdaugava”, meaning “Across the Daugava," and suburbs and other districts are located on this side.
According to the Constitution (Satversme), Latvia is a parliamentary republic in which the sovereign power belongs to the people, who are represented by a unicameral parliament (Saeima), with 100 members elected in general, equal, direct, secret and proportional elections for a four-year period.