5 euro – Song Thrills

On Friday, 30 June, Latvijas Banka, honouring the 150th anniversary of the Song Celebration, is issuing a silver collector coin "Song Thrills" dedicated to this event. The Nationwide Latvian Song and Dance Celebration is a significant, breathtaking, emotionally uniting and uplifting cultural event not only in Latvia but also worldwide. 2023 marks the 150th anniversary of the I Nationwide Latvian Song Celebration. From the first Celebration with 1000 singers, it has grown to a mighty movement which brings together several tens of thousands of singers and dancers. The authors of the graphic design of Latvijas Banka's coin are artists Anna Līva Traumane and Harijs Vucens. The coin captures the myriad of emotions that come with the Song Celebration – the sense of togetherness, the musical and emotional excitement, as well as the visual brightness of the wide and diverse spectrum of the colours of the national costumes. According to the artists' ideas, the shape of the coin is waved by the movement of the rows of the choir singers, flowing ribbons and skirts, flags, emotional thrill and the song itself – the sound wave– all so characteristic of the Song Celebration. The colour and the brightness intertwine with the diversity of the national costumes, the atmosphere of the Celebration and the uplifted feeling. The blending of multiple colours symbolically manifests the gathering of different people and traditions from various places in a united choir. Side by side, the singers become one choir and blend into one song. We are used to coins spherical in shape. However, the Latvian Song Celebration represents a global cultural phenomenon, and a unique horizontal rectangular shape has been created for this coin.