When Latvians Sin
Yes I have sinned but sin no more; I’ll not confess to priest,
I am a Lett, the sin is mine and I shall not be fleeced,
By church or man, no celebrant,
Shall note my thoughtless ways;
It’s mine to bear, my sin to share,
With God who careful weighs.
My wrong on count of 1 to 10,
I cross my fingers, wonder when,
That He’ll pronounce what I must do,
As penance then what I eschew.
But, I forget, I’m proud a Lett, so pebble picked from shore,
On pebble I will write the sin that I shall take blame for.
Letts do things different, nonsense free,
I’ll have no truck with priest or Thee,
I write my fault upon the stone,
And to the sea my sin be thrown.
The Baltic Sea or river fair,
Will clean the sin without a prayer.
Now I am free of wrong and curse,
God bless the Letts, I could be worse.
Michael (Walsh) 28.10.13.
Writing sins on rocks, then tossing the rocks into a body of water, will allow a person to atone for their sins. This ritual is sometimes performed before weddings. The practice of transposing a sin onto an object to be discarded is similar to Eastern European folk remedies, which sometimes require transferring an illness onto an object and destroying it or throwing it away - thus destroying the illness.