February 6, 1925 at 21.00 (Latvian time) the doomsday had to arrive. At least that’s what the Seventh-day Adventist prophet Margaret Roven predicted. Liepaja Adventists took this message seriously and, in the hour, dressed in white, prepared for the end of the world. However, the doomsday did not come, but the believers from Liepaja became victims of ridicule for a long time.
“The day has not yet come, although the dates have been announced several times. Some confident waiters ruined all their belongings, now they had to start over, but the leading brothers and sisters in the capital did not intend to give any help. Some brothers from Liepaja from newspapers: wrapped in white linen sheets, they had stood on the bridge and waited for the fiery carts to come and take them to the clouds. However, this did not happen, “in the novel” Fisherman’s Son “, Willow Bear. The case in Liepāja is not only the fruit of Viļa Lāčs’ imagination, it was there that in 1925 the last day was also awaited.
The believers in Liepaja were from the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a Protestant religious movement that originated in the mid-19th century in the United States. Adventists place special emphasis on the impending second coming of Jesus Christ. Prophecy and prophecy study play an important role in the Seventh-day Adventist agenda. One of the self-proclaimed Adventist prophets was American Margaret Rovena, who joined the religious movement in 1912. In November 1923, she announced that two years later, on February 6, 1925, the doomsday would come. Her statement gained widespread publicity in the mass media of the time around the world. Although Roven’s prophecy was not legitimized by Seventh-day Adventist leadership, it fell into fertile ground, and some Adventist churches began preparing for the end of the world. One such congregation was also in Latvia – Liepaja.
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