official-estonia:

Mardipäev is celebrated in Estonia every year on November 10th and it’s actually the eve of St. Martin’s Day which is celebrated on November 11th. 

Mardipäev marks the ending of hingedeaeg (November 2nd is All Souls’ Day, hingedeaeg literally means “Souls’ time”). By that day, all chores like harvesting crops had to be done.

Some people say that Mardipäev used to be the new year celebration during ancient times, but according to the Internet, it’s not exactly known when the tradition started.

In the 19th and 20th century, people dressed up as a mart (mardisant) (basically people would dress up as “men”, meaning that they wore dark and somewhat dirty clothes and made their faces dirty using coal, or they would dress up as animals or mythological creatures) on Mardipäev and visit the homes of others in order to wish them good luck (good growth of crops, many kids, more livestock) and have fun.

Usually people would dress up as a family of mardid (mardisandid), the leaders of the group were the “mother” and the “father” who had to be good singers. Some people also dressed up as “kids” or “animals” of the “family”.

Also there is a ritual that mardid had to do. At first they sang a song in order to be let in. Then they danced, played games, sang and interacted with the owners of the house, also they played guessing games which were supposed to bring good luck to the family. After that there was a song to ask about the daughters of the family and then a song to beg for gifts from the owners, such as fruit, vegetables and meat, and then the family would give something like sweets or bread to mardisandid, to which mardid would respond to with a song of gratefulness or with curses. Then mardid would bless the family with a song and also sing a song to say goodbye.

There were also quite a few games that mardid would play, not necessarily at someone else’s house. For example there were mardipulmad (the wedding of mardid) and in the 20th century, carnivals were held.

The most common thing to eat was mardihani (goose), but in the 19th century only the wealthiest people could do that. But also other birds like chicken and duck were popular, in some families pork was also eaten. 

Nowadays it’s popular for mostly young people to dress up as mardisandid and sing behind people’s door in order to be let in and then do something fun with the owners and sing to them. The family then gives them candy or fruit, less common is to give money.

Here is one more song, don’t let the video frighten you.