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.

official-estonia:

On All Souls Day, it is a custom in Estonian households to go clean the graves of the relatives that have passed and later in the evening to leave a single candle on the windowsill so souls of the family’s dead relatives can find their way back home again.

The tradition dictates that a table should be covered with food for the ghosts to enjoy, all of whom are called to meal by the parents of the household. A sauna is of course heated up as well, so that ghosts can clean themselves.

As a thanks, the ghost were asked to protect the crops and animals for the following year.

official-estonia:

Every year on 3rd weekend of October, estonians, finns and hungarians and finno-ugric region of Russia celebrate Finno-Ugrian days. It’s mission is to make people more strongly aware of their ethnic heritage and their part in the Finno-Ugric family. 

official-estonia:

Siberian flying squirrel (Pteromys volans) is the only species of flying squirrel found in Europe. It is under first category protection in Estonia.

The squirrel is pretty small (weighs around 150 grams). Its coat is grey and it has black eyes. A distinctive feature of flying squirrels is the furry glide membrane – a flap of skin that stretches between the front and rear legs. This allows the squirrel to glide from one tree to another.

In Estonia, the squirrels can most often be found from the forests surrounding the bogs of Virumaa and in Soomaa national park.

official-estonia:

Estonians are third largest surviving Finno-Ugric tribe with 900 000 people and one of only 3 Finno-Ugric tribes who have their own country.

official-estonia:

What’s most amazing thing about the Baltic Way is that the organisers couldn’t even hope in their wildest dreams that the turnout would be 2 millions from Baltic states.

They calculated with precision how many people would have to be standing per kilometre so that chain would work. They hoped that 200 000 people from each state would show up. Instead 700 000 (Estonia), 1 000 000 (Lithuania) and 400 000 (Latvia) showed up. Thanks to that the chain was almost continuous across the countryside.

The organisers hoped that people would just show up. Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians went far and beyond to reach the chain – some would start travelling very, very, very early in the morning to drive over 200 km to be part of the chain. People took buses off the routes in towns to help people reach their spots in the chain. People picked up random people with their cars to help them get to the chain.

At 19.00 church bells rang across 3 countries as 2 million people demanded the same human rights as rest of the world.

Baltics stood as one and asked the World to listen…

and the World did.

official-estonia:

Out of 900 000 Estonians that were alive in 1989, 700 000 stood in Baltic Way – that meant over ¾ of Estonians alive took part of Baltic Way.