Andeora
March 19th, 2008, 04:29 PM
Just some small observations pointing to the fact that the Baltic region was one of the last ones where Paganism continued to exist in Europe...
The word for "Christmas" in Estonian is "jõulud"... and I think it's "joulut" in Finnish.
The 24-th of June is a national holiday, and while it's called "jaanipäev" - St John's Day - which refers to Christianity - people don't go to church. They go out in the nature and make big bonfires... and I'm sure there are still people who jump over the fire and do other traditional things, even if they don't believe in them the way people used to.
While with every year Halloween seems to become more popular in Estonia, we actually have our own holiday for this time of the year. Unfortunately most people seem to have "switched over" to Halloween or something... The holiday is called "hingedepäev" or "Day of Souls" and the spirits of our dead ancestors are supposed to come and visit the living on that night. It's on the 2-nd of November. Some of the traditions are keeping a lit candle on the windowsill so the souls know where to come, and leaving food and drink for them on the table. I think we actually did that in my childhood, even though it wasn't probably taken all that seriously... I imagine there are still people who follow the custom.
What they do celebrate publicly, even though I can already assume by the name that the tradition didn't originate locally, is "volbriöö" - Walpurg's night (the night of April 30). It's probably actually a bit like Halloween or so, with people dresssing up as witches and various creatures... there are usually some pretty big events held that night, public concerts and so on.
There are plenty of folk holidays, of course, most of which I don't even know, but just mentioned some things related to the big Pagan ones... Speaking of the word "Pagan", I've had quite many Estonians refer to themselves and their beliefs by that name... although what they usually mean by that is "unbeliever" or something like that. It also happens to be one of the words for devil and is used as a mild swear word.
Just some observations. Hope they were of interest to someone. :)
The word for "Christmas" in Estonian is "jõulud"... and I think it's "joulut" in Finnish.
The 24-th of June is a national holiday, and while it's called "jaanipäev" - St John's Day - which refers to Christianity - people don't go to church. They go out in the nature and make big bonfires... and I'm sure there are still people who jump over the fire and do other traditional things, even if they don't believe in them the way people used to.
While with every year Halloween seems to become more popular in Estonia, we actually have our own holiday for this time of the year. Unfortunately most people seem to have "switched over" to Halloween or something... The holiday is called "hingedepäev" or "Day of Souls" and the spirits of our dead ancestors are supposed to come and visit the living on that night. It's on the 2-nd of November. Some of the traditions are keeping a lit candle on the windowsill so the souls know where to come, and leaving food and drink for them on the table. I think we actually did that in my childhood, even though it wasn't probably taken all that seriously... I imagine there are still people who follow the custom.
What they do celebrate publicly, even though I can already assume by the name that the tradition didn't originate locally, is "volbriöö" - Walpurg's night (the night of April 30). It's probably actually a bit like Halloween or so, with people dresssing up as witches and various creatures... there are usually some pretty big events held that night, public concerts and so on.
There are plenty of folk holidays, of course, most of which I don't even know, but just mentioned some things related to the big Pagan ones... Speaking of the word "Pagan", I've had quite many Estonians refer to themselves and their beliefs by that name... although what they usually mean by that is "unbeliever" or something like that. It also happens to be one of the words for devil and is used as a mild swear word.
Just some observations. Hope they were of interest to someone. :)