A Glimpse Into History

The Estonians, like all other Finno-Ugric peoples, are natives of the North-Eastern European forest zone. Our distant ancestors hunted and fished between the Baltic Sea and Lake Peipus at least 5000 years ago. Some linguists believe, however, that ancient Finno-Ugrians came here as they followed wild game as early as 10 000 years ago—at the end of the Ice Age.

At any rate, for about 4000 years we have been living on this land as tillers. The oldest North-Estonian villages and primeval fields have survived through thousands of years. Estonia is one of the northernmost agricultural areas in the world. At the same time, the people have retained a close connection with forest and trees. The word "tree" ("puu" in Estonian) is one of the oldest in our language family. Trees were friends and guards that provided the country folk with dwelling, tools and commodities. The era until the 19th century can well be called "wood age" as at that time "the oak served as a farmer's iron and the birch as a poor man's copper" (Saaremaa).

With all their worries, wishes and gratitude the pagan Estonians turned to the trees—either to the sacrificial lime, oak, ash or to the sacred grove.

At the beginning of the 13th century the Crusade against the ancient Estonians, who were among the last pagans in Europe, was proclaimed by the Pope in Rome which intervened with their sovereignty and potential development into a nation. After the struggles that lasted for several decades the land fell under the rule of the German Order of the Brethren of the Sword, Catholic bishops and the King of Denmark. The superiors of Estonian origin partly fell in battle and partly joined the ranks of the foreign masters. The rights of the country folk were restricted and the Estonians remained peasants for centuries. In the 16th century the corvee labourers who had neither land nor freedom of movement were forced to serfdom. Again and again Estonia became a battlefield.

Among the greatest wars were the Livonian War (1558-1583) when the land was first divided between Poland and Sweden, whereas later on it went under the control of Sweden; the Great Northern War (1700-1721) whereupon Estonians became subjects of Tsarist Russia for about 200 years; and finally the last two World Wars (1914-1918, 1941-1945). The independence of the Estonians has lasted merely for three decades: from 1918 until 1940 and from 1991 until today.

Throughout the centuries the Estonians have cherished the idea that their land once belonged to them. Although there were many revolts against the masters the serfdom was not abolished until the beginning of the 19th century, over the period of 1816-1819. According to the new agrarian reform laws of 1856, the people could buy out farms and acquire a timeless right of ownership. The period of National Awakening arrived.

Yet for more than fifty years the Estonian culture remained that of peasants and the land and the farms played the central part in the people's life up to the Second World War. Until the period of awakening in the 19th century Estonians called themselves the "country folk". The 1930s were the heyday of the Estonian vernacular culture, but at the same time it was also the period of modernisation of land exploitation and tillage technology as well as of the way of life. The large scale farming practised during the Soviet times after World War II liquidated the farms and traditional countrylife. Today the old Estonian rural culture can only be seen in the museums.

Rural Buildings

From at least the 16th century until the end of the 19th century the Estonians used to live mainly in barn-dwellings. These unique buildings made of pine or spruce logs have history of a thousand years and were built only in Estonia and Northern Latvia (Vidzeme). A grain drying room with a limestone or earth floor which contained a huge barn oven, a cold chamber and a spacious threshing-floor were all combined under the same roof of the barn-dwelling until the middle of the 19th century. While there is nothing peculiar about combining the dwelling and economic rooms (cattle-sheds and storages) in itself, we are the northernmost tillers, which means that grain seldom becomes ripe and completely dry in the fields wherefore a spacious and hot grain drying room was needed in autumn. It would have stood useless the rest of the year. Thus it was reasonable to build one properly heated high room where one could dry grain on crossbars and where people could live in winter. Until the 1880s the barn-dwelling did not have a chimney and grain was dried in hot smoke. During the grain drying time in autumn the family slept in lofts or chambers that were cold. The smoke that rose to the upper part of the room during heating was let out through a door or a special smoke-hole. At wintertime all indoor jobs were done in the smoky twilight of the drying room—the farmers wove cloth, embroidered shirts, carved chairs and wooden vessels and celebrated holidays in candlelight.

The threshing-floor was also used for several purposes—for threshing and winnowing grain, keeping oxen and horses over winter, whereas after cleaning up in summer it made a good dancing floor. The chamber was a storage space in winter but in summer served as the master's and his wife's bedroom.

For a long time such an archaic dwelling-house stayed unchanged as the time and conditions did not favour improvements. The farms of the serfs belonged to the landlord and could be taken away from them at any time. There was no point in decorating the buildings that were regarded mostly as commodities. Yet the old barn-dwellings are eye-catching due to their good proportions—the height of the walls makes 1/3 and the height of the roof 2/3 of the overall height of the traditional building. The wide straw-thatched or reed-covered roofs were yellow when new but overgrew with green moss when time passed. So the silvery-grey farmhouses slowly merged with the surrounding fields and forests.

In the second half of the 19th century the barn-dwellings started to change. The right to buy farms for perpetuity raised the self-consciousness of the peasants who were now free. Although saving the money while also paying the rent was not easy, there was a strong will to live a more dignified life.

First the chambers were changed so that they could be heated, they got board floors and wider windows. Thus the chambers turned into living-rooms and bedrooms that were used around the year. In a decent house there had to be at least two chambers: one in the front and another at the back. The previous heart of the house—the drying room—was not the only heated room in the house any more. Yet the dirtiest housework was still done there, bread was still baked once a week in the barn oven and food was cooked in its open fireplace until they were replaced by stoves.

The Western-Estonian islands among which the largest are Saaremaa, Hiiumaa and Muhu, represent well the variety and richness of the Estonian countryside. People on the islands were fairly isolated. The Baltic Sea separated them from the rest of the world but at the same time connected them with distant shores. This and the roughness of the wind-tangled landscape have left their marks on the whole life of the islanders.

Even after the land had been measured into lots on Saaremaa and Muhu, the old farmyards stood close together around the central village green where women met one another at the public well and where the young people had fun on the village swing on Saturdays. The community spirit was strong.

For centuries the villages and farms of that area have been surrounded by high stone walls. It was hard work to clear away the stones from the fields and to lay down the walls. Until today these stone walls stand like peculiar monuments to the hard-working nature of the islanders.

Especially on Muhu, one can see meticulously built fine buildings on farmyards. Masons from Muhu were well known even on the mainland. "We are always keen on the pattern," comment the old islanders themselves on their sense of beauty.

At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century beautiful cellars, summer kitchens, storehouses and cattle-sheds of dark granite with light limestone windows and door frames were erected one after another. All the food supplies and garments were kept in large chests in storehouses. That is why they were decorated with love and care—the doors and columns were striped, old protective signs (crosses, pentagons, "wheels of time") were drawn on the doors, keyholes were ornamented with forgings.

From spring till autumn unmarried girls who had passed confirmation slept in barns used for storing clothes. Like everywhere else in Estonia young men, the so-called "bundlers", knocked on the barn doors on short light summer nights: they wanted to have a little chat with the girl they had noticed on the swing or by the Midsummer Eve bonfire. These visits, even if brief, could be the beginning of a long life together. The lads had a good reason to find a wife who would cook and weave the clothes. The women on the other hand needed somebody in the household who would plough the fields and make household utensils. Single people were not respected. There was even a saying that a bachelor had the same value as half of a wheel.

If the wooer was accepted, the couple waited until the end of harvest and the new moon after which a wedding party that lasted for several days was held. It was the most important event in people's life. It was the custom that the bride left her father's house with a jeremiad and with her face covered so as to protect her from the evil eye. The loud and noisy wedding ride took her and her decorated dowry-chest to her new home. After certain rituals that were to bring good luck the maiden had to put on a coif and an apron which she had to wear from at all times from now on. These were attributes of a married woman. The guests at the wedding ate and drank a lot and sang and danced to the happiness and good luck of the newly-wed couple.

The church required that a wedding ceremony be also held in church but until the 19th century it was usually carried out at some other time than the traditional wedding party. Even as late as in the 17th century the clergymen still complained that the peasants who had not been wed in church lived in sin.

And so our young man from the Muhu island got a wife a partner for life who shone like the sun in her yellow-orange skirt.

To have a long and healthy journey through life, the Estonians used to go to the sauna. On the islands, in Southern and Eastern Estonia and also in Virumaa the sauna was heated on Saturdays in almost every farm to wash away the sweat of the week's work and to whisk the stiffened body and limbs with leafy birch twigs. In other parts of the country people used the drying-room of their barn-dwelling for this purpose.

The sauna was a sacred place for the country folk. They were born in the sauna and they died in the sauna. It was the place that the ghosts of ancestors were expected to visit, especially in late autumn, the time of ghosts. Thursday's sauna was said to chase away diseases. Then a healer cast a spell and used herbs such as juniper, oak, stinging nettle etc. for whisking. They said that the sauna was a poor man's doctor. There were more taboos connected with this important building than any other place. In the sauna one restrained from swearing, whistling, making noise and quarrelling, and one thanked the sauna before leaving it. A sauna whisk was even put into the grave to be used by the deceased in the Great Beyond.

The Estonians living on the coast were more reliant on the sea than on the crops from the fields. Often they did not grow grain themselves but got it in exchange for fish. So there was no need to build barn-dwellings in coastal areas. The construction and furnishing style of the fishermen's houses on the northern coast (Kuusalu parish) was more similar to that in coastal villages in Finland. The fishermen used to sail across the sea fairly frequently and until World War I most of their commodities were bought from our northern neighbours, the Finns. In coastal households one encountered rocking chairs, checked cotton cloth (the so-called Swedish cloth) and Finnish push sledges which were unknown in inland Estonia. Even bread was made in the Finnish way—it was baked in hard round loaves with holes in the middle and they were hung on a roost in the kitchen. Such bread suited well for taking along to the sea. On the coast coffee drinking became common earlier than in the rest of the country. In the northern part of Estonia coffee was an everyday drink already more than 100 years ago.

Fishing villages could be recognised from afar by the net sheds where fishermen kept their fishing equipment. Nearby, nets were hung to dry on long rows of poles in the so-called net drying yards.

Other Rural Buildings

There were also a number of other buildings that were important for the country people and that were not necessarily situated in the farmyards. Some of the oldest among them were watermills which date back to the 12th century or even to the Viking Age and which were used for grinding bread and porridge flour on our rivers and brooks. Smaller watermills on streams worked only during floods in spring and autumn, whereas bigger mills that were built on rivers had enough water almost at any time of the year due to dams and millponds.

At least from the 14th century wind power has been used for grinding grain in the windy countryside of Estonia. On the islands windmills were usually situated on a knoll on the outskirts of the village where almost every farm had its own post windmill. After harvesting in autumn farmers turned the "bodies" of their mills into the direction of the wind by means of a special tail-pole, covered the sails with canvas cloth, poured the grain into the hopper, and the flour of new crop ran into sacks.

Later on the farmers started to build bigger, the so-called Dutch windmills where only the upper part, the "cap" of the mill with sails was turned.

The grain was taken to the miller who was known to be an honest man and who would never take too much multure.

Apart from the daily bread that sustained the country folk, their souls, too, were in need of nourishment. For several centuries this job was the responsibility of the Catholic church. Houses of God were erected all over Estonia. Although Christian God had finally driven out the country folk's guardian spirits and was duly worshipped, people were still in touch with their passed-away ancestors and sacrificed to the sacred trees, stones and holy springs. The Estonian world view united both beliefs.

The Reformation arrived in Estonia at the beginning of the 16th century, but it was not until a century later that the country became subject to the Swedish Crown and that both the peasants and the gentlefolk turned to the evangelic Lutheran church.

There are two crossbeam churches that have been preserved from that period and that were built by Estonian peasants. One of them is on the Ruhnu island and dates back to 1644. The other—the chapel of Sutlepa from the Noarootsi parish was transferred to the Estonian Open Air Museum and bears the dates of 1699 and 1837. The appearance of these sacred buildings reminds us of the peasant houses, while the choirs are situated in the east and the entrances in the west like traditionally in big churches. In both buildings services are held even today the chapel of Sutlepa was re-consecrated on July 23, 1989.

Another type of historical building that belonged to the estates and stood on the roadsides close to churches was the inn. Its taproom or gentry room provided a traveller with a shelter while his horse could rest in the stable. Farmers often dropped by the inn after church service to have a chat by a pint of beer, listen to news, discuss the law, employ farmhands and maids or to bargain. Calendar holidays always gave a good reason to go to the inn, drink some vodka with balm ("puna" in Estonian) and dance. And of course, fights were not uncommon between men who had had a few drinks.

Women had their own holidays, such as Lady's Day on March 25 and Shrove Tuesday, when it was decent for them to enter the inn and taste the balm spirits. There is even the following song: Hello, hello to the inn/Hello to the taproom there/That's the place where I've been in/Drinking mead and having beer/Hundred times I've eaten buns/Thousand times I've had much fun.

The establishment of the state spirit monopoly at the end of the 19th century ended the heyday of inns.

The clergymen of course did not approve of the country folk's visiting inns. They searched support in the enlightenment of the peasants from the school. The clergymen wanted the peasants to know the Ten Commandments, to be able to read prayers and sing in the church. The churches needed parish clerks chaplains, who would know the local language. So in the 16th-17th centuries when Protestantism and Catholicism were fighting for Estonia, the authorities started to think about educating the country children. The first peasant school was founded in 1639 in the Kose parish but it was not the only one. In 1641 the Estonians, being the subjects of the Swedish Kingdom at the time, got a spelling book in their own language.

Before the Great Northern War there were 42 schools and quite a lot of people studied on their own; a number of vernacular schoolbooks were printed. Young people could read rather well. At the same time many peasants regarded learning the catechism and songs by heart as just another method of persecution.

After Estonia was joined to Tsarist Russia it took a while for the country to recover from the war. Yet there was the requirement that the children between the age of seven and twelve had to learn reading and catechism with the help of their family. Otherwise one could neither be confirmed nor married. The landlords were given orders to build schoolhouses but it was not rare that children were taught in the drying-rooms of barn-dwellings and even in the inns. Proper schoolhouses were built everywhere starting from the second half of the 19th century. Then farmers got the right to have a say in the matter of commune schools. The teachers had to pass an exam and teach according to a common programme. The latter certainly included religious instruction, reading, singing, reckoning, writing, in some places also geography, gymnastics, handicraft. One had to go to school for three winters instead of the previous one or two winters and the school-year lasted longer than earlier, from October 15 till April 15. Highly educated schoolmasters became the real "salt of the countryside": besides teaching they performed the duty of a community clerk, helped the clergymen and conducted singing choirs, drama clubs and brass bands. And their work was fruitful 100 years ago Estonians were a literate folk.

Work

For at least 3000 years the life of the people in Estonia has been based on land cultivation and animal husbandry. In these harsh Nordic conditions one can only count on his own intellect and strength. So the life itself trained the Estonians to be hard-working. Work has always been held in honour here and workmen have been treated with much praise and respect.

Through centuries agriculture has been the most important area of activity. That meant a continuos fight with the two main enemies of the Estonian farmers—the flood and the stones. It was not easy to turn swampy lands into rich fields. Sometimes it required the hard work of several generations to dig ditches. Walls made of stones picked from the fields have stood in old villages of Northern and Western Estonia for ages. For the tillers the field and the soil were sacred and they were treated with serious devotion.

At first the Estonians mostly cultivated barley but from the 11th century onwards our most important bread grain became winter rye. Among other crops that were sown were wheat and oats as well as broad beans, peas, lentils, turnips and cabbages which were known from ancient times. Shirting flax was cultivated on every farm for weaving. Flax growing turned into a "gold mine" in Estonia in the 1860s-1870s, when the export of cotton from America was broken off by the civil war. The income from selling flax allowed many farms to be bought out for an unlimited period of time, especially in the Southern parts of Estonia. Indeed, it was the flax that laid the foundation of the legendary wealth of the inhabitants of Viljandimaa.

The country folk's year was divided into two parts according to the work that they had to do: summer was for outdoor jobs (e.g. working in the fields and grazing animals) and winter for handicraft that was done indoors. Spring work started in the fields usually after St. George's Day (April 23) when the snow had already melted. Until the second half of the 19th century the Estonians cultivated their land with the same tools as in olden times. Wooden ploughs and harrows got iron end-pieces only gradually in the course of time.

The most important work that required great skill was sowing. A true master never trusted it to a farmhand or anyone else. To show one's respect and responsibility for the work, he wore clean clothes and chose the most suitable day—Thursday or Saturday—to start with it. That was a solemn moment when the master dressed in his best shirt was throwing golden seeds into the soil. The bright white shirts of the rye reapers who stooped in the fields day after day emphasised the importance of this work. Rye was usually harvested in the way of bees together with the people from neighbouring farms. For a long time rye was cut by hand, by means of a sickle.

The hardest and dirtiest work was threshing at the end of summer and in autumn. It was often done at night, as daylight was used for reaping the grain. Sheaves were dried on the crossbars in the drying-room and then threshed on the threshing-floor with flails. Threshed grain was winnowed in winnowing baskets or sifters in the draught at the open gates of the threshing-floor like in olden times. New crop was taken to the miller or ground with a hand mill. Everyday bread was earned by the sweat of one's brow...

For thousands of years the country folk have raised cattle. In the 19th century they were mostly used as draught animals and for obtaining manure because "dung is the mother of bread" as the saying goes. It was impossible to manage without yoked oxen and horses and therefore it was the master himself who took care of them. Cows, heifers, sheep, goats, pigs and domestic fowl were tended by the housewife. The milk yield was not remarkable but it did bring some change to the family's menu during summer.

In olden days animals were grazed on common village pastures. Later on each farm had its own pasture and their own children herded the cattle.

To keep animals over winter a lot of fodder was needed. Hay was made at the most beautiful time of the year and therefore it was not just hard work but also fun. As meadows were often far from the villages, the whole family went there for several days and only older people and little babies stayed at home. The work began early at sunrise and although mowing and turning over swaths were no easy jobs, the miracle of the short Nordic summer offered cheerful experiences and energy that sustained the people through the dark wintertime.

By St. Michael's Day (September 29) the autumnal field work had to be finished—the turnips had to be in the caves and the womenfolk in the chambers to do housework. Now began the winter half-year with its cares and preparations for the next sowing period.

Winter was the principal time for doing handicraft. Until the mid-19th century everything needed for life on a farm was made by the peasants at home. One's own fields and cattle provided the family with both food and material for clothing. In the long winter evenings the farmhouses were filled with the whirring noise of the spinning-wheels and the cracking of the weaving looms. One hundred and fifty years ago every housewife sewed all the clothes for the whole family. Decorating festive costumes was more painstaking, however. For trimming their clothes the peasant women worked in crochet, embroidered and hemstitched themselves or ordered it to be done for big money by the town masters or artisans. Women's skills and sense of beauty reflected from the gorgeous sleigh wraps, the stripes of skirts as well as from the fancy patterns of mittens and belts. Before lamplight reached the farms, all this beauty was born in the scanty light of the sooty grain drying room.

Wooden household utensils, tools and even simpler furnishings were made by men. For young couples finer chests-of-drawers and cupboards were ordered from masters.

Several generations as well as other relatives and even strangers usually lived together in a farm household. The strangers were farmhands and maids who were hired for one year or only for a summer. The most important person on a farm was the master himself. He organised work and if necessary hired servants; he was responsible for the well-being of the whole family. The master was obeyed and respected, he sat at the most honourable seat at dinner table. The farm functioned on a certain division of labour. The men were in charge of farming, work in the woods and transport. The domestic housekeeping was directed by the housewife. She was the first to get up in the morning and the last to go to bed. Tending the cattle, milking the cows, housekeeping, cooking food and baking bread, making clothes for the household members and taking care of the children rested upon her shoulders. Starting from the end of the 18th century, mothers had to find time between spinning and carding to teach their children to read. Men and women worked together in the meadows at haymaking and at harvest-time. In the fishermen's families even tillage stayed on women's shoulders.

There were usually many children in the family. The peasant child learned to do work from an early age. A seven-year-old was already a shepherd or a herd-child, boys in their teens ploughed and harrowed the fields together with grownup men. Girls helped with household chores. The boundaries of good and bad were learnt from the parents' behaviour as well as from tales and proverbs. Yet at the same time, in the bygone times, the children were taught and instructed not only by their own parents and grandparents but also by the farmhands and maids working on the farm and even by the whole village folk.

The family was called by the names of the master and the farm. At the beginning of the 19th century Estonian peasants were given family names. The things belonging to one family that could be accidentally exchanged with those of other families were marked with owner's marks.

Calendar Holidays

The country folk got a break from their rather dull work-life at several calendar holidays that allowed them to rest a little, to enjoy some entertainment, to show themselves and watch others. At the same time people thought about their work, health and future during feasts and holidays. The most well-known red-letter day in late winter is Shrove Tuesday. Being a movable holiday it is always celebrated on a Tuesday at the time of the new moon. Above all, this was a women's holiday. Sliding on Shrove Tuesday was believed to further good flax growth. Both the young and the old went to slide down the hill while it was a must for the housewife. Split logs, benches and lids of tubs were equally good as sledges for sliding. In order to have a longer ride on foot, the soles of leather shoes were larded.

If there were no hills people went on sleigh-rides with horses: with sleigh bells ringing merry companies dashed from one inn to the next, laughing and playing music. The principle was the same—the further off the inn, the longer would the stalk of flax grow.

One also hoped to stimulate the growth of long and thick hair on Shrove Tuesday. Combing hair on that day and having it cut was important first of all for the womenfolk who, with forthcoming spring, devoted much more attention to their beauty. In the belief that the new moon promoted growth some manure was taken to the fields in order to secure better crop—this was the magical preparation for summer fieldwork.

The traditional name of Shrove Tuesday in Estonian, "meat-rejecting day" ("lihaheitepäev"), comes from the period of Catholicism, as after Shrovetide meat was left out of the menu and the Lent, which lasted until Easter, began. According to the tradition, legs of pork were boiled together with peas and beans in order to secure good luck in keeping of pigs. Bones of trotters were used for making whirligigs and they were also taken to the fields or into the pigsty for the grunters to gain weight.

Easter or "meat-taking holiday" ("lihavõtted" in Estonian) in spring is a movable holiday that culminates on the first Sunday of the full moon after the spring equinox.

The Holy Week was introduced by Palm Sunday. In the early hours of that day it was customary to wake the members of the family by beating them with willow twigs. Switching with willow catkins was supposed to bring diligence and strength for the oncoming period of fieldwork but first of all good health that contributed to the welfare of the whole family. The most important days of the following Holy Week—Holy Thursday and Good Friday—were connected with all kinds of superstition and witchery.

Easter Sunday was the day of merry-making, dancing and playing. Even the sun was said to be dancing at sunrise. The most widespread Easter custom was riding on the swings. Through the shimmering spring air the village swings let the echo of the girls' excited screams, laughter and singing sound loud and far. Swinging lasted till St. John's Day and the haymaking. Girls gave eggs, ribbons and other pleasing things as token of their gratitude to the country lads who had built the swing. When Easter happened to fall on a cold and muddy period the swing was built on a threshing-floor or in a hay-shed. The old tradition of swinging in spring and summer started to fade away little by little at the beginning of the 20th century but it has not quite disappeared even today.

The egg as an ancient symbol of nascent life and fertility has been connected with Easter from very old times. The custom of painting eggs became popular in Estonia in the 19th century. Bright eggs were considered to be especially beautiful and they were believed to bring good luck. Easter eggs were painted with onion-peelings, birch leaves, moss and roots of bedstraw. Already 100 years ago colourful egg-paints could also be bought from shopkeepers. Eggs were taken along to the swing, to the church and to the inn as well as when visiting friends. They were also given to and exchanged with relatives and acquaintances.

Among popular Easter games were chipping eggs (whoever cracked the other's egg was the winner and could keep it) and rolling them in a wooden trough.

The favourite holiday of the Estonians St. John's Day on June 24 is closely connected with the festive time in the Nordic nature. In this country it is the time of the most beautiful light nights when it does not really get dark at all.

The heart of this holiday is the bonfire that is lit on the eve of the St. John's Day. In olden times both the glow and the smoke of the fire were believed to protect against all evil and to favour the growth of crops. For the fire to be seen from afar it was often lit in a tar barrel or in a kettle fixed to a tall pole. According to the old custom of sacrifice everyone had to bring something along to the Mid-summer Eve fire and to throw it into the flames. In early times it was a handful of flax which was to yield an abundant flax crop. Wool, grain or food-stuffs could also serve as a sacrifice to the fire. The ones who did not come to the bonfire were cursed and imprecated.

The Estonians could not imagine the celebrations of St. John's Day without swinging and singing—they sang while going to the swing, while being on it and also while getting off the swing. By the fire musicians played and people danced round dances. Some of them, especially men showed their abilities in all kinds of trials of strength and jugglery. When the flames grew smaller, they started to jump over the fire. Originally it was believed to have a purifying effect but in the course of time it became merely an entertainment and a test of courage.

One could not do without young birches and their delicate smell on St. John's Day. They were used as decorations in chambers and sleeping barns after the latter had been carefully cleaned. Green trees and twigs were taken to the cattle-shed and fixed to the farm gates, wells and swings. In the dusk of the short Midsummer Night young men secretly carried "love-birches" to the doors of their sweethearts. When the birch was taken into the house, it encouraged the young man to go on wooing. A rejected birch-tree, however, was a sure sign of refusal.

St. John's Night was the night of miracles and sorcery. A careful and anxious master could watch over his fields all night long in order to scare away malevolent beings. The night was also well suited for practising all kinds of love magic: there was a saying that "the girls who wished to find a suitor knew a great many tricks".

Among the numerous folk tales that are connected with Midsummer Eve the legend of the fern blossom is by far the most famous one. The one who found the blossom would become rich, clever and happy. Later on the fern blossom was mostly searched for secretly by lovers.

The time in late autumn after the end of the work in the fields when the nature grows quiet before the arrival of snow is known by the Estonians as the "ghosts' visiting time". It was the time when people were expecting for the dead members of their family to visit them. Ancestors were treated with big respect, they were offered better food which was taken to the loft or to the sauna. Worshipping the deceased ancestors was considered to bring luck to the living. There are two fairly colourful days that are connected with that period: St. Martin's Day (November 10) and St. Catherine's Day (November 25). These marked the beginning of winter with visits of masked mendicants, envoys from the twilight zone.

On the eve of St. Martin's Day dirty and ugly "St. Martin's beggars" walked about the village. Originally the beggars were men and young boys with sooty faces who wore filthy clothes in rags. They made a lot of noise, played music and sang loud. They threw handfuls of grain to the corners of the house that they visited—a ritual that was to bring good crops. St. Martin's beggars checked on the progress of women's and maids' carding and spinning work and told children to read books out loud. They were treated mostly with foodstuffs. If they were not let in or not treated the mummers became angry and imprecated all kind of misfortune upon the family—end to the cattle, diseases and famine to the household.

On the eve of St. Catherine's Day the beggars were played mostly by girls and women. Unlike the Martinmas mummers "St. Catherine's beggars" were very beautiful: they wore white and fancy clothes and different kinds of ornaments and finery. Their behaviour was more modest. The family of the mummers was lead by Catherine-the-mother. All the rest were her children for whom the alms were asked. St. Catherine's beggars also checked on the work of the household and asked the children to read, then they sang and danced and collected the alms. While St. Martin's beggars usually asked for foodstuffs, the mummers of St. Catherine's Day begged for clothes (yarn and wool). Whereas Martin was the bringer of fair crops, Catherine brought luck in cattle-breeding, especially in sheep raising.

The most important holiday of the year that everyone looked forward to was Christmas, or Yuletide which lasted for almost two weeks and was the holiday of the holidays.

Yuletide was introduced by St. Thomas's Day on December 21. On that day the barn-dwelling was cleaned very thoroughly: all the logs in the walls, the crossbars and even the stones on top of the oven were washed. From the rubbish the family made a doll named Sooty Thomas. He was a symbol of dirtiness and laziness and he was carried from one household to another until the turn of the year. The person who found the doll on New Year's Day behind his or her door was haunted by indolence and bad luck all the year round.

The peasants decorated their dark and scantily furnished rooms with Christmas crowns made of reeds or straw which were hung from the ceiling. The most important Yuletide ritual was to bring straw to the house to muffle the noise of steps in order not to disturb the ancestors during their visit. The straw was to give heavy crop and lying on it was supposed to bring good health and a lot of strength.

On the other hand, there were also evil ghosts around at Yuletide. In order to protect their households, people drew crosses on the doors of their dwellings, cattle-sheds and storage rooms both on Christmas Eve and on New Year's Eve. Christmas night was the night of crosses and candlelight: one had to keep it burning throughout the night and it could not go out even for a single moment.

The beginning of the holiday was marked by going to the sauna. After washing and whisking people put on clean clothes and children received their first Christmas gifts—new outdoor clothes and footwear.

Christmas was the time for a true feast. The food that was offered was the best that the household could afford. The wealth of dishes was like a bliss compared to the usual meagre peasant diet. Everyone, even the children, were allowed to eat as much as they could and whatever their heart desired. The food had to stay on the table through the night and one had to eat seven, nine or twelve times—this was supposed to guarantee sustenance for the oncoming year.

There were different kinds of mummers (geese, storks) who walked around at Yuletide. The most popular among them was the goat, who was expected to bring luck to the whole family. He played tricks and fooled around until he was treated with beer, apples, nuts or gingerbread. Often his hosts hung on his horns a pair of mittens, socks and other gifts.

In earlier times the Christmas sermon was attended in the morning of Christmas Day but in more recent times mostly on Christmas Eve. For the ride to the church people put on their best clothes and their most beautiful mittens and took out their best sleigh wraps from the clothes chests. On the way back home the sleighs raced with one another to the accompaniment of the frantic ringing of the sleigh-bells.

Old Man Yule knocked on the doors of Estonian farmhouses for the first time in the 20th century. He was not the red-cheeked merry man in a red coat but a rather harsh old man dressed in a sheepskin coat. Before opening the sack of presents he inquired thoroughly about the household and wanted to know it the children were diligent and if they could read.

The tradition of the Christmas tree was taken over from the German culture in 1850-1875. From the manor-houses the fir-tree spread to schoolhouses and even to churches. Having reached farmhouses it slowly drove out both the straw on the floor and the ceiling decorations made of it. Following the example of Christmas crowns the first Christmas trees were hung from the ceiling. Mostly foodstuff was used for decoration—apples, gingerbread, candies, pastry and buns, sometimes even lumps of sugar and small ring-shaped sausages.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were generally considered as quiet holidays that were celebrated at home. People got more merry and playful after returning from church on Christmas Day, and on the next two days the party got into full swing. The Yuletide was concluded by Epiphany on January 6. After that it was time to return to one's daily chores.

Another great event and a certain kind of holiday for the peasants was going to the fairs. The fair was a real "wedding of the people", an important meeting place for the young. Fairs were especially crowded in spring and in autumn. The products that were taken to the market were grain, horses, milkers, piglets as well as hides, fat and flax. Everything that was needed on the farm could be bought at the fair. Especially popular were sweets because they were very rare in the country folk's daily life. Among other goods that were bought for the people at home were yellow saffron buns and carob beans. Children and young people were excited by all kinds of entertainment that was offered on the fairground: there were bears who made tricks, organ-grinders, lotteries, dancing and musicians. Later new attractions such as whirling roundabouts and travelling cinema were added. A lot of life was brought to the fair by gipsies—"without gipsies it was not a real fair".

About Food

Being ancient farmers, the Estonians ate the food that they had grown themselves by the sweat of their brow in the fields. The basic diet of the peasants was leavened rye bread. The country folk showed a great respect for bread: it was baked by the housewife and cut by the master himself. In olden times hunger was quite a frequent visitor in the households. Therefore people were afraid of running out of bread. In order to avoid it a new loaf was never started but in the morning, a whole loaf of bread was never taken outside the farm and the side of the loaf that had been cut was never turned towards the door. There was a custom to kiss the piece of bread that had accidentally been dropped on the floor. All other food was served as a side dish to the bread. For the daily fill pearl barley porridge or hasty pudding was cooked on the open hearth in a kettle. Another common dish was soup which was prepared with meat in winter and with milk in summer. Then it was served with a bowl of salted small Baltic herring. People on the coast ate different kinds of fish. The meat that was salted in barrels was first of all saved for the men who did hard work in winter. As for drinks, sour milk and light malt ale were common. Fresh milk was seldom drunk.

It was only when potatoes were introduced in the middle of the 19th century that famines did not occur any more. For more than one hundred years until today the potato has been daily food on the Estonians' table.

In summer when the farmers worked long days in the fields there were three meals, while in winter there were only two—in the morning and in the evening. The most substantial meal was served in the evening after the day's work had been finished. On Saturdays and on Wednesdays pearl barley porridge was eaten almost everywhere in Estonia, on Thursdays and on Sundays one ate soup with meat. Food was served in wooden or earthenware bowls. After the blessing everyone ate from a common bowl with their own spoons taking turns. Grown-up working people and babies were sitting and the children were standing by the table.

Better food was offered on holidays, especially at Christmas. Then the table was laid with special Yuletide bread ("Yuletide barrow") and pork, and even children were allowed to take meat with their own hands (in workdays they often remained without any meat at all). For Christmas white and black pudding were made, fine rye bread and white bread was baked, and beer, the ancient festive drink of the Estonians, was brewed. Until today the Estonians eat roast pork with sauerkraut and potatoes, sausages, brawn, white bread with raisins and drink beer on this holiday.

On Shrove Tuesday pork legs with peas and beans were boiled. For Easter housewives made all kinds of egg dishes and roasted veal; cheese cakes were baked for dessert. By the end of the 19th century life had advanced and the menu had changed. Housewives could now learn from magazines and attend special cooking courses. After some decades schools of domestic economy were established. An educated housewife of that period knew how to make potato salad with beet, brawn, different kind of fish dishes, filled eggs, pies, cakes and stewed fruit for holidays. Yet without the customary roast pork, potatoes and sauerkraut something seemed to be missing. The latter are the three favourite holiday dishes even today, as it is considered that "one's own bread is the sweetest".

About The Estonian Open Air Museum

The old exhibit buildings of the museum stand on the former summer estate on the southern coast of the Bay of Kopli in Rocca al Mare ("rock by the sea" in Italian). They used to belong to A. Girard de Soucanton, one of the burgomasters of Tallinn. The whole territory of the museum covers 80 hectares.

The Estonian Open Air Museum was founded in 1957 and opened to the visitors in 1964. Old Estonian vernacular buildings are studied, collected and introduced here. Together with the exhibited commodities they help to depict the daily life of peasants in the 18th-20th centuries. Life was not at all the same everywhere. Therefore the buildings of different parts of the country stand separately in the museum. The visitor can walk in Northern Estonia which has been closely connected with the other parts of the world, in Western Estonia that was a poor borderland, or on the islands with a lot of outbuildings on every farm, and soon hopefully also in Southern Estonia with its farms that were built far apart from one another. In each region farmyards of different wealth and age stand in the central position. There are twelve farmyards exhibited today. In order to create a true rural milieu, 71 buildings have been transferred to the museum: a church, an inn, a schoolhouse, several mills, a fire station and net sheds on the coast.

Throughout its history Estonia has also been inhabited by other ethnic groups. The oldest of them, the Estonian Swedes, left during the Second World War. Their dwellings have not withstood the storms of history and the only building that testifies to their former life is the oldest exhibit in the museum—the Sutlepa chapel of the Noarootsi church dating from 1699. We hope that one day the visitor of the museum will be able to see the houses of the Russian Old Believers who settled by Lake Peipus in the 17th century, as well as an original farm of the orthodox Estonians, the Setus. In the Setu culture ancient Finno-Ugric traits are intertwined with the Slavic ones.

The museum attempts to give as complete picture of the Estonian village with its farmyards and buildings as possible. This is also supported by the growing number of activities that bring more life to the houses and farmyards of the museum. There is a Children's Museum in the schoolhouse; for three days both in May and September the staff of the museum live and work as a onetime farm household; calendar holidays are celebrated in a traditional way.

Like in ancient times, the heydays of the year for the museum are St. John's Eve in summertime and the Christmas holiday in wintertime.

One can have a good time and find a grain of wisdom in the museum at any time of year.

Alessia Laguardia

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