Imagine standing with 26 000 other people in a half dome, with in front of you one person frantically moving their arms and making faces. Behind, are sitting on the grass, a crowd so numerous that your eyes can’t even see how far they go to. There are even people in the trees, trying to get a better view ! Two seconds of silence…
Then all of a sudden as a wave of sound, you and all those around you are singing a powerful tune and each note goes through the air as if carried by one single voice. This was “to breathe as one”, the name given this year to the singing festival, or Laulupidu in estonian, which attracted thousands of people around songs of peace, love of nature, and freedom, some of which had been part of the Singing Revolution : a passive but efficient protest all through the Baltic States, to get rid of the Soviet and be free from the occupation.
Next to us, were standing some people who probably had lived through these events and participated in the liberation of Estonia. For them, as for all who know about this country’s history, this Laulupidu meant more than just a concert. It was a gathering of people wanting to sing and afirm their identity and culture. This, was particularly visible at the end when the flame of the festival was put out, and no one paid attention to it and continued to sing the songs they all wished to hear. When the crowd of singers finally dispersed, each one was still singing while tranquilly mixing in with all the other estonians. It was as if each one carried home the spirit of the Laulupidu… until next time !
To celebrate the 90th anniversary of Estonia’s first independance, and the day of the fall of Soviet Russia in Estonia on the 20th of August 1991, a singing festival as estonians only have the secret took place in the singing festival ground.
We had had the priviledge of listening to the Laulupidu (”laulu”= song ; “pidu”= festival) last year with 18 500 singers. But this time, it was different in many ways : first, it was a night song festival (öölaulupidu) which reminded the gathering of thousands of people during the Singing Revolution and also gave it an incredible atmosphere with the lighting of the stage (see picture). Second, this event had a more political dimension, for all estonians in their 40’s and over remember coming there to protest against russian occupation, and with the events now happening in Georgia many georgian flags could be seen in the crowd among hundreds of blue-black and white estonian flags.
The songs were not only those of the Singing Revolution, but also more popular tunes which every one could sing to. More than 136 choirs performed at the same time with almost all the major artists of the country represented. The temptation was too big and as thousands of singers filled the singing arch, I found myself following them all, to see how it must feel to be up there in front of 1/10th of the country (as some figures said). You will be able to judge for yourself in the video, though the impression is not quite the same, but to sing the national anthem with all these estonians was quite something ! I joigned Amelie later on for the rest of the show (where you can hear much better) in company of a few estonian friends and a couple of volunteers.
Couple of weeks ago, we went to the very south-east of Estonia, in a place called Värska where lives a minority of a few thousand people (4 000 in Estonia, 3 000 in Russia). We chose this particular time of year because on the 2nd of August the Setu people elect their king. Actually, this king is the representative of the god Peko, which symbolises fertility.
The Setu people are said to be “half believers” but they should be called “double believers” for they are orthodox and also have their own divinities. They also have their own dialect which is closer to estonian than russian and they are famous for their songs dances and food. Their costum tells a bit their strory : they carry long necklaces and heavy silver plates (between 4 and 6 kilos) because the Setu people fled with all their richness and therefore made necklaces with rings, coins and melted all the rest. They have a strong oral tradition and hopefully some songs have been transcribed from an old lady called Hilana Taarka, the mother of Setu music. Though she was illiterate, she had memorized up to 30 000 verses of leelo songs (eight syllable verses to a repetitive simple tune).
We were able to discover this event with two other french people that we had met during one of our guiding tours in Tallinn, with whom we spent two days. There was lots of good food, we even participated in a cheese contest to elect the members of the court. That is when we met some people from our village which we learned had some Setu origins and authorized us to vote as well for the Setu king. After some songs in which each candidate was praised, people were invited to stand in a line in front of the person that they chose. Lembit Lennuk (his family name means “airplane” !!!) did not win but we didn’t mind, we were happy to see the other man parade on a horse with the Setu flag, followed by his “army”, a burlesque crowd of supporters in costum marching and taking their role seriously.
As we enjoyed it so much last year, we could not avoid the Viljandi festival this year ! It is a folk music festival, that takes place at the end of July in a small town in the south of the country.
Like we did last year, we took the train to go to the festival. It was full of young people, dressed with the most strangest clothes they could find, with colourfull hats, etc.
This year, we slept in in our tent at some friends of our friend Piia’s (the pastor’s wife) garden. It was a particularly beautiful house and an immense garden. And Christian and Anita, our hosts, were so nice. We really spent some good times together, sharing 2 hours long breakfast with estonian specialities, such as kama (some keefir/sour milk mixed with some cereal powder), cold beetroot soup, some cherry jam, eggs, bacon, pastries, and even more !
As last year we really enjoyed the festival. We met many people that we knew there : volunteers, colleagues, friends who we hadn’t seen for a long time. It is really a special place to meet again with people during the summer.
On Friday night, we only saw one concert, called “Armastuse ja rõõmu laulud” (songs of love and joy), it was a very nice concert, in a small room, with traditionnal estonian music. Some of the songs were very old, and we particularly loved to hear kanel, this typical estonian instrument. The artists also sang some Regilaulud, these songs which tell stories and which repeats all the time. The public was completely into it, the atmosphere was intimate. Well we enjoyed it !
On Saturday, we had took the day pass to see as many concerts as possible. If the music of the first russian band Trio Solnyshko was good, we prefer the ukrainian estonian one called Svjata Vatra, who really shared their music with the audience. We then heard one american guy Bruce Molsky who charmed us with his blues music and his banjo. After we decided to see the end of one famous estonian band Vägilased, and to go to see Majorstuen, some very good violonists from Norway. Impossible to access to the Zetod concert, a Setu band from the southern part of Estonia, because it was full of people.
We instead decided to go with or new friends Christian and Anita to a such nice place : a very cosy open air café, where we could eat home made estonian food. And the originality of this place was that there were no prices at all, we could give at the end of the meal what we wanted to give. It was very popular during the whole festival, so we were lucky that Christian and Anita arranged kindly a table for all of us !
We finally finished the day, assisting to a gipsy music band concert. If we are quite used to this type of music in France, it was a complete discovery for the estonians who were jumping all around at the rythm of the music. Even the members of the gipsy group Parno Graszt were amazed by this so warm atmosphere.
On Sunday, we were first planning to leave by train in the beginning of the afternoon. But we finally decided to stay a little bit more longer, to see Mari one of our estonian friend who we haven’t seen for a long time, but also to hear the Flook concert, an irish band and we didn’t regret it. The concert was really good, the musicians were really talented, the one at the irish flute but also the one at the bodhran. They even played a breton piece, and we loved watching estonian people trying to dance with their little fingers !
We are now back in Tallinn, but we will keep in mind all these nice memories from the festival !
Since we were in Estonia last year at the same time, we also wrote about this major event in the estonian summer. St John’s day, or rather this particularly short night is the time to get out of the cities and celebrate the arrival of summer together around a fire.
We were working the next day, so we had to stay near Tallinn, and since we liked it a lot last year in Viimsi, we came back, this time with Zsofia our hungarian friend (and volunteer) who was with her mother and sister. Ifat, a british volunteer was there as well, with three of her friends. We had a little dificulty finding a bus, so it was a group taxi that we took to and from viimsi, but a little comfort once in a while doesn’t hurt.
The weather had been very bad all day, with rain showers. We even wondered if they would be able to light the bonfire ! But it all cleared up and we had a magnificent sunset.
This year we could try the swing, at least, for some time, before it became too dangerous (it was falling appart) but it was very pleasant to be there again, at the same place, and listen to the estonian popular songs, eat greasy food and admire the fire on the beach.
The music in the video is from an estonian group we know and like called “indigo lapsed”.
Last Saturday, we participated in a song festival (laulupidu). It was a big event for the reserve, for it have been in preparation already since last year. In addition to the 500 singers, there was also an exhibit about previous festivals which have been going on at this site (at the meeting point between two rivers, closed to Jägala waterfalls) for ages.
Most of the participants were wearing Jõelähtme’s traditionnal dress, with a stripped skirt, with green yellow red blue, the villages colours. For those who were not lucky to have a traditionnal costum to wear, we had made some tee-shirts, on which were printed some of the local designs.
Jonathan played some flute to accompany the singers and it was very rewarding to be part of this event. The exhibit took quite some preparation to put in place, but the team work we did with Margit and her son Josep paid off.
Enjoy the video which will give you an idea of the atmosphere of this singing festival !
On the 27th-28th of July, we went to the Viljandi music festival in the southern part of Estonia. This event is very popular, and each year, young and old meet to listen to traditional groups from all over the world. From estonian folk, to portuguese, quebec, norway, chili or other countries, artists shared their music with the public, with instruments or styles they might never have heared before. We absolutely LOVED the concept of this festival, in addition to its wonderful setting, on the top of a hill, overlooking a lake, the different stages spread around town, the main one being in the middle of a ruined castle. Though it rained quite a bit, everybody didn’t seem to mind and kept dancing and cheering even under buckets of water.
Though there were many people, we ran into many that we knew, volunteers from all over, people from Joelahtme, Estonia is a small country and that’s one thing we like, you can always meet someone you know. We stayed at some of Merle’s friends who were nice enough to let us camp in their garden. They were very welcoming and we had great estonian brunchs on the grass, with fruits and homemade juices and good company.
A very pleasant weekend, just before our mid-term training.
The day before the Singing festival, the same thing, for dancing takes place. This event also brings thousands of young people together to dance in costume to traditional tunes or others written for the occasion. The Tantsupidu is classified by the UNESCO as a world imaterial heritage. How could it not be ? It’s simple, there’s nothing like it anywhere.
It looked a bit like what certain bands do while playing. Crossing and making shapes on the field, except this was done with real dancing movements and thousands of people at once. The visual effect it produced was incredible.
Though I’ve always liked traditional dancing, I never would have thought that I’d ever have tears in my eyes watching people dance in costume… Pictures can’t really show how it felt. You couldn’t even see all at once through the camera !
If the spectators were singing along and enjoying the show, the dancers themselves, mostly children, were seemingly enjoying themselves as well ! they were laughing and smiling and it all looked like a lot of fun. One could see in older people’s eyes that they were proud of their youth. They could be !
Last Weekend we assisted to this fabulous event called “Laulupidu”. A song festival where 18500 people came together from all over the countryin traditional dresses to sing songs about love, nature, unity…. Estonia is a singing country, since it gained its independence through singign, in what was called “the singing revolution”. Since then it has kept its traditions. Everybody wore a traditional dress, which was amysing how many different costumes they could come up with for such a small country !
here are a few facts about it :
- 831 choirs with more than 26 000 singers in all
- 47 orchestras with more than 1600 young orchestrants
- alltogether almost 100 000 people, that counts for apprx 8% of Estonian population.
- Estonians (though it’s a very small country) have the biggest song festival in the world !
For us it was just amaysing to see all of this hapening. How can we have never heared about it before though it is in Europe ! These thousands of children and young people getting together to sing ! about being together, peace, love … I don’t kow that many places in the world which have that. And the worst is that this was supposed to be the “small” one. There is a much larger event, with 30000 people (adults) every 5 years. We were at least lucky we could see it when we were in Estonia.
We’re so grateful Margit and Merle gave us these tickets for my birthday, it probably will be one of the highlights of our stay here.
A very important date in the estonian calendar is the 23rd of June, Jäänipaev (or St John’s day) is a big party here in Estonia and in some other northern countries. This tradition is very old, it dates back even before the arrival of Christianity in Estonia. Jaanipäev is celebrated in the night between 23rd and 24th of June, a few days after the summer solstice, when night seems to be non-existent. Estonian people celebrate at this time the arrival of the summer as well as an important victory for the independance of the country. The lighting of the traditional bonfires became linked with the ideals of independence and freedom. But it is also a good excuse to have fun and meet each other, in family or with friends. All the generations are together to celebrate this day, most of the time in the countryside, rarely in cities.
We saw the official flame coming in Tallinn in the afternoon. Then, we went to Viimsi, on the other side from the bay of Tallinn, on the coast, in a small open-air museum. We had never been there before, so it was a good occasion. It was really nice to participate to this great national event, and to share moments with local inhabitants. In addition to the big fire (as big as a house !), there were some traditionnal games. Jonathan even tried to do some rope pulling, but it was so hard that he was almost dragged on the grass. We also listened to some concerts, with both traditionnal and modern songs.
This nice place, near the sea, and the good mood, helped us to have a very nice evening. Some other volunteers, joined us and it was pleasant to chat with them.
Head Jäänipaeva ! (Happy St John’s day in estonian !)
At our local “culture house” there is always something going on : from dancing to theater, or a dog contest… but what we went to see was the “witches night” a german tradition, which estonians adopted way back when they were under german power. It was a pagan ritual, to celebrate the earth and the arrival of spring. As in other places, a great bonfire was lit for the occasion and split logs were set on fire on stones sticking out of the river : a great effect !
We were lucky enough to have our own witch in Jõelahtme all dressed up and preparing a potion. she did a little magic and shared the drink with the children and the people around. we were gladly surprised to taste warm apple juice with cinnamon…
Then we all gathered inside and played some games before dancing to the music of a local band.
It sure was a lot of fun and we felt we were well intergrated in the local life.
This last Saturday,
We took advantage of the weekend to go to Tallinn to listen to a Jazz concert. There is a Jazz festival going on at the moment, until april 28 with artists from all over the world.
We decided to go listen to Tõnu Naissoo and Novella Hanson for two reasons : first, it was free, second, they were estonian and we were curious to see how it would sound in this language.
The result was very good. both artists used the concerthall as best as they could. it was in a very big church and the pianist played a few jazz tunes on the church organ (interesting !) and the singer played with the echo of her own voice…
For those who have video, here is an extract from the concert :
