2. A dozen questions about Estonia
Enlightening answers to a dozen questions that a foreigner might want to
know about Estonia.
Text by: Estonian Institute
Illustrations and design by: Indrek Sirkel and Jan Tomson
More information: http://www.estinst.ee/eng/home/, estinst@estinst.ee
Information booklets in 16 languages: history, language, song festivals,
nature, national costumes, cuisine, manor culture or humour, are but a few
publications issued over the years by the Estonian Institute.
12 domande sull’Estonia
12 kysymystä Virosta
3. Republic of Estonia
Eesti Vabariik (p. 1)
Declaration of independence: 24 February 1918
Legislature: unicameral parliament (Riigikogu)
Highest judiciary: Supreme Court
Official language: Estonian
Member of: UNO (since 17 October 1991), NATO (since 29 March 2004),
EU (since 1 May 2004)
Population: 1 340 000
Main ethnic gropus: Estonians 69%, Russians 26%
Area: 45 228 sq km
Capital: Tallinn
Larger cities: Tartu, Narva, Kohtla-Järve, Pärnu
Administrative divisions: 15 countries
4. Is Estonia the world's smallest
country? (p. 3-4)
Estonia is larger than Denmark or Switzerland, for example.
„The country stretches 350 km from east to west and 240 km from north to
south.“
„According to population, Estonia ranks among the smallest countries in
the world.“
„An average number of people per sq km is less than 30, which is around
twice as high as in Finland.“
„About 70 % of the inhabitants reside in towns and cities.“
„Nearly a third of population (a little over than 400 000) lives in the capital
city Tallinn.“
5. Do polar bears live in Estonia?
Does it rain iron in Estonia? (p. 5-6, 7-8)
Climate: clear distinction between the seasons.
The land is flat: most of the territory lies at a height of 0 to 50 meters above
the sea level.
White nights from early May to late July.
The longest day in summer: over 18 hours (21 Jun)
The length of the shortest winter day: 6 hours (21 Dec)
Summer according to Estonians: „three months of lousy skiing weather“
6. Do all Estonians know one another?
Does Estonia have a King? (p. 9-10, 11-12)
„Estonia’s industrial northeast and the capital Tallinn have large, mainly
Russian-speaking minorities, who settled in Estonia as part of the mass
influx of people from the Soviet Union which started in the late 1940s.“
The biggest minority group: Russians (26 %)
The second largest group: Ukrainians (2 %)
Modern Estonia is home to over one hundred nationalities (3 %)
7. Where did the Estonians get their name
from? (p. 13-18)
„... the Greek explorer Pytheas mentions ostiatoi around 320 before the
Common Era, followed by the Roman historian Tacitus, who writes about
the amber-rich aesti at the end of the first century in the Common Era.“
„In the Middle Ages, Estonia was a part of the loose union of feudal states
and Hanseatic merchant towns known as the Confederation of Livonia.“
8. Why are the Estonians called a
‘singing nation’? (p. 19-20)
„If you ask an Estonian to sing, you’ll be probably met with an
embarrassed refusal. Yet, the typical Estonian willingly sings in a choir,
and choral music is considered by many to be a symbol of the country at
large.“
The tradition of song festivals starts in the mid-19th century.
Singing Revolution of the 1980s: „mass gatherings of people at the Song
Festival Ground in Tallinn to demand the restoration of national
independence via singing patriotic songs.“
„Nowadays, Estonian Song and Dance Festivals that take place every five
years are included in the list of UNESCO's Masterpieces of the Oral and
Intangible Heritage of Humanity.“
1 300 000 page folklore collection in the Estonian Literary Museum.
Famous contemporary composers: Arvo Pärt and Erkki-Sven Tüür.
Every small town and large village has a public library: 500 altogether.
9. Do Estonians ever speak? (p. 21-22)
„Yes, they do. Sometimes by staying silent.“
„Silence is gold, speaking - silver.“
„The Estonians’ character has inevitably been shaped by their country’s
history and its natural environment. The long, dark winters fostered their
sombre scepticism and taciturn manner. Yet, the dreary season of indoor
chores also provided moments for self-contemplation and even for some
sunnier flights of fancy.“
„Thus, the main character of an Estonian folk tale never actually becomes
king, nor does he charge into battle with dragons, brandishing his trusty
sword. Rather, relying on his sharp mind and quick wits, he talks
philosophy with all kinds of characters and double-crosses them in the
end.“
10. Letters: Õ, Ä, Ö, Ü
Kuuuurijate töööö jäääärel
„Estonian’s passion for vowels is evident in the «working night of lunar researchers on
the edge of ice» - Kuuuurijate töööö jäääärel.“
„Estonian, together with Finnish, Hungarian, Sàmi and several others,
belongs to the Finno-Ugric family of languages and has probably been
spoken in this corner of Europe since it was first inhabited by man.“
„... while literary Estonian arose from the Lutheran reformation of the 16th
century, the vernacular memory of Estonians, centered as it is around
distinctly metered, repetitive runo-singing, stretches back over several
millennia.“
„The grammar of the language is complex: it has 14 cases, no articles, no
grammatical gender, and no definite future tense, and these are just the
most striking features that distinguish Estonian from the Indo-European
languages of the rest of Europe.“
11. „Estonian is spoken by over 1.1 million people in Estonia, approximately
920 000 of whom use the language as a mother tongue.“
„As a result of the many episodes of voluntary and forced exile in the 19th
and 20th century, Estonian communities emerged in Sweden, Finland,
Canada, the United States, Russia, Germany, etc.“
„The nation’s enterprising spirit stays strong, and Ernest Hemingway’s
fancy that «no well-run yacht basin in the Southern waters is complete
without at least two sun-burned, salt-headed Estonians,» can be taken as a
fact again.“
12. How many countries fit into Estonia?
(p. 23-24)
„For a long time, the Estonian settlement area was divided into the
province of Estland in the north and Livland in the south. Moving from
north to south, the type of landscape changes, the cross on top of the
church steeples is replaced by a rooster, red cows appear instead of black
and white cattle. What also changes is how the Estonians speak, and
according to many, even their world views."
13. What brings bread to the table in
Estonia? (p. 25-26)
„The northernmost members of the Hanseatic League, its medieval towns
were allegedly ‘built on salt’ - a key commodity in the transit trade
between Western Europe and Russia.“
„On the whole, most Estonians earn their daily bread working in a small or
medium enterprise or in the public sector.“
„... the share of people employed in agriculture and fisheries has dropped
below the European Union average.“
14. „Tallinn acts as the gateway for most foreign visitors to Estonia; its
medieval Old Town is the country’s foremost tourist attraction.“
„Ever since regaining independence, Estonia has persistently applied a
model of an open economy that is versatile and free of undue bureaucracy.
The country has acquired fame for its adoption of innovative IT solutions,
both in the private and public sector. Several web applications that the
Estonians are already accustomed to, such as e-banking, online tax
declarations or even voting at local and parliamentary elections using a
digital ID card, have become articles of export.“
„Skype is, no doubt, the best-known IT application stemming from
Estonia.“
15. Where do Estonians vanish on
Midsummer's Eve? (p. 27-28)
23 June - St. John's Day (Jaanipäev), known also as Midsummer Day.
The lightest time of the year. Hundreds of bonfires lit all over the
countryside. People sing and dance around the fires.
„The meeting of dusk and down reduces the Midsummer Night to a mere
moment of darkness.“
Christmas (Jõulud). A family-centered holiday. „A feast of roast pork,
black pudding with cowberry jam, and sauerkraut with roast potatoes.“
Shrove Tuesday - in February or March. „Adults seize the chance to go
sledging together with the children, on the pretext of the old custom.“
St. Martin's Day (10 Nov) and St. Catherine's Day (25 Nov). „Children in
costumes go from house to house, earning sweets with their singing and
dancing.“
24 February - the Declaration of Independence of 1918. A military parade
and the President's reception.
16. What does an Estonian do at
weekends? (p. 29-30)
Winter: skiing, snowboarding, theatres, concert halls, reading, traditional
music.
Spring: Estonians leave the city for weekends.
Long walks in the wild is one of Estonians’ favourite pastimes.
Summer: family outings, sunbathing by the seaside.
„Regardless of their age or whether they live in a city or countryside, an
important weekend ritual for many Estonians is the Saturday sauna.“
17. More information about Estonia by
Estonian Insitute:
Estonian People, Estonian Culture
Things Estonian: Sprats, e-government, Cow-Pats and Bear's Trousers,
Limestone, the Junipers, Barn Swallow, the Sauna and all these other
things.
Hilarious Estonia: A scientific study of Estonians’ daily life. What do
they do and how they do it, what do they like and what do they dislike?
What do they look like and what do they eat? How can they surprise one
another?
Estonian Cuisine: Estonia is a nordic country: darkness and frost bring to
the table sauerkraut and roast; in summertime, on the other hand, the
people eat everything light and fresh that gardens have to offer.
Estonian Home: Home is the place where Estonians have always been
truly themselves. This place reflects their true nature and this is where they
invite their friends. Still lifes of Estonian homes through the eyes of the
Dutch photographer Henri van Noordenburg.
Estonian Nature: A matter-of-fact overview of Estonian nature: from its
geological underbelly, via types of wetlands to all kinds of beings,
walking, flying or swimming.
18. Estonian national costumes: An introduction to the reasons, patterns and
secrets of wearing of folk costumes, still to be seen in daily use in several
pockets of Estonia.
Estonian National Symbols: A richly illustrated essayistic overview of
significant national and popular symbols, explaining the origin of these
phenomena, their history and relevant facts, beliefs and principles. The
chapter on Estonian money in the second print has been updated.
Estonian Song & Dance Celebration: “Song festivals have never been
fashionable, because they are not a thing of fashion. A song festival is a
matter of the heart. Just like Estonian language and mindset, like love”.
Lennart Meri
Crafts and Arts in Estonia: The men and women who once produced
'folk art' knew nothing about this artificial concept. Maybe we could find
the original focus of these things if we would forget it as well...
19. The World of Estonian Theatre: A guide to Estonian theatre, introducing
people in today's theatre, relevant institutions, the wider cultural and social
functioning mechanisms of drama and various factors that influence it.
The World of Estonian Film: Glances at the centenarian Estonian film –
enlightening peeks into the birth and development of local cinema, its creators,
spectators, handicaps, inventors, jokes, bickerers, and a range of other
phenomena that have left their mark on the Estonian film lore.
The World of the Estonian Literature: A publication based on the text of Jan
Kaus and supplemented by numerous references and explanations. It talks
about Estonian literary life in centres and in the hinterland, about great literary
figures, showing how the works of our literary classics have intertwined with
everyday life and other fields of culture.
The Estonian Language: We know that Estonians define themselves mostly
through their mother tongue. What is the sound and construction of this
language, where are its roots and connections with other languages, and
whether and how it influences the Estonian way of thinking?
Estonian History in Pictures: Our choice of key events in the Estonian
history; to refresh your memory, or to act as a starting point for a bout of
interest.
Republic of Estonia 90: Catalogue of the exhibition compiled on the occasion
of the 90th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia. Every year (1917-2007) is
represented by a photograph.
