Spring rituals and (sadly) natural disasters....

Scale model of Old town Tallinn

 The week has been full of experiencing a huge range of spring religious and cultural holidays, but as I sit and collect my thoughts to write this morning, I am also deeply saddened by news of the huge earthquake and tsunami near Japan.  All morning we have been watching the devastation and my thoughts go to friends and colleagues who live in any of the affected areas.  It is strange to be living in this quite and civil corner of the world while some many other places are suffering such hardship. In addition to this most recent unfolding devastation, we have been following news from the US and the struggles for fairness over fear and the ongoing journey of the peoples of the Middle East as they struggle to claim their voices and power in their own lands.  We get a distant sense of these other corners of the world (often through facebook) but it often feels as if much is happening in other parts of the world, but also far away from here. My prayers and energy goes in some many different directions- to all of those struggles- whether human or natural.

So, on to the blog of the day.  The photo above is from a scale model of old Tallinn in the old town hall, which we visited on a tour organized by the embassy (I continue to be surprised by the friendly warmth of the US embassy staffers.  Several of the US staff grew up in Minnesota, so the conversations are fun and interesting) The town hall, next to Raekoja plats, is the oldest surviving late Gothic town hall in northern Europe and is something that most Tallinners are quite proud of.  It is often used for official state functions and free concerts because it is quite lovely inside- including colorful pillars, beautiful tapestries and ancient carvings meant to inspire fair and respectful judgements in the work done by the town elders.  Not much more to say about the tour, but I wanted to give a bit of context to the photo. 

Townhall Main Room with guide (in costume)

Russian community having fun before Lent

The daylight is increasing in major leaps and much of the ice is melting away (although there continue to be occasional morning of big soft snowflakes)  But spring in this corner of the world is quite miraculous, and there are many different traditions and holidays during this time of year. This week we spent several days experiencing spring and Lenten traditions of several different Estonian communities and ethnic groups. While spring preparatory celebrations are not as wildly colorful and loud as mardi gras in other places of the world, we were able see dancing, singing, music, cross dressing and even drank a bit of special cognac.  For our first pre-Lenten celebration, we took a local bus to the National Song Grounds (a 15 minute ride) to celebrate Maslenitsa with the Estonian Russian community.  We arrived at the snow-covered fair grounds, and joined masses of older, dark-coated Russians walking towards sounds of balalaikas and singing, sights of smokey skies and smells of roasting meats.  After a few minutes we saw a huge stage, backed by bright shining lights. Over the afternoon, this stage was filled with a huge range of singing and dancing groups- of all ages. My favorites were the groups of older women singers, some with faces that looked a bit like soft dried apples with two sparkling eyes peering out.  The singers usually wore colorfully embroidered dresses with elaborate head coverings and as they sang the crowd often joined in in the chorus.  Other groups we younger and more contemporary, dancing  to modernized electronic folk-like tunes, wearing florescent colored costumes and moving in Las Vegas jazz-like unison. In front of the stage, there were also several young women and men who led many small snow-suited  children in improvised dance steps around and thought the crowd.  What was most amazing was seeing the older Russian women tapping their toes and singing along to the songs that were being performed. 


Tearing ourselves away from the performances, we also visited many small booths selling forest honey, smoked moose and wild boar sausage (yup, more pig) and the ever present Russian candy (e.g. not chocolate). We tried the traditional food for this festival- a thin pancakes topped with jam and sour cream, deftly made on a flat pan and with a wooden spatula.  It was good and hot and quite rich, in keeping with the purpose of pre-Lenten celebrations. Overseeing  the festivities, on a pile of snow, stood 'Maslenitsa' a straw-stuff figure wearing a skirt, blouse and head scarf. Traditionally she will be burnt at the end of the day, going out in a final blaze of light. 

Making Maslinitsa pancakes

Dancing 

Singers and dancers...in the snow

The next day, we took another bus, in the opposite direction to the outskirts of town and the Estonian Open Air museum which was celebrating Estonian pre-Lenten traditions. (The bus was actually a free shuttle bus to the largest shopping mall in Estonia (Roca al Mare) from which we walked down the road about 20 minutes to the museum.  The walk was lovely, as we soon were away from buildings, street sounds and were in the woods listening to birds and the wind in the trees. Arriving at the museum, we visited different farm houses, barns, school houses and even two windmills that have been collected from various locations throughout Estonia. In many of these old wooden buildings were special experiential exhibits with spring time rituals. We practiced making linen thread from flax plants, knitting and learned about traditional herbal remedies. Supposedly, this is the day when, in the Estonia tradition women are celebrated women, so there were also special demonstrations of interest to women- not all of the traditional I suspect. However, my favorite was one older farm house where all women- and only  women- were offered a small glass of cherry cognac, to put 'blush in our cheeks". Which, given the cold temperature and heat of the fire- it did (or at least according to Bruce it did)

Farmhouse with traditional fences

Traditonal farmhouse and windmill

The last ethnic group was Tallinn University Arts faculty, as our department sponsored a 'sledge and sauna' excursion into the countryside.  It was Shrove Tuesday as well as International Women's Day, but those festivals were less important that a day to get out into the country, relax and play together.  We took a bus through suburbs of Tallinn, and then into the flat tree-edged countryside.  After about an hour, we arrived at a small town with a small hill (called a mountain by our hosts) Jumping out we put on warm clothing and grabbing 'sledges' and a few sets of cross country skis and climbed to the top of the 'mountain' (about a 5 minute walk).  In the distance a lone train chugged by and local residents traveled between their homes and the local stores using 'finnish sleds' which are long doubled ski contraptions with a seat to sit on or place your groceries. We then proceeded to slide down it- in all directions. It was fun and a bit scary to launch down the slope (of course getting snow of my glasses, so I had no idea where the trees were, didnt help). We all got covered in snow and then got hot and sweaty trudging back up to the top of the hill. Of course there was also a bottle of brandy being passed around- to keep off the cold.   According to tradition, the person whose sledge goes the furthest, will be the person who will grow the tallest flax plants (and so will have the easiest time making linen thread and cloth the next fall).  By my reckoning, Bruce's ride was the longest, and traveled past trees, bushes and almost down to the road. Yeah Bruce !!!

Bruce in triumph

After sledging, we walked to the sauna, which was in a large soviet-style building with several sauna's, fireplace and a large eating room.  We were told that the building was originally a soviet 'workers' vacation get-away.  For some of the faculty, being there reminded them of the soviet history in Estonia and the found it hard to remember. One of the women even mentioned that after Estonian liberation they had all assumed Women's day  was a soviet holiday -so they didnt like celebrating it to reflect their newly reclaimed freedom. For them, the had only recently treturned to its celebration. After the sauna, we ate the traditional meal for this day- hernesupid (pea soup), potatoes, saurkraut and roast pork with dark bread, coffee and tea and for dessert- a sweet bread topped with whipped cream ( and sometimes jam).  It was a wonderful day and a good opportunity to get to know other faculty in a more relaxed atmosphere. Plus the country is beautiful. It was interesting to me that the religious aspects of preparation for Lent were never mentioned by any of the people we talked to.  I am not sure if the absence of religious awareness is due to the abolition of religion during soviet times or the modern Estonian eagerness to join the modern western world. Or both.


To end this post with maximal diversity I want to also mention that Purim is next week and the synagogue is having a Chinese Purim celebration, which we might attend. and finally I noticed several mannequins in headscarves at the local shopping mall- could this be Estonian hijabs?? anyway it was quite the multicultural week.

 Country outside of Tallinn

Beaver-cut trees

Estonain Hijab????