Author Archives: Thomas Seli

Flower Gifting Custom in Estonia

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Background: The informant is a 51 year-old Estonian immigrant who lives in Los Angeles. She continues to participate in Estonian traditions and is a part of the “Estonian House” which is an Estonian community that resides in LA.

Context: The folklore was collected on a scheduled Zoom meeting in which I interviewed two native Estonians who immigrated to the United States and are close friends.

Main Piece:

Informant: “So I remember a couple of things, for example, like you know about gifting I was telling you are already about the flowers that they’ll never give like you know equal amount of plumes. Always give an odd like three plumes. I mean here in America, there are big bouquets always here, but in Estonia, we have like let’s say I’m getting three roses or five roses or, you know, nine tulips.

The informant later explained that you do not give someone an even number of flowers at a wedding or other celebratory gathering, because even numbers of flowers are associated with funerals in Estonian culture.

Interpretation: It seems that flower gifting is quite prominent in Estonian tradition and the number of flowers that one gifts is extremely significant. Because I was unaware of this tradition, I decided to do a little more research. I found that gifting someone a single flower is a sign of love. So, for example, you would gift a loved one a single flower or give someone a flower during a date. However, if you gave that person a big bouquet of flowers that contained twelve flowers (or another even number) that would be seen as somewhat shocking to the recipient as even amounts of flowers tend to be given when mourning the death of a loved one during a funeral. It is quite interesting that Estonians associate different meanings with the number of flowers that one gifts. I am not aware of exactly why even numbers of flowers are associated with funerals, but nonetheless an intriguing gift giving tradition.

Estonian Spitting Superstition

Background: My informant, HS, is a 52-year-old professor at USC. She was born and raised in Estonia and moved to the United States when she was twenty. Her mother and father were both physicians in Soviet Estonia. Even though she no longer lives in Estonia, she still stays connected with Estonian tradition through her involvement with the Los Angeles Estonian House and still speaks the Estonian language with family and friends. She also happens to be my mother.

Context: One lunch, during quarantine, I decided to sit down and interview my mother about interesting Estonian folklore she was aware of and has experienced.

Main Piece: The informant told me that in Estonia, instead of doing something like “knocking on wood” to ward of bad luck or fortune, one would spit over their shoulder three times. It is not an actual spit in the sense that three blobs of saliva have to come out but rather a fake spit where one would make a “phtew” noise with their mouth.

TS: Why do people do this? Like- is their any significance to spitting?

HS: I have no idea.

Interpretation: Having visited Estonia myself and being around many Estonians over my life, I have never heard or noticed this superstition. Interestingly enough, after doing some more research on this superstition I found that their Judaism has a similar superstition where one spits three times for good luck. While I still do not know the exact origin of this superstition, it is definitely safe to assume that the significance of the number three in not only Estonian culture, but even American culture (‘three strikes’ for example) plays a large role in why one would spit three times over their shoulder to ward off bad luck.

Estonian Riddles

Background: The informant is a 48-year-old woman who was born in Estonia and immigrated to the United States, and currently lives in California. She still participates in Estonian traditions by attending the “Estonian House” which is an Estonian community located in Los Angeles.

Context: The folklore was collected during a scheduled zoom meeting in which I interviewed two native Estonians who currently live in Los Angeles and who are close friends.

Main Piece: “When we grew it was always: ‘Mõista, mõista, mis see on’. Like here (referring to California) it’s like knock-knock jokes. Like here its ‘Knock, knock, who’s there’, but in Estonia its ‘Mõista, mõista, mis see on’. It means ‘Guess, guess, what it is’.”

Estonian Riddles:

  • Mõista, mõista, mis see on. Talumees viskab maha, saks paneb tasku.
    • Transliterated Riddle:
      • Mõista: Guess
      • Mis: What
      • See: It
      • On: is
      • Talumees: Farmer
      • Viskab: Throw
      • Maha: Down
      • Saks: Noble Man
      • Paneb: Put
      • Tasku: In pocket
    • Translated Riddle: Guess, guess, what it is. The farmer throws it down, the noble man puts it in his pocket.

Answer: Tatt

  • Translated Answer: Snot

Explanation: The farmer blows his nose and the snot falls onto the ground, whereas the noble man blows his nose into a nice white rag and puts it back into his pocket.

  • Mõista, mõista, mis see on. Kui kummuli, siis täis. Kui püsti, siis tühi.
    • Transliterated Riddle:
      • Kui: If
      • Kummuli: Upside down
      • Siis: Then
      • Täis: Full
      • Püsti: Upright
      • Tühi: Empty
    • Translated Riddle: Guess, guess, what it is. If upside down, then full. If upright, then empty.

Answer: Müts

  • Translated Answer: Hat

Explanation: When upside down on someone’s head, a hat is full of hair. But when upright, there is nothing inside of the hat.

Interpretation: It was very interesting to me that instead of telling things like knock-knock jokes, children in Estonia tell riddles and try to guess what the riddle is describing. The riddles are very simple and to the point. They are not overly elaborate or complex, they are simple yet still slightly difficult to get correctly on a first guess. I know I couldn’t guess correctly when told these riddles. However, even within these riddles you can see aspects of Estonian culture shining through. For example, in the first riddle the transliteration of the word ‘saks’ is noble man or squire. Estonian history deals much with foreign invasions. Many of these people were Saxons who invaded Estonian lands and proceeded to enslave and subjugate Estonian peasants. My hunch is that the word for nobleman, ‘saks’, is directly correlated to the Saxons who invaded Estonian lands and exerted dominance over the Estonian people, as native Estonians were rarely members of the upper classes, it was always the invaders (often Saxons) who comprised the upper classes.  

Children’s Folk Tales in Estonia

Background: The informant is a 48-year-old woman who was born in Estonia and immigrated to the United States, and currently lives in California. She still participates in Estonian traditions by attending the “Estonian House” which is an Estonian community located in Los Angeles.

Context: The folklore was collected during a scheduled zoom meeting in which I interviewed two native Estonians who currently live in Los Angeles and who are close friends.

Main Piece: “A huge part of my growing up was ‘Eesti ennemuistsed jutud’ and in the Soviet Union we had the series ‘Saia rahva lood’ or ‘tales of a hundred nations’, I read them, we enjoyed them very much. But what the Estonians had was ‘Eesti ennemuistsed jutud’, Estonian ancient tales, and one very big part of it was a farmer called ‘Kaval Ants’ fighting an evil called ‘Vanapagan’. It’s not called Satan, but it’s, you know the one who came from down. And this witty farmer, poor witty farmer always outsmarted the evil ‘Vanapagan’. ‘Vanapagan’ is ‘old pagan’ but it actually means ‘devil’. So ‘Kaval Ants’ and ‘Vanapagan’, those are the tales of my childhood, we read them and it’s a big thick book of Estonian fairy tales, where always this poor boy or poor girl was working, slaving for a master and at the end he or she got justice. Not always, Estonian fairy tales are not always very happy endings, but not as grim as you may think. And many tales had animals, like instead of people. Usually there were foxes and wolves, and the foxes outsmarted them.”

Interpretation: The first thing that caught my attention was the distinction the informant made between Estonian folk tales and the more “official” stories that the Soviet authorities used that were called ‘Saia rahva lood’. While the informant did not go into too much detail about the narrative and plot points of these tales, many of the common themes in Estonian folk tales are made very clear here. Furthermore, this serves as further evidence that Estonian tales are completely different from what was seen in the more Western nations. Many tales from the West center around royalty and fantasy, whereas Estonian tales are very grounded and have a peasanty humbleness to them. The characters are often farmers or animals and they have to use their wits, not sheer strength, to outsmart their opponents. Another thing that really caught my eye was how ‘old pagan’ is synonymous with the devil in the tale of Kaval Ants. This provides some interesting insight into the more religious realm of Estonian culture and how pagans were seen as devils and evil doers in the eyes of the Orthodox Christian Estonians. There is a lot of interesting history surrounding Estonian religion that ties to many of the themes seen in these tales.

For another version of this tale read:

Kreutzwald, Friedrich Reinhold. Eesti rahva ennemuistsed jutud. Avita, 1996 (first published 1866).

Estonian Folk Calendar

Background: The informant is a 48-year-old woman who was born in Estonia and immigrated to the United States, and currently lives in California. She still participates in Estonian traditions by attending the “Estonian House” which is an Estonian community located in Los Angeles.

Context: The folklore was collected during a scheduled zoom meeting in which I interviewed two native Estonians who currently live in Los Angeles and who are close friends.

Main Piece:

Informant: “The national calendar, ‘rahvakalender’ (folk calendar). Estonian people, everybody from top to bottom, especially the farmers, they live by that ‘rahvakalender’. For example, today (April 23) is ‘jüripäev’. Jüripäev is where everyone would start to put the crops down, and of course it is a saint’s day. I do not know which saint it is in English, but many important things have to do with ‘rahvakalender’. It’s like everything went by it, for example, ‘jüripäev’ today is when the crops started going down and by ‘mihklipäev’ in September the 29th, I remember that because it is my father’s birthday anniversary, every crop had to be in ‘salves’ which means in the shed or cellar, because after that, the frost came.”

Collector: “So the calendar is mainly for farming and stuff like that? Or was it for other things as well?”

Informant: “It is, it is. But it mostly has to do with farming because that was most important for staying alive. So you have in February, we just had that Shrove Tuesday, it’s a church holiday, but its also in Estonia its when young people would go out to sleigh. So who got the longest sleigh ride got the longest crops of linen. And also, you didn’t cut your hair on certain days because if you cut your hair on certain days in ‘rahvakalender’ your hair didn’t grow, but if you cut your hair on certain days in ‘rahvakalender’ that were to cut the hair, your hair grew back a lot. So there is a lot of so called “wisdom” in those. All of these old people lived like that, they didn’t live by the numbered calendar.”

Interpretation: Estonian culture is heavily based in unity and coming together, so I was not surprised to find that Estonians have a fairly strict calendar that dictates everything from cutting hair to storing away crops for the winter. The fact that the informant emphasizes how farming was the main use of ‘rahvakaleder’ is a testament to how Estonian culture is not one of glory or lavishness, but rather one of peasantry and survival. A massive majority of Estonian tales, proverbs, riddles, and various other traditions are heavily based in farming, survival, and unity. The folk calendar reflects this emphasis on farming and survival in Estonian culture and traditions.

The informant also pointed me to an Estonian folklore archive that contains more information on ‘rahvakalender’: http://www.folklore.ee/Berta/tahtpaev-juripaev.php