Tag Archives: Estonia

Estonian Proverb

Nationality: Estonia
Age: 51
Occupation: Stay Home Mother
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/23/2021
Language: Primary Language is Estonian, but the informant also speaks English.

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: While I was having a discussion with the informant on a car ride, she told me about an Estonian proverb that related to the conversation.

Main Piece:

  • “Väiksed vargad ripuvad võllas, suured sõidavad tõllas.”
    • Transliterated Proverb:
      • Väiksed: Small
      • Vargad: Thieves
      • Ripuvad: Hanging
      • Võllas: Gallows
      • Suured: Large
      • Sõidavad: Driving
      • Tõllas: In the carriage
    • Translated Proverb: “Small thieves hang on a shaft, large ones fly on a chariot.”
  • Explanation: Essentially this proverb reflects on a corrupt justice system in which smaller criminals are punished and hanged for everyday crimes, such as stealing, whereas the large criminals who are committing the really heinous crimes are riding in their chariots. It insinuates that those who are in high places in society had to pull some strings or cut off some loose ends to get to where they are at in the social hierarchy. It also implies that the everyday thief, who is likely just a poor person trying to survive, is severely punished for minor crimes.

Interpretation: A common theme in Estonian history is the subjugation of the peasantry and the lower-class members of society. This proverb reflects how Estonians have viewed their justice system in the past to be corrupt and favor the large criminals (likely members of the upper class) and punish the lower criminals for simply stealing or committing minor crimes to survive. This proverb becomes especially significant when realizing that Estonia was a part of the Soviet Union which instilled communism. Perhaps proverbs like this reflect a deeply embedded attitude that Estonians have to upper class members or “large criminals” and how that was affected by years of communism under the Soviets.

Estonian Housewarming Gift

Nationality: Estonia
Age: 51
Occupation: Stay Home Mother
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/23/2021
Language: Primary Language is Estonian, but the informant speaks English as well.

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.

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.

Main Piece:

Informant: “When you go to visit that person in their new home you’re always bring salt and bread, always. You always bring salt and bread, its called soolaleiba pidu (salt bread party) that’s like house warming party. You bring salt and bread only when going to someone’s house for the first time, a new house.”

Collector: “Do you eat the salt with the bread or…?”

Informant: “No, no, no. You just bring it. You can either just take, like regular, like you know, this kosher salt from the shelf or nice salt mill or whatever, but in old times, people they bake like special bread where in the middle there is little hole where you put the salt. You know it’s like such a tradition. But otherwise, yeah, you just take any like salt, because you know, in a house you always need salt and bread. It came like from the old times like, you know, they believed that then the hunger will never come to the House and you can make flavorful food. Because, if you have salt, then you have flavor for food. The bread represents plentiful food for the future. Especially, like, my grandma lived in the Leningrad Seige, so, you know, they lived in hunger for three years so I remember it wasn’t accepted that we wasted food, it was like such a treasure.”

Interpretation: This tradition is a housewarming tradition in Estonia where you are essentially blessing the new house with plentiful food and resources for the future through a gift of bread and salt. The bread is what represents the food itself, and the salt is a representative of utility. It can be used to make the food more flavorful or for cleaning purposes, or even medical purposes. In my interpretation this is a way of giving new home owners good luck for the future, and food seems to be a high concern for Estonians. This is likely because Estonia does have harsh climate during winter, so it makes sense that bread would be the first thing that you use to bless a new home. Furthermore, Estonian culture reflects simplicity as opposed to opulence and grandeur. Bread and salt are simple and effective housewarming gifts that fit right into the themes of Estonian culture and tradition, you will rarely see over-the-top, glamorous gifts being given between Estonians. This has its roots in Estonia’s history of slavery, persecution, and communism.

Estonian Wallet Gifting

Nationality: Estonia
Age: 51
Occupation: Stay Home Mother
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/23/2021
Language: Primarily speaks Estonian. Also speaks English.

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: “When you give a wallet as a gift to someone, we believed to never give an empty wallet. Always put a little bit of money in it. Like even if it’s a couple of coins. You know for obvious reasons, because then more money will come in.”

Interpretation: This Estonian gift-giving superstition is another way of ensuring good luck for the future. Many of the Estonian gift-giving superstitions I am aware of deal heavily with good luck in the future when it comes to some form of material item. Insecurity it comes to money and food are both things that Estonians seem to be worried about from the various gift-giving customs I have been told about. However, this makes complete sense because Estonia is in no way known for a history of wealth and prosperity. Estonian history is one of subjugation and conquer. This is why many Estonian superstitions reflect an anxiety surrounding whether or not there will be plentiful food or money in the future.

Estonian Folk Calendar

Nationality: Estonia
Age: 48
Occupation: Property Manager
Residence: Costa Mesa, California
Performance Date: 4/23/2021
Language: Estonian, English

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

Children’s Folk Tales in Estonia

Nationality: Estonia
Age: 48
Occupation: Property Manager
Residence: Costa Mesa, California
Performance Date: 4/23/2021
Language: Estonian, English

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).