Life in December
December is a very busy month and it is the last month of 2020. Usually this month I have a lot of homework to submit. And of course, I need to prepare for exams as well. This December was very different than last year. It was very cold and snowy at this time of last year. This year, however, it was not very cold, except for a few light snows. I miss the Estonian snow so much!
Christmas is fast approaching, so I’m going to share with you the Estonian way of celebrating Christmas! As we know, Christmas time is still the most important holiday celebrated in Estonia. For Estonians, Christmas is a mixture of the traditional, the modern, the secular and the religious.
Folk traditions
Christmas is marked by the pre-Christian word jõulud in Estonian. In the country’s folk tradition, Christmas has a double meaning: on one hand, it is marking Christ’s birth, on the other, it marks the whole period of the mid-winter holidays. The magic and mysticism are combined with the sacred and spiritual.
In the traditional folk calendar, Christmas time began with St Thomas’s Day on 21 December and lasted until Epiphany on 6 January. On the islands and on the coast, the holiday continued for another day until St Canute’s Day on 7 January. The most important event was the festive Christmas Eve on 24 December.
The Estonian word jõulud is of ancient Scandinavian origin and comes directly from the word jul and has no real connection with Christianity. It is interesting to note that Scandinavia, along with Estonia, form the only area in present Europe where the birthday of Jesus Christ is still marked by the pre-Christian word of jul — jõulud. Despite this, in some places in South Estonia, talvistepüha (winter holiday) is also used to mark the Christmas holidays and it is considered to be a direct influence from the neighbouring Latvia where Christmas is known as Ziemas svetki (winter fest).
Christmas symbols
In Estonia, Santa Claus usually brings gifts on the night of 24 December. One of the most important and widespread Estonian peasant traditions, as in other Northern and Central European countries, was the habit of bringing home Christmas straw. Although connected with the biblical legend of Jesus Christ’s birth-story, the tradition of Christmas straw might even be of pre-Christian pagan origin. In Estonia, straw (in south Estonia sometimes also hay) was taken to the house for the whole festive season. It became a playground for the children.
Besides bringing straw to the house, the tradition of making special Christmas crowns, imitating church chandeliers, was widespread among the Estonians and their neighbours. The habit came to Estonia probably from Western and Southern Finland and was, at first, popular mostly among the local Swedish-speaking population, especially on the island of Vormsi where the inhabitants maintained close contact with their kinsmen in Sweden and Finland.
Christmas food
The traditional Estonian Christmas food is pork with sauerkraut and blood sausage. It was customary to eat large meals on Christmas Eve and Christmas Night. To have plenty of Christmas food at home symbolically meant enough food for the whole coming year.
According to an old tradition, seven to twelve different meals were served on Christmas Night. A special Christmas bread called Christmas barrow was baked. On the holy night, the domestic animals in the barn were also offered Christmas bread. Home-brewed ale and mead were the most popular Christmas drinks. The Christmas feast often differed between inland agricultural areas and fishing communities on the coast.
Recent years
Christmas as an official holiday was banned during the Soviet occupation. The traditional Christmas season was limited to New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day celebrations. Despite these restrictions, Christmas was celebrated unofficially, since a great number of Estonians participated in Christmas Eve church services.
Attending the Christmas services was followed by the custom of lighting candles on the graves of relatives. This became a peaceful nation-wide protest against Soviet ideology and atheist propaganda in general. Christmas Day itself, an ordinary workday, was celebrated at home in private with family and close friends.
Each year on 24 December, the mayor of Tallinn declares Christmas Peace from the balcony of the medieval city hall. Declaring Christmas Peace is a 350-year-old tradition in Estonia that began in the seventeenth century by the order of Queen Kristina of Sweden.
Hopefully, these information will help you know more about the Estonian way of celebrating Christmas!
