Estonia

Tallinn is an important port and one of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe. It is a city of grey towers topped with red tiles, of stone stairs beneath arching gateways, of narrow winding streets, cobbled pavement and towering ramparts. Outside the capital, other notable towns include Tartu, an ancient university town in the south-east, Narva with its imposing fortress on the border with Russia in the north and Pärnu with its attractive beach in the south-west.

Estonia's native folklore survived centuries of foreign domination thanks largely to a rich oral tradition of songs, verses and chants on subjects like the seasonal cycle, farming the land, family life, love and myths. The oldest Estonian song type, going back to the first millennium BC, is the runic chant, based on lines of 8 syllables with a theme gradually developing from line to line.

Literature

Modern Estonian literature began in the early 19th century with the poems of Kristjan Jaak Peterson. The national epic poem, Kalevipoeg (Son of Kalev), was written in the mid-19th century by Freidrich Reinhold Kreutzwald. The giant of 20th century Estonian literature is novelist Anton Hansen Tammsaare. Novelist Jan Kross and poet Jaan Kaplinski have recently received international acclaim.

Language

The ancestors of today's Estonians - a reserved people speaking Estonian, a Finno-Ugric tongue related to Finnish and, distantly, to Hungarian - have lived on the Eastern shores of the Baltic Sea for thousands of years. Estonian is a very Nordic-sounding language with lots of deep 'oos' and 'uus'.

Religion

Lutheranism and Orthodoxy are the main religions, but only a minority of Estonians profess any religious beliefs.

Food

Smoked fish, especially trout (suitsukala) is an Estonian speciality and, when it comes to sausages, you can be excused for thinking that the country caters more to vampires than vegetarians. At Christmas time, sausages are prepared from fresh blood and wrapped in pig's intestine. Blood sausages (verevorst) and blood pancakes (vere pannkoogid) are served in most traditional Estonian restaurants.

Drinks

No one quite knows what the syrupy Vana Tallinn liqueur is made from. It's sickly sweet, very strong and an essential part of any Estonian table. It's best served in coffee, over ice with milk or, if you feel up to it, with champagne. Estonia's best beers are the light Saku beer and the heavier Saare beer from the island of Saaremaa, while some cafes and bars serve tasty, warming hoogvein (mulled wine).

Other

Throughout the centuries an integral part of Estonian life has been the sauna. Saunas in Estonia are a national institution. One theory is that the sauna evolved as a sun substitute, giving Estonians the psychological benefits of intense heat during the long, dark months of the year.

A more recent development is the Estonian love of information technology. Estonia is the leading country for internet connections per capita among the associate members of the European Union (with 64.7 internet hosts per 1000 persons in 2002). In August 2002 it ranked ahead of many EU Member States, including the UK, Germany, Belgium and France. The Government has lead the way to E-Estonia, changing its cabinet meetings to paperless sessions using a web-based system back in March 2000. Election laws will include an e-voting option from 2005.

Well known Estonians include the composer Arvo Pärt, the supermodel Carmen Kass, the Olympic decathlon gold medalist Erki Nool and Winter Olympic skiing gold medalist Andrus Veerpalu. In 2001 Tanel Padar won the Eurovision song contest, with the result that the contest was held in Estonia in the following year.

Dances

Have a look at this pdf-file for information about the dance Raski Jaak

To read the file you need the free software Adobe Reader from Adobe or another pdf-viewer.
The Adobe Reader you can find on the homepage from Adobe under Support - Downloads.

National Anthem

To listen the national anthem click here.

UP