Saturday night

[elainegrey]

An advertisement runs on the TV: A young handsome father is reading the paper, young children run past him to where the beautiful young wife is reading the same paper on her iPad. The house interior has rustic Baltic charm. Husband puts down the paper and joins the family at the breakfast table where the brown bread is lovingly slathered with butter and lingonberry juice is poured with lingonberries dancing in the crystal pitcher. The family gets in the car, husband now wearing a pull over in the Estonia flag blue with traditional patterns, aerial photos of the car driving through birches and other trees, wind blowing the branches, then the family parks with other cars beside the road, joining a great crowd. The father lifts the son up to his shoulder and the scene shifts to the view of the filled Song Festival Grounds.

I tear up.

Curses, sentimental patriotic advertisements (for the local paper) works in any language.

OK, now the weather announcer is giving the weather from the beach -- she's young, blonde and in a bikini. I swear all the temps are in the Celsius teens. But today's high was 20°C (67°F), and i was so toasted walking in the sun in a sleeveless top.

The energy in the town was very festive. Today they are celebrating the first mention of the city in chronicles from 800 years ago. Perhaps that was why everyone was so festive, or maybe it's just that it's midsummer week and a lovely Saturday.

The year 2019 marks a milestone in Tallinn’s history: on June 15, the city celebrates its 800th anniversary, commemorating its first recorded mention in the Livonian Chronicle of Henry in 1219, where Henry of Latvia (Henricus de Lettis) describes the battle of Lindanise Castle (today’s Toompea hill) between the Danish King Valdemar II and the Estonian forces.

As all good things come in pairs, the city’s first mention is not the only reason to celebrate: we share our big anniversary with the Danish state flag, the Dannebrog. According to a popular legend, the red-and-white cross fell from the sky as a sign of support from God during the battle in Tallinn and secured the Danes a hard victory.

-- https://www.visittallinn.ee/eng/visitor/discover/articles-guides/tallinn-800

The fashion sense is diverse and creative where i was wandering.

Comments

[loligo]

My mom's family is from Latvia -- Midsummer is indeed a huge deal! I would love to celebrate it in the Baltics someday.

[elainegrey]

I remember a Midsummer in central Michigan and how amazing to me the long twilight was.

After this trip, seeing stars in a dark sky and fireflies in the orchard on the return took on a more magical quality.

Does your mom's family make a point to have dark rye breads?

[loligo]

I remember that at big holiday parties, my grandparents and their friends would always have Latvian-style rye bread - dense and sour, but not as dark as pumpernickel (also, no caraway). They would also use commercial pumpernickel for canapes. But at home on a daily basis, my grandparents ate lots of American sandwich breads, too.

I grew up in Grand Rapids, MI, which had a big enough Latvian community to field its own folk choir. I sang in it for a few years in high school (back in the 1980's) and went to one of the big international folk song festivals, in Toronto. I've only been to Latvia once, in 1991 right after they broke free from the Soviet Union, and I remember at that time that choirs and choir directors were covered in the local news almost like sports teams.

[elainegrey]

Thank you for sharing!

[gurdonark]

It's great that even Estonian commercials are about song.

[elainegrey]

I suspect a non-violent revolution won by singing creates a completely different national sense of patriotism. (Just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes: instead of dressing as a minuteman or Betsy Ross: join a choir. And how much easier to invite others to join your celebration! A friend of mine and a colleague's son are singing this year at their festival.