Friday, 7 November 2014

New Book 'The Ordinary Estonian' Provides a Snapshot of Modern Day Estonians




A fascinating new book was released today capturing the pulse of modern Estonian life through the eyes of over 300 Estonians who contributed their own stories.  Estonian authors Helen Ree and Karin Nemec collected these stories through crowdsourcing and social media channels to explore the Estonian psyche and what makes the nation tick.  From reading this book, readers will gain a better understanding of what Estonians like, what they do in their spare time and what's important to them.  The book carries its message with hundreds of high quality pictures and is laced with humour.  Foreigners will learn much about this unique nation in northern Europe and Estonians will laugh out loud as they recognise themselves in the pages.

Through researching this book, the authors discovered just how steeped in nature Estonian culture still is, the richness of life in rural areas and the longing Estonians have to get back to their roots.

This book is definitely one to add to your Christmas list. It's already on mine!

A copy of The Ordinary Estonian can be purchased here.

Thursday, 6 November 2014

Baltic Presidents to Receive the 'European of the Year' Award in Berlin


The presidents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will be presented with the Verband Deutscher Zeitschriftenverleger's 'Golden Victoria' / 'European of the Year' Award in Berlin tonight on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Click here to read more of this story - http://news.err.ee/v/politics/c1dad9e2-2e45-468b-aa22-b9d83211e387#.VFtU1RKmOos.twitter


Proud leaders!

Tuesday, 4 November 2014

Estonian Film 'Flowers From the Mount of Olives' Features in the European Union Film Festival


Heilika Pikkov's documentary 'Flowers from the Mount of Olives' will be screening at the European Union Film Festival in Toronto on Monday 24 November 2014 at 6pm.

Synopsis:
Right alongside Jerusalem, in a Russian Orthodox Convent in Mount of Olives, lives the 82 year-old Estonian nun Mother Ksenya. Although inside the convent's cement walls the clock is never set and life still follows the Julius calendar, the 20 years that Mother Ksenya has spent there have passed by in a flash. In the hierarchy of the nunnery she has now achieved the second-to-last level. She is heading towards complete silence, the Great Schema. But before that she has been given permission to tell the story of her life for the very last time.


Film: http://www.eutorontofilmfest.ca/index.php/component/zoo/item/flowers-from-the-mount-of-olives?Itemid=101

The European Union Film Festival will be held in Toronto, 15-30 November 2014. This year marks the 10th anniversary. You can download the programme here: European Union Film Festival

Further information about Flowers from the Mount of Olives can be found at: http://www.silmviburlane.ee/docs/flowers-from-the-mount-of-olives/3/flowers-from-the-mount-of-olives

Rõivas Presents Vision For Estonia in 2018 | News | ERR


Click below to read the full story.
Rõivas Presents Vision For Estonia in 2018 | News | ERR

Sunday, 2 November 2014

Hingedepäev / All Souls' Day

Today is All Souls' Day or 'Hingedepäev' in Estonian. It is said to be the day where the veil between the world of the living and that of the dead is thin. I quite like the spirit of this day as we pay tribute to our ancestors, visit the cemetery and light candles in their honour. For dinner, the tradition is to place an extra plate of food on the table in the hope that the deceased will be drawn near.


Some people also place candles on their windowsills to guide the spirits home.