Farewell Eesti Kroon

On the 1st of January 2011 Estonia forfeited the kroon as its national currency and fully adopted the Euro which became Estonia's sole legal tender thereafter. For many people, myself included, it was a sad day to see the kroon go for it has long been associated with Estonia's cultural identity and national sovereignty. It was a symbol of Estonia's freedom and independence.

I can understand the need for a sole European currency, it does make travelling and doing business a whole lot easier when you don't have to worry about exchanging money all the time but it is sad when a country loses a feature of it's cultural identity and ability to govern itself. I've spent a lot of time holidaying in France over the years and I remember in 2000 how sad I felt when I had to use Euros to pay for things instead of French Francs. I was also displeased that the cost of everything seemed to have risen too with the introduction of the Euro. It's like that in Estonia now too; the Euro has bumped up the price of things.  

As a keepsake and a reminder of Estonia's bygone era, I have kept a complete set of Estonia's kroon banknotes because they are a very important part of the country's history.

                                        

                                  

                    

I also have this old Estonian banknote from 1932 which is a good addition to my collection too!

                    

Estonian Culture, Customs and Traditions

A few years ago I was on my way to dinner with my family in Tallinn's Old Town when we were approached by a group of young women celebrating a hen's night. The bride-to-be was all dressed up and carrying a basket full of pastries which she was selling to people she met in the street.  She told us it was a wedding tradition and considered good luck. I was not aware of any such tradition and was dubious as to whether it was genuine but we bought some pastries from her nonetheless and wished her well with her upcoming nuptials.   

Like all countries Estonia has its own unique cultural identity, a set of traits and characteristics as well as its language which distinguish the country and its people from its European neighbours. Some of Estonia's customs and traditions may be similar to those of other countries but there are many which are uniquely their own.

Here follows a list of notable and often surprising Estonian customs:

Estonians like privacy and space. More than 80% of the population own their own home and those houses built in the countryside are deliberately built far apart from each other so people can keep to themselves. Estonians prefer to keep a low key existence and frown upon pretense. Unlike other cultures where its people like to boast about themselves in order to feel greater self worth, Estonians do the exact opposite, they are more likely to criticise themselves than to inflate their own ego. 

Education is highly valued in Estonia and people have a deep respect for books.  Children start school at age seven and learn at least two languages. In class Estonian students rarely interrupt their teachers and never reveal their thoughts unless asked.  School graduation is a major event in an Estonians life. It is celebrated with a huge 'coming of age' party which has the same significance as celebrating a  21st birthday party in other countries.

Military service is compulsory for men aged 19 - 28 years and usually lasts 11 months.

When invited to someones home it is customary to bring a gift, usually wine, chocolates or flowers. You should never give a bouquet of white or an even number of flowers because they are associated with funerals. It is customary in Estonia to look after the graves of beloved family members and place candles on them for birthdays or any other important anniversary. 

Estonians generally don't wear shoes in their homes and prefer to wear slippers. If you are a guest in someone's home you will probably need to remove your shoes at the front door so ensure you are wearing clean and intact socks.

Up until WWII it was customary to be married in your home by the local vicar and then have a party afterwards. Today church weddings are still unpopular with people preferring to get married in a civil ceremony and hire a reception venue. With any invitation it is always customary to politely reply as soon as you receive it.

It is a tradition in Estonia to name a child after a grandparent when he or she is baptised - which accounts for the fact why there are so many Alexander's in my family!

National pride is strong in Estonia. Despite all the years of occupation and oppression the Estonian language managed to survive and is beloved to all Estonians.

Birthday traditions may vary from family to family. Traditionally when a child wakes up on the morning of their birthday they go running to the living room where they find their presents and birthday cake displayed on a table. They look upon their gifts in awe but are not allowed to touch any of them until their parents are present in the room. The gifts are traditionally not wrapped. Today I have slightly altered this tradition in my family, I still display the gifts on the table but they are always wrapped, the birthday cake is the centre piece and I always take an official birthday photo with the birthday person sitting behind the table. I always like to buy my family many gifts as a measure of my affection.

Christmas Eve night is when Estonians celebrate Christmas. It is the time when families gather, sing songs together, exchange gifts and eat, drink and be merry.  In my family we often celebrate Christmas twice because I have one parent who is Estonian and other who is Australian. So on Christmas Eve I would be singing " Oh kuusepuu" with my father's family and on Christmas Day "Oh Christmas tree"  which is the English equivalent.  

Estonian Greetings and Useful Estonian Vocabulary

One thing I've discovered from learning my Estonian vocabulary from my father is that languages definitely evolve over the generations. Some of the expressions my father taught me are no longer in use in modern Estonian but I wasn't to know unless someone pointed it out to me. My father only speaks the Estonian his parents taught him and as they left Estonia in 1940 he has not been kept up to date with the changes to the language. Not so long ago a friend teased me when I used the word "prosit" to say "cheers" instead of "tervist". He light heartedly said that's something his great grandfather would have said.  In 2003 when my family went to Estonia we visited the National Museum of Estonia in Tartu.  I remember my father chatting away in Estonian to one of the women who worked there who interrupted him, saying "I haven't heard Estonian like that in a very long time - that's how Estonian used to be spoken etc."  She thought it sounded cute. My father may speak 'old Estonian' and I may get the occasional chuckle when I say the wrong word but it's all a learning experience.  

Here is a list of useful words and phrases to get you by in Estonia.

Hello - tere
Goodbye - head aega
Yes - jah
No - ei

Please - palun

Thank you - tänan or aitah

How are you? - kuidas läheb?

I don't understand - ma ei saa aru
My name is - mina nimi on
Excuse me - vabandust
I would like - ma sooviksin
How much does it cost? -  kui palju see maksab?
May I have the bill please – ma sooviksin arvet or bill please - arve palun
Bon appetit - head isu

Cheers - tervist
You're welocme - palun

I’m sorry – mul on kahju

Good evening - tere õhtust 

Good morning - tere homikust, or simply "morning" - hommik

Happy birthday - palju õnne sünnipäevaks

Happy Easter - häid lihavõttepühi

Merry Christmas - haid jõulud

Happy New Year – Head uut aastat

Congratulations – soovin

Good luck - Palju edu

I love you - ma armastan sind

Food

Bread - leib                      Honey - mesi

Milk - piim                       Ice-cream - jäätis

Butter - või                      Cake – tort

Cheese - juust                  Pie – pirukas

Cream – koor                    Biscuits – küpsised

Eggs - muna                     Jam – keedis

Water - vesi                     Salt – sool

Coffee - kohv                   Pepper – pipar

Beer - õlu                         Orange juice - apelsimimahl

Wine - Vein

Town centre – kesklinn     Today – tana                    Week – nädal

Airport – lennujaam          Tomorrow – homme          Month – kuu

Shop - pood                      Yesterday – eile               Year – aasta

Money – raha                    Hour – tund                      Day – päev

House - maja                      

Family

Mother - ema                   Uncle – onu                      Man - mees

Father - isa                      Aunt - tädi                      Woman - naine       

Parents – vanemad           Cousin - tädipoeg             Boy- poiss

Son – poeg                       Neice – vennatütar           Girl - tütarlaps

Daughter – tütar               Nephew - vennapoeg        Child - laps

Sister – õde                      Brother – vend                 Baby - beebi

Other useful words

big / small  –  suur / väike
hot / cold  –  kuum / külm 
good / bad  –  hea / halb
new / old  –  uus / vana
expensive / cheap  –  kallis / odav
quick / slow  –  kiire / aeglane

easy / difficult  –  kerge / raske

clean / dirty  –  puhas / must
thick / thin  –  paks / õhuke
young / old  –  noor / vana

open / closed  –  avatud / suletud

Seasons:

Summer - Suvi, Autumn - Sügis, Winter - Talv, Spring - Kevad

The Estonian Language

The Estonian language is beloved to all Estonians and has been a key to the nation's survival for centuries. No matter who the occupying power has been, whether it was the Danes, Germans, Swedes or Russians, Estonians have always stubbornly refused to give up their language regardless of the attempts made to eradicate it. The U.S.S.R. were the last to fail when they tried to wipe out all three of the Baltic States' languages. Russian was given equal official status in Estonia between 1944 and 1991 and was often accorded a higher status since it was the official language of the entire U.S.S.R. 

Spoken by a mere 1.1 million people Estonian belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family.  Its nearest relatives are Finnish and the nearly extinct Livonian.  Hungarian is also related to Estonian albeit considerably more distantly.  Estonian is not related to any of the Indo-European languages such as English, French, German or Russian.

A native English speaker may be forgiven for thinking that Estonian is easy to learn because it is a phonetic language with no prepositions, genders or articles. However, it is Estonian's 14 grammatical cases that makes it extraordinarily difficult for foreigners to get right. 

There are three main dialects of Estonian - Northern (includes the dialects of the western Estonian islands), Southern and the nearly extinct Northeastern Coast dialect (Narva and Narva-Jõesuu).  Debates persist among linguists as to whether to classify Võro and Seto as Southern Estonian dialects or as different languages altogether. 

Estonian is now the only official language in the Republic of Estonia and the country's government has taken several steps to preserve it for future generations. Estonian law stipulates that all advertising must be in Estonian and if a Russian business wishes to advertise in Russian it must also feature an Estonian translation.

Estonian Food

The last time my family got together my sister suggested we should cook an Estonian feast. I was thrilled at the prospect of whipping up a few familiar dishes whilst my father pulled a face and said  "Estonian food is boring". I guess his mind flashed back to his childhood, remembering all the times he ate boiled cabbage whilst growing up, and loathing it. But the truth is whenever we're in Tallinn my father often orders kapsapirukas (cabbage pie) which leads me to think he doesn't have such an aversion to cabbage as he would like us to believe. Estonian cuisine whilst simple, is anything but boring.  Its flavours are unique and do not cease to delight the taste buds. You can taste it in the peenleib with the caraway seeds, in the salads with the dill and radishes and you taste it in the cakes and slices filled with the delicious berries picked fresh from the forest.

A huge informal economy for produce still exists in Estonia today. People often produce their own eggs, milk, honey, fruit and vegetables and trade their surplus with friends and family or simply give it away. The Estonian diet largely consists of pork, fish, herrings, cabbage, potatoes, beetroot and myriad types of mushroom. About fifteen types of mushrooms are poisonous so it pays to do your research before eating them. The most common type of berry found in the Estonian forest is the blueberry and you can also find strawberries, cranberries and raspberries.

For our dinner party my sister made traditional Estonian fish salad, I provided dessert with an apple and rhubarb crumble and my father went with my favourite Russian dish - beef stroganoff. As an entrée I also made little pastries filled with bacon, onion and cheese which my grandmother often used to make too.

Interesting Facts About Estonia

Estonia has two Independence Days - February 24th when Estonia first declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1918 and August 20th when independence was restored in 1991

Jõgeva is known for being the coldest place in Estonia. Its lowest recorded temparature was  −43.5 °C

Kiiking is an Estonian sport invented by Ado Kosk in 1996

The cornflower is the national flower of Estonia

Estonia was the first country in the world to introduce a flat tax system and online political
voting

Skype was invented in Estonia

Estonia is the least religious country in the world followed by the Czech Republic

Up until Estonia fully adopted the Euro in January 2011,  Paul Keres was the only chess grandmaster in the world to feature on a banknote, on the 5 Estonian kroon note

Estonia won The Eurovision Song Contest in 2001 with their song "Everybody".  The following year Estonia became the first ex-Soviet country to host Eurovision and many doubted the country's ability to put together a successful show. However, Estonia proved its skeptics wrong and the contest proved to be a great success.

Popular Estonian Names

When my sister was born my mother wanted to name her "Emma" but when my Estonian grandmother heard about this she protested because "Ema" means mother in Estonian. My vanaema implored my parents to change their minds and they did, naming her Sarah instead. As a compromise Emma became her middle name.

There are several names unique to Estonia whilst others have been  Estonianised over the generations. The popular boys name John is known as Jaan or Jaanus in Estonia and Peter is spelt Peeter with the double e. Double vowels are a feature of the Estonian language, including names, and are always pronounced with extra length.

Here are some of the most popular Estonian given names, their meanings and English equivalents.

Boys
Andrus - (Andrew) - "manly" or "strong"
Jaak -  (Jacob) - "supplanter"
Indrek
Mihkel - (Michael) - "who is like God"
Nigul - (Nicholas) - "victory of the people"
Krists - (Christian) - "follower of Christ"
Lembit - "beloved"
Mikk - "who is Godlike"
Leks - (Alexander) - "defender of man"
Rolli - "famous throughout the land"
Toomas -  (Thomas) - "twin"
Tõnis - (Anthony) - "flourishing"

Girls:
Anu - (Anna) -  "grace"
Etti - (Elizabeth) - "oath to God"
Hele - "shining"
Helja / Helju - "floating"
Leena - (Lena) - "light or enlightened"
Liis - "joined with God"
Kaisa - (katherine) - "pure"
Mari - (Mary) - "bitterness"
Maarja -  (Maria) - "bitter"
Riina - (Katarina) - "pure"
Reet - (Margaret) - "beautiful pearl"

"Sepp" is the most common surname in Estonia, it's the equivalent to the English surname "Smith".  Other common surnames are: Kask, Kukk, Koppel, Rebane, Saar, and Tamm.