Posts

Halloween vs Mardipäev

Today is Halloween. And everybody keeps asking my opinion on Halloween vs Mardipäev. So here it is. To be honest, I don't really care at all which one you celebrate. As an Estonian, Mardipäev is way closer to my heart but it does not matter I am against celebrating Halloween. You can read more about Mardipäev  here . For me it's more about dressing up as a coal miner or a chimney sweeper, putting on some dark clothes, singing about the long distances travelled, wishing families good luck for the upcoming winter period. And well... the candy is just a great bonus. So a little bit more about the tradition: until the early 20th century, only men used to go out on Mardipäev. Because of that this event was often seen as "men's day". Mardid (Mart is a men's name in Estonia, Mardid is the plural of Mart) used to bring good luck to the family. During the week of the souls (1st-10th of November) it was forbitten to do work that made a lot of noise. Mardipäev

What to do in Estonia as a student?

*DISCLAIMER* I am writing this post as an Estonian studying in Tartu, so for those of you in Tallinn, some of the points I mention are irrelevant. I will not cover Estonia's surface area etc, you can see those facts  here FOOD & DRINKS I mean... who doesn't love to eat? FISH Since Estonia is located like it is (by the Baltic Sea), we tend to eat a lot of fish. We also have a lot of rivers and lakes, so we get some of our fish from fresh water sources. The most popular fish everyone must try is HERRING (a small fish that is usually eaten with skin on, you can find those in cans with either just oil or oil and spices) RÄIM in Estonian Pollock, flounder, catfish and other white fish Quite plain by taste, but usually cheap, too (great when on a budget!) Can be found both frozen and fresh VALGE KALA in Estonian (white fish) Salmon and trout Quite poplar all over the world and most of those fishes are imported from Norway LÕHE JA FORELL in Estonian CHR