The single most striking thing about Tallinn is the lack of night. How far north we are never entered my head, and I was thus very surprised to discover that 11 PM brings full daylight with it. In fact, it never gets truly dark, just evening-like for a few hours in the middle of the night. My first night here I took a photo of the sunset at 1230 and the sunrise at 3 AM, which I will share at a more opportune time.
I spent my Fourth of July with brass bands, national songs, and a patriotic parade. Just those of another country.
This weekend, unbeknownst to us in our planning, is the every-five-year celebration of the Estonian song and dance festival. The entire country gets involved. Yesterday there was a parade that lasted (literally!) over four hours, full of people from all the different regions of Estonia in their traditional dress, singing and cheering and waving flags and flowers. The parade led several kilometers into the national dance grounds, where over 25,000 singers stood under the dome of the arena and sang for hours to at least 150,000 spectators. Bearing in mind that the population of Estonia is only 1.4 million, this is very impressive.
You can learn more about the first song-and-dance festival, called the Singing Revolution, here: http://www.tallinn-life.com/tallinn/estonian-singing-revolution and you can find a trailer for a documentary on the subject here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA9PmZo-2jo
Today will be a sightseeing day, as yesterday was so full of culture as to not allow us time for any!
4 comments:
Hi Baby Sounds like your trip started off real good. That festival must have beej something to see Hope food is good Enjoy yourself Love Grandma XOXO
Off to a good start on the grand adventure. 10% turnout for a festival is pretty impressive. I hope you sang along and danced.
Have Fun! Love, Dad xoxo
I love you. Love, MOM x00ox
Dad: It was not really the dancing kind of music, more the dramatic, lord-of-the-rings type stuff. It was still fun though!
Post a Comment