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EESTI ELU reedel, 23. oktoobril 2020 — Friday, October 23, 2020
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Kid’s Corner: Navigate the neighbourhood for Halloween, mardipäev, and kadripäev Vincent Teetsov
A jolt of cinnamon Living this miserable virtual life of isolation and inactivity can drag you down without friends, who keep you in formed of what is taking place elsewhere. Such as the won derful people at Estonian Music Week here in the Big Smoke. Hard to believe that it is only a little more than two years since that wonderful blast of live music straight from Estonia. Now, alas, we have to live with YouTube and other options that mask, par don the bad pun, the fact that to attend a live concert with all the accompanying energy may be a long time coming. The EMW people sent an email – sure glad that they are keeping esto music lovers up to date – at the beginning of the last month focusing on Tallinn Music Week, and since then the slender one has been greatly enjoying listening to a featured artist. Who is the tongue-incheek named Anna Kaneelina. Not only an obvious spoof of the Leo Tolstoy novel Anna Karenina (which translated into Estonian means give [me a] coarse or rough nose). Kaneelina plays with cinnamon – kaneel – the ina could be translated to be as an alternative or even cinnamon-like. In fact, while Anna is the singer-song writer’s real first name, her last name is Pärnoja, married to the wonderful guitarist-composer Erki, who, for the slimster’s money had the best album of 2018 and was a standout at EMW. Anna Kaneelina’s self-titled debut album merely cleaned up at the 2020 Estonian Music Awards. She picked up four major awards. One was, alas, sexist, for why have a category for female artist of the year? Much more important are the other three: album of the year, alternative/indie album of the year, and debut album of the year. Check her out for yourself on YouTube, as was suggested by the EMW folks. They included a link to an almost nine-minute-long live number,
“Mother”, recorded by Eesti Kontsert last November in Tallinn as part of their concert series “Curioosum” – Psyche delics of science and art. Bit of a high falutin’ name, but the music for these jaded years was quite compelling, guitar work by Pärnoja is stellar and the string section in the second half of the performance is dynamic. YouTube will also take you to hear “What Have I Done For Love” and “Thunder” showing the singer’s at times ethereal, at others powerfully exotic range. There is, of course, a website to visit, www.annakaneelina. com for more, with some selfhype, which in the interest of marketing in this COVID age is certainly to be expected and quite natural for musicians in any case. It is also possible to hear the opening sections of all the cuts on the eponymous CD, adding to the flavour and antici pation of perhaps getting the entire recording. Or hopefully having the opportunity, should the world ever return to a sem blance of normal, of hearing the singer live at the next Toronto Estonian Music Week. The slimster cannot ignore the obvious connection. First, musically Neil Young’s “Cinna mon Girl” Anna is not – not melodically nor musically. She is in a category by herself. But, as Young sings, “I wanna live / with a cinnamon girl /I could be happy / the rest of my life” Betcha Erki feels that way. Second, a real-life confession. Back in the day a cuppa Joe went great with a splash of Jack on a Sunday afternoon, blearyeyed after staying up far too late catching a live act some where. Too old for that these days. Now the Sunday treat is a sprinkle of cinnamon in the coffee filter before brewing. Not too often, mind – cinnamon has a way of deadening the taste buds. But when it comes to aural pleasure, Anna Kanee lina has been spicing up an otherwise ho-hum quotidian existence for the last five weeks. Might just jolt yours as well. Just put her on the big speaker, close your eyes, avoid the computer screen and Zoom into her musical world. OTEPÄÄ SLIM
The first time I ever visited Estonia was in late November. It was already bitter cold and powdered with snow, which offset the usual autumnal mood of American Thanks giving. However, visiting with relatives, my family was shown something that changed our perspective of November. No, there wasn’t turkey, sofa hibernation, and football – there was kadripäev! Though this holiday was arguably celebrated before any saint was associated with it, the day is named after Saint Catherine. Every year on the 25th of November, Estonian kids dress up as kadrisandid. They wear head scarves and white shawls that symbolize the snow of the approaching winter. Similar to what happens on Halloween or the Gaelic festival of Samhain on October 31st, houses are visited to collect edible gifts. Wool may be given, too, reflecting the traditional role assigned to women in tak ing care of sheep on farms. To guide the ritual, a kadriema (“Kadri mother”) is selected. So on the night of the 25th, we all drove around Tallinn in the dark of the evening, visiting friends of our relatives at various houses and apartment blocks. On their doorsteps, all of the kids would wrap them selves up in their white shawls and scarves and sing, repeating each line twice: ;,; Laske kadrid sisse tulla, katri-katri ;,; ;,; Kadri küüned külmetavad, katri-katri ;,; ;,; Kadri varbad valutavad, katri-katri ;,; ;,; Kadrid tulnud kaugelt maalta, katri-katri. ;,; It’s a song that’s effectively asking to be let inside because it’s cold. These lyrics (from lastega.ee, where you can also hear the melody) represent just one song that could be sung as participants visit people’s
homes. Not long before that is mardipäev, on November 11th. In reference to the equivalent German holiday of St. Martin’s Day, Martin is referred to by the Kaiserlautern American newspaper as a “friend of the children and patron of the poor.” In contrast to kadripäev, mardipäev connects more to the conclusion of the harvest period and hingedeaeg, the Time of Souls, when ancestral spirits were greeted (mentioned in a previous issue of Estonian Life). Mardipäev looks ahead to the next spring when growing would start again. Just like kids dress up as Kadri, they also dress up as Martin, wearing baggy coats, hats, and fake beards. Alter natively, animal masks may be made and worn. A mardiisa (“Mardi father”) is chosen here to lead the activities. The celebration includes cracking jokes and singing this song (lyrics found at miksike. ee), a variation of the Kadrilaul above, with the same melody: ;,; Laske mardid sisse tulla, marti-marti ;,; ;,; Mardi küüned külmetavad, marti-marti ;,; ;,; Mardi varbad valutavad, marti-marti ;,; ;,; Mardid tulnud kaugelt maalta, marti-marti ;,; ;,; Ümbert see ilma ilusa, marti-marti ;,; ;,; Kaugelt see kuu kõvera, marti-marti ;,; ;,; Tagant taeva tähtesida, marti-marti ;,; Visitors may greet and wish well for the upcoming spring for the household they visit, then ask for money and food, and thank them for the gifts they receive. Similar to the con cept of “trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat”, if visitors are not given gifts or let inside, then the visitors might curse the home. It seems that every individual has their own version of how you can greet your neighbours,
Illustration: Laani Heinar
hand candles back and forth, dance at the door, and so on. One might even request a cooked goose! Halloween isn’t the only time you can pester your neighbours... But seeing as Halloween is already going to be pretty dif ferent this year, without trickor-treating door-to-door, why not put an Estonian spin on it? Instead, you can do your own neighbourhood scavenger hunt! Scurry around your local area and look for as many specific types of decorations as you can: bats, cats, crows, dragons, ghosts, pumpkins, skeletons, spiders, spiderwebs, tomb stones, vampires, and witches. To help practice Estonian vocabulary and to make it even easier to scavenge, we’ve created a printable scavenger hunt sheet with drawings and Estonian words for each type of decora tion, which you can find on the Eesti Elu website. When your family group finds several of each decoration type, they’ll all get a piece of candy from the family candy pot. Then, when you get home, everybody can sing one or both of these mardipäev/madripäev songs on your doorstep, to round out the end of the night. In the spirit of Mardipäev, you can also pour all of your candy onto the floor to bring about an abundant spring ahead. This year, Halloween hap pens to be on a Saturday night with a full moon, so let’s make the most it and draw from some fun Estonian traditions.
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Minister Champagne meets with Belarusian opposition leader and Baltic Group foreign ministers Global Affairs Canada, October 2020 The Honourable FrançoisPhilippe Champagne, Minister of Foreign Affairs, concluded his mission to Europe today with a stop in Lithua nia, where he met with Belarusian opposition leader, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, to reiterate Canada’s support for the people of Belarus. While in Vilnius, and at Canada’s initiative, the Minister also held talks with his counter parts from the Baltic Group. With the foreign ministers of
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, he discussed ways on partnering to support democracy, peace and security, human rights and the rules-based international system.
emphasized the urgent need to fully respect the ceasefire agreement and resume negotia tions under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
Together, the ministers also expressed their solidarity with the people of Belarus and com mitted to working with interna tional partners to ensure that those responsible for violence and for undermining democracy in that country are held ac countable.
These meetings in Lithuania come at the close of a five-day tour of Europe during which the Minister also made stops in Greece, Austria and Belgium. His visit underscored Canada’s commitment to security, stability and prosperity, as well as its enduring transatlantic engage ment, including through its NATO membership and close co-operation with the European Union, and European partners.
Finally, the ministers dis cussed the latest developments in Nagorno-Karabakh. They
