Events

September 29th is the day we finish our chores outside and start working indoors. We are celebrating Michaelmas Day with a sermon at Sutlepa chapel. It is also the first day of The Estonian Open Air Museum’s winter season and the entry is free for everyone!

When all the field labour and cattle chores are done, it is time to celebrate. In the beginning of October we invite Seto and Peipus-Russian communities to take a breath and enjoy the fruits of their hard work. Authentic Estonian delicacies and finer handicrafts can be bought from the fair.

St. Martin’s Day is one of the merriest and most colourful holidays in the Estonian folk calendar. On this day children and adults dress in old shabby coats, smear their faces with soot and go door to door singing songs, asking riddles and wishing good luck and happiness to the families.

In the Estonian folk calendar St. Catherine’s Day marks the beginning of indoor activities. Women as well as men dressed in beautiful white clothes, with their cheeks painted red with beetroot go trick-or-treating, i.e. collecting gifts in return for songs and blessings.

Christmas is the most beloved holiday for the Estonians, eagerly awaited both by children and adults. It contains glitter and darkness, jolly bustle and solemn silence, joy and meditation. At the Estonian Open Air Museum you can experience all of that and let the Christmas spirit take hold of you. Step inside the old farmhouses, the schoolhouse and the village shop and take part in centuries-old Christmas preparations.

Majority of the Slavs and Orthodox Setos celebrate Christmas according to the Old (Julian) Calendar on January 6 and 7. The whole Christmas season – svjatki – lasts until January 19, the Epiphany. During this time people don’t work but rejoice at the birth of the Christ and go announcing this important event to their neighbours as well. Come and join us for the celebrations.