Greetings from southeastern Estonia (is this the right forum?)

[lebkuchen]

I just had the time of my life entering the village in southeastern Estonia where the culture is Setu is front/center. I am near the Russian border. My husband and I entered a small house that had several cars and cats in front. Curious, we hoped it was a place to eat and experience the local culture. OMG. It was a restaurant/meeting house for locals, the local men talking about some sheep. A woman visiting her friend spoke German, so we could communicate that we were more than welcomed to come in and order. In our room a birthday party was about to begin. Women from Russia, who are also from the Setu culture, came to entertain the birthday woman, who is Setu. An accordion player came into the room, and soon there was dancing in the room of pine floors, no shoes, but several cats. Then the singing, with one singer making up the words with a polyphonic chorus of other singers repeating those words in Setu. Then, a Russian woman coming to each person, to include us, with a big hot pot of herbal/alcoholic dark something-or-other, each of us drinking from the same small container. Then more singing, clapping, dancing, accordion...

The Setu language is dying out. But I hope it doesn't. From my life experience just now, it's a celebration of the importance of multiculturalism, and the hope that my next birthday is celebrated in such a fashion.

[panader0]

1. Sounds like a lot of fun.

Have some more of that "something-or-other.

[lebkuchen]

8. It's dark, warm, and flavorful. I'll have to ask.

Then, a Russian man showed up with a clear bottle w/no label. He poured us a shot of "something" and told us in a thick accent that it was "moonshine." That was good, too!

No alcohol today! We just ate some kind of thin pancakes with cranberries on top. Delicious!

Estonia is all wired up for wifi. I hope this country thrives in the EU.

[steve2470]

2. may I ask, are you Estonian ? simply curious nt

[lebkuchen]

7. No, I'm an American living overseas

and loving the new cultural experiences around the next bend.

[Zorra]

3. Wow, what a lovely experience! A beautiful, amazing memory you will always cherish.

Those unique experiences...

I'm soooooo jealous!

[lebkuchen]

6. Yes! We call them "National Geographic Moments"

In fact, in this Setu area, there are large yellow metal frames, tall enough to fit a man inside, marking areas of interest, with signs in Estonian, Russian, and English nearby, explaining the uniqueness of the area. The frames remind me of the front page of a National Geographic magazine. They look fairly new and recent.

We are doing a lot of free camping since Estonia isn't set up for campers, on the other hand. You can basically camp where you want as long as it doesn't interfere with personal property. That is helping to make our experiences that much more meaningful.

Our meal last night was some salad, soup, beef and chicken with homemade mash potatoes and yogurt on the side...all w/a Russian "twist." That, along with the free dark drink they kept pouring us to share w/the b'day guests from a ceramic schnapps glass, cost us 13 euro, total. Estonia is very cheap for travel, but good quality. The east side is definitely off the tourist track. We saw some French campers yesterday; that is all.

[happyslug]

4. Had to look up the Setu Language

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seto_dialect

Not to be confused with the Velo, whuch some writers consider the parent lanague of Setu:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%B5ro_language

It is a Southern Estonian language:

Setu is a member of the "Uralic" language group, which is the largest NON-Indo-European language group spoken in Europe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uralic_languages

Most people who speak a Uralic Language, speak Hungarian (56%) the next speak Finnish (20%). The other 24% of Uralic Language speakers speak several other similar languages,

Nice to hear of such languages surviving, but what is the dominate lanaguge in that area? Russian or Northern Estonian?

In the Wikipedia Article on Estonian, Seto and Vero is claimed to differ more on thier religion then their actual langauge:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonian_language#Dialects_.5B13.5D.5B14.5D



The first significant event that separated Setos from Estonians was forced conversion of the latter into Catholicism in the 13th century, while Setos who lived in Novgorod Land remained pagans. In the 15th century Setos were converted into Orthodox Christianity but kept their vernacular beliefs. Later elements of Catholic culture were brought to the Setos by Estonian colonists, while in Estonia itself they nearly disappeared after the Lutheran reformation in Estonia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setos

[lebkuchen]

5. Thanks for that post!

I'll check out the links.

At the b'day party we were in the middle of though not expecting, I couldn't understand a single word, nor had I heard this language spoken before. I speak German, Spanish and English, but none of those helped me. There was some Russian spoken as well, and I know "thank you" and "goodbye."

What was great were the Setu women, some in their 20's, who were singing together in an unusual way. One woman would volunteer to be the lead, coming up with her own words as she sang, and then the others would pick up on her words and I think repeat them in harmony. Everyone took a turn as lead with their own made up words. It was great to see younger people maintaining the culture, which is on the verge of dying out. The Setu culture is divided by the Russian border. In fact, in this area, there is still a dispute as to where the border actually is. We drove to a remote Setu village...Podmotsa...on a large lake. Across the lake was a beautiful Russian Setu church, and near the church was a guard tower. The political borders are hurting the culture. Yet, the culture survived the Soviets and their atheism, as well as collectivism; this town, Obinitsa, is surrounded by deteriorating, no longer used, collective farm structures of that area. So maybe there is hope.

It was dumb of the Soviets to force people into a "one size fits all" make-believe culture. They should have embraced differences. The US should do a better job of that as well.