Whitsunday At Tammealuse (2015)

Every year local people and their guests gather at Grove of Tammealuse in Samma Village, Viru County, for Whitsunday festivities to celebrate the beginning of summer. Whitsunday is known in folk memory as an important holiday for country folk and merry spring holiday that has been celebrated in Estonia through the ages to greet the arriving summer. Whitsunday (or Whitsun, Whit) involved many traditional preparatory activities - tidying the home and its surroundings, decorating with birches, going to the sauna. The celebration itself took place at the nearest sacred Grove, where a swing was set up and a bonfire made. Entire families came there. People used to sing, dance, swing, play, eat and perform various rituals. The young gathered to have fun, while elder people gathered to watch it, to chat, and to marvel at the frolic and games of children. Something of it has endured into the present day. Our film brings some of it to the viewer.