#minuarm

[liisvahtramae]

On her way to the song festival

Balti Jaama turg, Tallinn 2019

[krishaamer]

Over 100 thousand people gathered at the Song Festival Grounds in Tallinn this past Sunday and over half a million watched on various media channels because it was Laulupidu ja Tantsupidu, a massive singing and dancing celebration, a UNESCO Intangible Heritage of Humanity, happening once every 5 years, started 150 years ago in 1869 by Johann Voldemar Jannsen, making this a jubilee occasion. Here at the Song Grounds, we’re standing in a place that’s become holy for the Estonian people, where massive evening singing demonstrations took place in the 1980s, with hundreds of thousands of people showing their resistance to the Soviet rule that invaded the country since 1940, submitting the country to 50 years of Soviet colonization and violence. Singing made Estonians believe freedom is possible, giving people the strength and unity for both the independence of the country in 1918 and the restoration of the independence in 1991. The singing tradition paved way for the Baltic Way Freedom Chain, with 2 million people holding hands in a human chain, spanning 675.5 kilometres across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as a demonstration for our will for freedom and independence, aptly named the “Singing Revolution”. Today the festival has become a week of celebration, song and dance, with 30000 singers and thousands of dancers taking part, people gathering from across the country and some traveling from as far as the US, Japan, and elsewhere, spending 2 years prior rehearsing to learn the repetoire for this particular event. In 2019 the theme was called “My love”, and the message, “No one is alone”, a call for unity and togetherness. To paraphrase the Estonian president Kaljulaid, singing makes people happy, brave and free. And even though I’m very bad at singing, I think there’s some truth to that :) #minuarm #laulupidu (at Tallinna Lauluväljak) https://www.instagram.com/p/BzxfTEaHc3L/?igshid=kvap2wqzfyp8