It’s started. They’re out there – the Christmas trees. Mid-november, well over a week before the 1st advent (esimene advent) the trees were out in Stockmann’s, the Finnish-based department store across the street from where I live in Tallinn. Next thing I knew, the little cabins of the annual Christmas Market (jõuluturg) filled Raekoja plats, (the Town Hall Square), but the huge spruce in the middle of the square was dark and au naturel until last Sunday, when the lighting of its symbolic first candle marked the 1st advent, the first sign of the coming of the baby Jesus and the start of the Christmas season. Candles were handed out to people who had gathered to watch the tree lighting, so they could symbolically take home the spirit of the first lit candle.
Electric advent candles (advendiaja küünlad) in a window on Koidula tn. in Tallinn ’s Kadriorg neighbourhood. These arrived in Estonia in the early 1990s from Germany and Scandinavia, where they are a seasonal essential. The ones currently on sale at the local Kaubamaja department store are designed in Sweden, made in China. If you live near a Swedish IKEA you’re in luck; they sell these lights and other Nordic Christmas decorations. Photo: Riina Kindlam
The advent period consists of the four Sundays before Christmas and the word is derived from the Latin adventus, meaning coming or arrival. Traditionally one additional candle is lit every Sunday until Christmas, either within a wreath on a table or mantelpiece or sometimes in a special 4-piece candleholder. They could also be lit on a tree, although a live Christmas tree is usually not brought into the house and decorated until Christmas Eve (jõuluõhtu / jõululaupäev).
Sets of electric candles (advendiaja küünlad) were some of the first new holiday decorations that arrived on the market here in the early 1990s. They came from Germany and Sweden; perhaps Finland as well, for all of these countries have the tradition of placing these 7-candle sets (derived from the seven-branched menorah) on their windows as of the 1st advent. Locals took to them, since they are very subtle and thereby suit Estonian tastes. My relative jokingly calls this decoration the kohustuslik kolmnurk (mandatory triangle), because of its prevalence. Another option for your window is an advent star (advenditäht), made of either paper, metal or wood and lit with a bulb inside.
Decorating your eaves or windows with blinking coloured lights is not the custom here – so far. But if they show up in stores... anything’s possible. (The front of Stockmann’s leads the way with a wall of icicle lights). I have noticed people putting lights out in their yard in the old Tallinn suburb of Nõmme, where they add ambiance beneath the neighbourhood’s tall pines.
Christmas tunes playing in Stockmann’s in November was definitely too much for the average Estonian’s taste. It’s great that they’re pragmatic that way. They very well might have begun stocking up on jam and Christmas ideas, but there’s no need to get too excited just yet. It will all come in time.
The first Christmas ad on TV was one for Coca-Cola (big surprise), but a huge flood of similar advertising has not yet followed. Only when you enter department stores are you immediately reminded of the date.
Another way of counting down to Christmas is by opening a window in an advendikalender (advent calendar) each day from Dec.1st to 24th. I’m not sure to what extent this tradition has taken off amongst local children, but if it’s the version with a chocolate treat behind every window, they won’t need to be reminded of it twice. The chocolate ones, including those made by local chocolatier Kalev are on sale in supermarkets and I found old-fashioned ones with picture-windows (made in France!) at the main post office. My Emme used to buy me similar ones at the Olde Country Gift Shoppe on Roncesvalles Ave in west-end Toronto, a bastion of German goodies at both Christmas and Easter, but they were generally unknown to my Canadian friends.
Although Santa arrives personally to test your knowledge of songs and poems on Christmas Eve, his little helpers (päkapikud) start bringing treats at the beginning of the month. A suss (slipper) or sometimes sokk (sock) is put out for him on an inner windowsill and in the morning a mandarin or candy or some other nifty treat has been left inside. This also seems to be a borrowed Scandinavian custom and depends on family traditions and even which corner of the country you grew up in. Jõudu tööle for all of your holiday preparations!
