Nation Heads Out for Double-Barreled Holiday Weekend
A cruelty of the 2012 calendar means that there will be no days off for what is Estonia's biggest secular holiday of the year, but as of Friday afternoon, the population is already making the traditional migration to the countryside for the combined Victory Day and Midsummer weekend.
June 23 marks the decisive victory of Estonia on the second front of its 1918-1920 War of Independence. That was the day on which, in 1919, it defeated the German Landeswehr at Cesis in Latvia. June 24 is the day people come together to light bonfires on the village green, a tradition dating back to pre-Christian times.
ERR News joins the calls for the outdoor merrymaking to be safe, sane and consensual.
Happy Victory Day and Jaanipäev to all our readers.