Gallery: National minorities congratulate Estonia ahead of Independence Day
From Monday, everyone can add their best wishes for the Republic of Estonia to the president's birthday card in Tallinn's Kadriorg Park. As 2024 is Estonia's "Cultural Diversity Year," first to sign this year's card after President Alar Karis and first lady Sirje Karis, were representatives of the various national communities, who live in Estonia.
To celebrate the anniversary of the Republic of Estonia, the Office of the President set up a large birthday card in front of the presidential palace in Kadriorg. All residents of Estonia can write their best wishes on the card.
This year, as is traditional, the first congratulatory wishes were written by the presidential couple Alar and Sirje Karis. After that, it was the turn of students from Kadrioru Saksa Gymnasium, followed by representatives of the various national communities living in Estonia.
Representatives of the Ukrainian, Latvian, Ersa, Mari, Tatar, Moksha, Chuvash, Lesgin, Buryat, Kazakh, Korean and Moroccan communities operating as part of the Estonian Union of National Minorities and the International Union of Associations of National Cultures "Lyra", all wrote "Congratulations, Estonia!" on the birthday card in their native languages.
Representatives of Estonian communities from the Estonian Folk Culture Center also wrote their wishes on the card. They were joined by representatives of the Estonian Ministry of Culture and the Integration Foundation.
"Estonia is home to 216 different peoples. Observing our country's important days is a good opportunity to bring us all together. We look forward to congratulating all the communities of Estonians and other communities living in Estonia in their dialects and mother tongues on the Facebook account of the Cultural Diversity Year – let us wish our country well together," said Dmitri Moskovtsev, head of the Estonian Integration Foundation, which is organizing the Cultural Diversity Year.
The Cultural Diversity Year is dedicated to the cultural richness of the national communities living in Estonia. More information about events being organized under the framework of the Cultural Diversity Year to help notice, appreciate and cherish the cultural richness that unites people, can be found here.
Among them, are several opportunities to celebrate Estonia's Independence Day together, from signing the president's birthday card to a communal singing of the Estonian national anthem.
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Editor: Michael Cole
