Folklore and traditions
Radical changes in the folk culture occurred during the second half of the 19th century and were connected with buying land for freeholds in the 1860s. Increasing numbers of peasants moved to towns in order to study or work.
The Estonian peasant society with its ancient traditions was becoming more and more modern.
Many innovations that had been introduced at the beginning of the century became prevalent. Being farm owners gave people a feeling of security and was a boost to their self-esteem. At this time in the southern part of Sakala region developed into Mulgimaa as we know it today.
"Every household has its own kvass," ("Igal talul oma taar") says an Estonian proverb. This characterizes very accurately the Estonian folk culture which has a very small territory but is rich of different local features.
Many of the differences are rooted in the time of ancient tribes and can be discovered both, in dialects and archaeological finds, as well as in younger material and spiritual culture. As a result of serfdom and geographical dependency, many local parish-based features developed which are particularly evident in folk costumes and folk art. The uniqueness of Estonian peasant culture as a whole is most vividly manifested in the ancient runic singing and barn dwelling.
Southern Estonia has been culturally remarkably conservative and tradition-keeping, which can be seen particularly in Mulgimaa and Seto area.
Overall, the most specific and compact folk calendar following areas in Southern Estonia are Mulgimaa and Setumaa (Hiiemäe, 2010). In Mulgimaa, medieval patterns, sacrificial gardens or Pelli gardens and unique folklore survived for a long time. Some of the Mulgimaa local traditional dishes such as Mulgi cabbage stew, Mulgi curd cakes and kama have later become popular all over Estonia.
However, despite the regional differences, there existed also the unifying features of the ancient Estonian folk culture that were common to the entire country. The most distinctive among such common features were the runo songs, the barn-dwelling as the most typical farmhouse, and soft leavened black bread. Other common features included the traditional ways of celebrating weddings and the Yuletide, counting the sowing weeks, and the tradition of the ‘souls' visiting time’ (estonica.org).
Estonians sacrificed to the souls of dead ancestors, nature spirits and fairies so that they would be benevolent and protect the people from bad luck and diseases, make the land and cattle fertile, grant good luck in hunting, etc. The offerings were mostly food or drinks, but also products of farming and cattle-breeding, such as flax, wool, yarn and cloth, as well as money and jewellery. Silver dust, which was scraped off a silver coin or jewellery and was supposed to have special powers, was an especially significant offering. Offerings were brought at harvests, when work was begun or finished, at souls' visiting time and upon various holidays and family events.
In South Estonia, the place to bring offerings on a farm or in a village was the sacrificial garden. A sacrificial garden was a small fenced-in area in the yard of a farm which was considered to be holy and inviolable, or was a part of a larger garden where some deciduous trees, bushes and hops grew. Offerings were placed on a stone in the garden, on the turf, or at the foot of a bush. Such gardens endured the longest in Mulgimaa, in some places until the middle of the 19th century.
The oldest crop in Estonia is barley: it has been cultivated for about 4000 years. A real breakthrough took place in the 11th–12th centuries in connection with the spread of rye cultivation which produced considerably better crops in fields fertilised with manure. Rye became the main grain for making bread and remains so to this day.
Radical changes in the folk culture occurred during the second half of the 19th century and were connected with buying land for freeholds in the 1860s. Increasing numbers of peasants moved to towns in order to study or work. The Estonian peasant society with its ancient traditions was becoming more and more modern. Many innovations that had been introduced at the beginning of the century became prevalent. Being farm owners gave people a feeling of security and was a boost to their self-esteem. At this time in the southern part of Sakala region developed into Mulgimaa as we know it today.