Easter
Easter
20 April 2025
Programme:
from 11.00 to 16.00
The buildings on the premises are open from 10.00 to 17.00
This spring festival has a number of traditional folk names. The Estonian word ‘lihavõtted’ originally meant the day when meat could be eaten after the long Lent that started after Shrove Tuesday. This is when cows started giving milk, chickens started laying eggs and farmers’ daily meals became a bit heartier. Another folk name in Estonian refers to eggs, symbolizing the spring, awakening nature, and new life while the one with reference to swinging stands for the beginning of the season when villagers started spending more time together, having fun. Estonian children still know Easter as ‘Bunny Holiday’ or ‘Baby Chick Holiday’, and one more name literally means ‘Resurrection Day’.
The museum displays a variety of Easter traditions: there are swings, games, egg dyeing, egg hunting and a lot of fun facts about household preparations for the great spring holy day. You can meet the jolly Easter Rabbit roaming around and talk to him, join a bird-watching tour or take part in a quest and find symbols related to Easter.
The Shepherd’s Trail will also be open while the barn-shed on Kolga farm will be showing rabbits and other farm animals and birds.
The Museum Card, Tallinn Card or the annual entrance
pass
of the Open Air Museum allow you free entrance to the event.
Swings on the village green – Easter games and fortune-telling
The swing was traditionally built on the most picturesque spot of the village, and young people would gather there as the spring went on. This is where you could swing, sing, play games, dance or have your fortune told. Make sure you drop by the village swing as well!
We’ll be using kindling wood to tell who is likely to find a soulmate this year and playing Easter games typical of various regions of the country. These include rolling eggs down the hill, seesaw jumping, egg racing, ‘cockfighting’ and walking on stilts.
Barn-shed on Kolga farm – Bunny Holiday – farm animals and birds
The museum’s farm animals and birds remain indoors in the barn-shed until St. George’s Day. Due to the risk of foot-and-mouth disease, there is no access to the paddock, but there are short explanations about the animals in the farmyard every hour from 11am to 3pm. You can look at the cute bunnies in the yard at any time, but please watch from a distance so that they don’t get scared.
Kuie school – Egg Holiday – Egg hunting and contest for the best dyed egg
Bring your dyed eggs to the museum and enter the Easter egg beauty pageant! The winner will be announced at 15.15. The award ceremony will culminate in a great egg tapping competition. If your egg stays intact, it means a wish of yours will come true.
You can also join the egg hunt in the yard.
Härjapea farm – Easter feast – festive foods and making Easter postcards
Paskha is ready on Härjapea farm, and the farm wife is busy making a curd cheese cake. She will gladly share her favourite festive recipes if you ask!
In addition, you can make Easter postcards, using dried plants and flowers.
In front of Kolu inn – Egg dyeing with onion skins
There’s a large pot simmering in front of the inn. You can boil an egg in it, which will be dyed with onion skins, and each result is unique and extraordinary.
Lau village shop – Sending Easter postcards with chicks and bunnies
The tradition of sending Easter postcards took hold around a century ago, and it seems to be fading these days. Lau village shop is just the place to send a cute Easter postcard to your loved ones: you can buy one here and get a stamp, and the museum post box is also right there! You just need to remember the address!
Kolkhoz apartment building – Easter foods in Kolkhoz times; eggbox craft
You could face a shortage of white eggs around Easter in Kolkhoz times if you didn’t keep chickens. Why shops ran out of eggs just at this time of the year is still a mystery. Luckily, the tenants of the Kolkhoz apartment building have managed to get eggs and curd cheese for their favourite Easter dishes. By the way, an empty eggbox can become a fun piece of craft if you let your imagination fly!
Seto farm – Pysanka exhibition
The Ukrainian Cultural Center in Tallinn presents intricately decorated Easter eggs, known as pysankas, adorned with traditional Ukrainian folk patterns applied using wax. Each motif and line carries a specific meaning – every egg is one of a kind!
Come and discover this beautiful tradition passed down from generation to generation!
Sutlepa chapel – Easter service
During the Holy Week, Good Friday is the day of great mourning, commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus. Holy Saturday, when Jesus was in the realm of the dead, is also a sad day of commemoration. However, Easter Sunday celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus, and it is a day of utmost joy for Christians as well as the most important holiday of the year.
The service starts at 16.00.
Starting at the ticket office
Bird-watching tours
Bird-watching tours organized by Tallinn Bird-Watching Club start at 11.30 and 12.30 at the ticket office. Group size: 15– 20 participants.
Proverb from Rakvere region: “Find an egg at Easter, and good luck will find you”.
Quest: Easter symbols
Get your quest map at the ticket office and look for Easter-related symbols on the farms. Find out what these symbols stand for. When you have been to all the locations on the map, you can find the right answers and get a sweet prize in Kuie school.
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