12th of November from 11 AM to 3 PM

The dark and slightly scary time of souls and ghosts is upon us, but do not fret! Go guising, make some noise and have fun chasing away everything that’s bad and evil. The Estonian Open Air Museum invites you to compete in merry guising and test how good a Kadri or Mart in disguise you can be. Try your skills at fortune-telling or improvised verse, make turnip teeth or Kadri’s necklace, or set a pile of junk at the door to greet those who will not let guisers in. 

Those who have managed to complete all the tasks will get prizes.  

Kolu inn – songs and improvised verse

You cannot go guising on St. Martin’s or St. Catherine’s day without knowing the proper songs. Sometimes words get forgotten, and that’s why you need to practice beforehand so that you can improvise if necessary. In the main hall of the inn, you can find examples of guising songs and use them to write your own six lines of verse and sing them to the hosting family.

Härjapea farm – tricks and junk of all sorts

Sometimes the farm folk will not let guisers in, and no guiser likes that, of course. In such case, they will shout curses through the door and can even play tricks on the farmer and the family, for example, leaving a huge pile of hunk in front of the door. Ask the Martinmas guisers what to use for such a trick, assemble your pile of junk and take a selfie with it!

In the kitchen, girls are getting ready to go guising on St. Catherine’s day. There are some items they will need on the table. Can you guess how each of them will be used?

Lau shop – jumping, grain for good luck and other gifts

Guising always involves dancing and jumping. We have set up an obstacle course next to Lau shop, where you can practice all those skills. Jump over the obstacles, crawl under them or dance through the whole course, it’s your choice!

The shop will be selling treats and gifts for you to thank guisers for their performance, and, if you intend to go guising yourself, you will need some grain that you’ll be throwing over the threshold of a welcoming home for good luck, so you can buy a pouch of grain here.

Kuie school – crafts and fortune-telling

The Gipsy in the school yard will give you some tips for fortune-telling. What kind of luck will the family have? Will it be a good harvest of crops, luck with farm cattle or, maybe, a new baby?

In the classroom, you can practice traditional crafts necessary for guising and make a necklace to wear on St. Catherine’s day or carve set of false teeth from turnip (they can distort your voice).

Kolkhoz apartment building – bleating and prizes

St. Catherine’s day is also known as the Sheep Day. Guisers in Tartu County would go from door to door in the morning and make bleating sounds. The louder they bleated, the further dirt and evil would be chased away from the family. At the garage, you’ll have an opportunity to set your voice free and bleat as loud as you can!

In front of the Kolkhoz building, there will be a competition in your newly learned skills, and the participants will get medals while the hostess will be offering hot tea.  

Come by to see the Seto farm, Russian house from Peipus and our recently opened barn-shed on Kolga farm!

NB! Organisers have the right to make changes in the programme.