looduskalender.ee

Dancing in the grove

 

Rein Maran’s  new film “Suvisted Tammealusel - Whitsun at Tammealuse“ had its first performance  on Monday, March 2^nd at the Nature Night of Looduse Omnibuss.  Rein Maran has been author, director and cameraman with a team including cameramen Tõnu Talpsep and Ants Tammik, editor Margit Maran, consultant Ahto Kaasik, musician  Tuule Kann.

 

This time Rein Maran, grand master of nature films, has recorded ancient sacred grove traditions and the customs of the folk calendar that expresses the close kinship of Estonians with nature.

 

Sacred groves are our oldest conservation areas where our ancestors from generation to generation have sustained the diversity of landscapes and biological life. The folk calendar, Maavalla rahvakalender, is a calendar of nature; it notes and celebrates the changes in nature and man’s part in it. In the untouched nature of the sacred groves communities have celebrated numerous feasts together. Thus the close ties with the environment were renewed and a shared concept of nature developed.

Tammealuse grove is located in Mahu (Viru-Nigula) parish in Virumaa, in the village of Samma. The grove was still used as a gathering place of the parish in the beginning of the 20th century. Later it became the midsummer bonfire site of the village, a place where healing water was fetched from the springs, and for lone roamers a place for finding tranquillity. In 1989 the grove traditions of the community were revived.

 

Last year marked an important date for the Tammealuse grove. 25 years had passed since the community again took up the use of the grove. It has become the custom to celebrate Whitsuntide each spring in order to welcome the coming summer, experience a powerful contact with nature, keep traditions and heritage alive and strengthen the community. ”Whitsun at Tammealuse“ offers a rare opportunity to the viewer to share briefly in this warm and special event.

 

At the Nature Night we will meet the author,  grand old man of Estonian nature films, Rein Maran.  The director of the Centre of Natural Sacred Sites at the University of Tartu, Ahto Kaasik, will talk about sacred groves.

Playing on the zither (kannel) Tuule Kann.

 

For those who cannot attend the Nature Nights are transmitted at

www.looduseomnibuss.ee/otse

 

A video of the event is at