looduskalender.ee

Mall Hiiemää, expert on Estonian folklore, customs and beliefs will give a lecture at Lahemaa Nature Centre on Thursday, January 15th, beginning at 6 p.m. The theme of this nature evening is “Animals in folklore“ .

 

The role of animals in Estonian folklore will be discussed, including animal species in nature and in our beliefs, legends, tales, proverbs, spell-chants, dream interpretations, folk medicine, and weather forecasting. We will also see the transformation of unusual real-life events into hunters’ tales.

 

All interested are welcome. Preregistration is not needed. The lecture, including coffee break, will last 2,5 hours and is free for all. The event will take place in the great auditorium of the Järva – Lääne - Viru regional office of the State Nature Conservation Centre, in the former carriage shed building of the Palmse Manor House. The monthly nature and cultural heritage evenings at Lahemaa are supported by the Keskkonnainvesteeringute Keskus.

 

Mall Hiiemäe graduated from Tartu University in the subject of folklore, worked as a researcher in the Eesti Rahvaluule Arhiiv, Estonian Folklore Archives, and as senior researcher in Eesti Kirjandusmuuseum, Estonian Literary Museum. Mall Hiiemäe has been occupied with our cultural history and heritage all her life. In 1994 she received the Eesti Taassünni auhind, Estonian Rebirth Award, for compiling and popularising the “Eesti Rahvakalender“, in 1994 the Jakob Hurt National Culture award. In 2006 Mall Hiiemää published “Sõnajalg jaaniööl“, “Fern in Midsummer Night“, a survey of folk tales, the folk calendar and myths, in the series Eesti Mõttelugu, “Estonian Thinking“. For us, as a nature-oriented people, nature has always played an important part in our lore.