Guess the Country is a daily geography game where you guess the country from its shape and get clues with every attempt. I checked it out today and it was unusually easy, I got it in one. But I digress.
I have given you a clue, Kirbla. Well done, but in case you are flummoxed here is the answer.
”The carpet originates from Kirbla parish and is inspired from Estonian national costume. Estonian national costumes portrayed not only the functional clothing of farmers but expression of the fairly complex system in which farmers lived were arranged as well. Containing many economic and social indicators, it reflected the social position, marital status age difference, origin and so on of the wearer. National costumes developed according to the fashion rules characteristic of the village and region following their respective traditions and customs.” (Radisson Park Inn)
Today Estonians assert their national identity through these folk costumes. Every five years there is a big song and dance festival in Tallinn. Big, I mean about 40,000 participants. UNESCO has declared this tradition a masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, for the participants it is just good fun.
A very cheerful Sunday morning blog on a miserably damp matins in Louth. Thank you Christopher!
Estonia features in a story involving Paul Channon and Lord Stockton. If you know it, you’ll chuckle. But it is offensive and I shall not repeat it in so public a forum
I have never been, but they must have charming people. One wonders if newer forms, such as rap, make it into the festival.
Was it Harold Macmillan’s quip that there were more Old Estonians than Old Etonians in Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet?
Yes, in 1983 after Margaret Thatcher had sacked four OE ministers. He was perhaps referring to Nigel Lawson and Leon Brittan who he regarded as “foreign”. Of course they were not Estonian but he couldn’t resist the word play.
There was also, I fancy, Michael Howard whose Romanian origins prompted someone (Ann Widdicombe.) to quip that there was about him ‘something of the night’.