On 25 June 2011 ECrew organised Midsummer Day celebration on Karl and Sandra Karu’s big property. Weatherman had blown away all the nasty dark clouds from last night and showed us wonderful sunny weather. It stayed like this all evening, only few drops of rain at the end of the night – it wouldn’t be real Jaanipäev without it.
Guest started to arrive from 4 pm and altogether there were 167 people, including 10 children. In addition to Estonia there were people from Germany, Portugal, Ireland and England.
After honouree consul Anu Van Hattem and play leader Katrena Tenno had their speeches, bonfire was lit by girl named Janeri (traditionally it has to be Jaan or Jaanika, so Janeri was closest). Fire was biggest some young Estonians had seen in years!
To make room for some more food, different games were played: throwing eggs, throwing a gumboot, rope pulling and the favourite sport among Estonians – carrying a woman.
The main event of the evening was dancing Kaerajaan around the bonfire, at least half of the participants were dancing at once.
People were dancing, singing and laughing for hours, children had fun making Spiderman masks and everybody was able to buy some rye bread and liver pate!
Event was great success and we will definitely do it again next year!
Menu: minced meat and ham/cheese pies, pork kebabs, chicken kebabs with vegetables, Estonian-style hamburger, garden salad, beetroot-garlic salad, rye bread, liver pate, cinnamon rolls
Reproduced from E CREW – Midsummer Day