The role singing and especially the festival plays here was very foreign to me when i moved to estonia. I have to admit I was initially reminded of the movie midsommar when seeing 100 000 people wearing traditional clothing and sing “mu isamaa on minu arm”, many with tears in their eyes. The only way to understand this is to look at the context:<p>- estonia is one of the least religious countries in the world, the independence day and song festival take an important role that is filled by more religious holidays in other countries, i would say both come even before new years
and Christmas for many<p>- estonia is a tiny country with less than 1 million estonian speakers. the importance of culture and heritage preservation is really high especially in lights of russias argumentation in ukraine. the song festival is maybe the most vividly lived example of this<p>- the singing revolution cemented the role of singing even further in national identity<p>- last and most importantly more than 130 000 estonians were killed or deported under soviet occupation and estonian identity was threatened to be wiped out. the song festival is a symbol for overcoming oppression and remembering the lost ones.