Siklódi Csilla szerk.: Tradicionális sportok, népi játékok (A Sportmúzeum Kincsei 2. Budapest, 1996)

Tradicionális sportok, népi játékok az észteknél (Marge Vaerv, Kalle Voolaid, Kaie Jeeser, Anu Sillastu)

Ratsepaeksam (tailor'

s exam) The player, sitting on a lying log or a bottle, raising the heel of one foot on the toes of the other foot and, keeping balance, tries to thrust a thread through the needle's eye. A prediction said thet if a girl managed it, she got married soon. Aastase leivakoti tostmine (lifting a year's food bag) The player goes down on the right knee, putting a 2-metre-rope on the floor and stepping on it in the middle with his right foot. Seizing both ends of the rope with his hand over the left shoulder and pulling his leg up he tries to stand up on his left foot. He is not allowed to lean on his free hand. ule porandaprao huppamine (jumping over a crack in the floor) The player stoops down and seizes the toes of both of his feet. He has to jump over a crack in the floor (or a rope) in this position. As straw was left inside till Epiphany the same games were played at the New Year's Eve and above mentioned Epiphany. Shrove Tuesday - on this day everybody including children and mothers had to go sledging - it predicted good flex growth. Unlike Western Europe, the Estonians were not allowed to dance on this day or else flax got entangled. Both sleighs and sledges were used for sliding downhill and sometimes it was done on one's own buttocks.. The longer your slide, the longer your flex grew. So sliding downhill became a contest. In case a water body happened to be nearby, a merry-go-round on the ice was built. A hole was made into the ice and a pole was stuck upright into it. Then a big wheel was put on the pole and another pole was tied to it. The other end of the pole was tied to a sledge. During winter holidays mostly indoor games were played but starting from Easter (so-called 'egg-holidays' in Estonia) the large village swing became the main gathering place for village people. Usually every village had its own swing that was put up at Easter every spring. In South-Estonia swinging began at Easter and ended in Midsummer Day. In North-Estonia swing was put up for Whitsuntide and remained up for whole summer. Often a place for dancing was near the swing and everybody in the village gathered there. Swinging at Easter gave you health and luck. Such gathering at the swing has nowadays preserved in South-East Estonia, Setumaa. They have kirmas (village hop) every weekend beginning from Easter. Setumaa borders on Russia and unlike the other parts of Estonia where Lutheran Church is prevalent, people there are orthodox. That is why their customs and traditions are rather different from those of the rest of Estonia. As an inland region bordering on Russian provinces they have preserved their own old cultural tradition: songs, dances and games. In this region celebrating old festivals - village hops - has survived, and some traditional games, songs and dances go with them. One of the games very popular nowadays is munade veeretamine (rolling eggs).