This blog post was written by our student ambassador Ana, who is a student of the semiotics programme at the University of Tartu.
Emakeelepäev or the mother tongue day is the national holiday of Estonia, which is celebrated on 14th March. The holiday is celebrated by the dictate competition (spelling exercise) in the Estonian language on Vikerradio, where the host reads the text and the one who writes the entire text correctly, is the winner. Other important events include the award ceremony for the biggest contribution to the Estonian language and various literary festivities in elementary and high schools. Another very important fact is that the date of Emakeelepäev is the birthday of Kristjan Jaak Peterson, a famous Estonian poet and a historical figure.
In this blog, I will talk about Kristjan Jaak Peterson, his poems, the huge impact he had on Estonian literature and his legacy which lives to this day. I hope you will enjoy this blog and get to know more about a poet and a figure who left an important trace on both Estonian literature and culture.
Kristjan Jaak Peterson (1801-1822) was born in Riga, Latvia. His father was a fisherman and a singer. Peterson was the third-born child in the family. He attended the gymnasium in Riga, he was a student at the University of Tartu, studying Religious studies. He died at the very young age of 21 of tuberculosis and was buried at the Riga Jacob cemetery, but the exact burial place is unknown.
Regarding his literary work, he started writing poems when he was still in high school. He was known as the poet bard, as his poems had pastoral and arcadian motives, describing nature, travels and a simple and peaceful lifestyle. His most iconic poem ‘’Kuu’’ (Ode to the moon) depicts the pastoral elements along with the love for the Estonian language. Peterson also published articles about the Estonian language in the journal ‘’Beiträge zur genauern Kenntniß der enstnischen Sprache’’ (Contributions To a more detailed knowledge of the Estonian language), which was the first scientific journal in Estonia. He also translated ‘’Mythologica Fennica’’ by Kristfrid Ganander from Swedish to German mentioning and analyzing the collection of Estonian folk tales and fairy tales by F.R. Kreutzwald. Peterson strongly believed in the idea of literature and writing texts in the Estonian language and that the Estonian language is a big part of creating a national identity and literature. He is, in a way, the initiator of Estonian literature. Most of his poems were written in the Estonian language (21 of them), while only 3 of them were written in German. Peterson’s handwritten poems were found by Villem Reiman, who was exploring the archives of Estonian associations, and they were composed and published after Peterson’s death by another Estonian poet, Gustav Suits.
An interesting fact about Peterson is that he walked from Riga to Tartu and back barefooted and that he was a prisoner at the University of Tartu student dungeon for misbehaving students which is located in the main building of the University and people can still visit it.
The statue of Kristjan Jaak Peterson is located on Toomemägi (Toomehill) in Tartu people leave flowers and Estonian flags in front of the statue on Emakeelepäev. So, if you are in Tartu, I highly recommend you visit his monument and I wish you all ilusat emakeelepäeva!