Song Festival (Baltic States)
The Baltic song festivals ( est. Laulupidu , lett. Dziesmu svētki , lit. dainų šventė ) are musical events that take place in different rhythms in Estonia , Latvia and Lithuania .
history
First song festivals
In 1869, the first Estonian song festival in the Baltic States took place in Dorpat ( Estonian Tartu ). The first General Latvian Song Festival followed in Latvia in 1873 . Lithuania followed suit with its first national song festival in 1924.
Renaissance
In memory of these traditions, which were not promoted during the Soviet Union, the festival “Estonia's Song 1988” took place near Tallinn on September 11, 1988, with great interest from the other Baltic peoples. In Tallinn, more than 300,000 people attended the festival. They sang the once forbidden national anthem “ Mu isamaa, mu õnn ja rõõm ” ( My country, my happiness and my joy ).
In August 1989 around two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania formed a 600-kilometer human chain from Vilnius via Riga to Tallinn on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the German-Soviet non-aggression pact , which regulated the division of Central Europe between Hitler's Germany and Stalin-Russia . This " Baltic Way " (also known as the "Baltic Chain") was intended to demonstrate the Baltic's will for independence. The Singing Revolution in the Baltic States led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
In 2003, the Baltic Song Festival was recognized by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage under the program of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity , and in 2008 it was included in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Estonia
Latvia
Lithuania
Web links
- Song festivals in the Baltic States . In: Baltikumreisen.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Baltic Song and Dance Celebrations at unesco.org (English)